PSC Wins 10% Hike, More Full-Time Staff Under Pact; Added Raises in Key Areas

By MICHELLE FRIEDMAN

The Professional Staff Congress has reached a tentative three-year contract with the City University of New York that provides raises of 3.15 percent the first year, 4 percent the second year, and 3 percent the third year, as well as benefits including parental leave and added salary increases for many titles.

CITES 'VERY IMPORTANT GAINS': Professional Staff Congress President Barbara Bowen is pleased by pay gains in targeted areas and an agreement to create 100 full-time faculty posts for veteran adjunct instructors under a tentative contract with the City University of New York.

It also grants full-time status to 100 adjunct instructors, addressing a union complaint about the proliferation of lower-paid part-time faculty.

The agreement, which would run from Sept. 20, 2007 through Oct. 19, 2010, needs to be ratified by union members.

'A Strong Contract'

PSC members have been working under an expired contract since last September.

"We think this is a very strong contract with very important gains," said PSC President Barbara Bowen, adding that the contract "is a direct result of members organizing."

MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN: 'Dedicated staff deserve this.'

"Our faculty and staff turned out in huge numbers to say they rejected CUNY's demands to restructure the university," she said. "Our members organized, and their message was heard."

Leave 'Breakthroughs'

Despite economic constraints, both labor and management worked intensely to finalize a contract before the end of the legislative session in Albany, producing some innovative measures for workers, according to Ms. Bowen.

"The tentative contract is a principled, creative settlement that combines increases throughout the salary scale with special increases at the top and the bottom," she said in a June 23 letter to members. "It includes a breakthrough on parental and family care, introduces a system for sharing sick days with those in need, adds a hundred new Lecturer lines for experienced part-time faculty, and holds the line against management's agenda of corporatizing the university."

Among the benefit gains are a $50 per-employee increase to the welfare fund, which pays for prescription drugs, dental and optical care. The university also agreed to contribute $750,000 a year for the next three years to create a fund that will enable full-time employees on a continuous leave of absence to take up to eight weeks to care for a newborn baby or newly adopted child up to one year of age.

Sick Days for Family Care

Employees will now be able to use up to three sick days a year to care for ill family members.

The contract also includes additional, unspecified salary increases for each step of the Lecturer salary schedule. College Laboratory Technicians with Master's or Doctorate degrees in areas relevant to their line of work will also receive a raise beyond the basic pay hikes.

In an effort to create new positions while putting a cap on the number of full-time employees without tenure, the contract provides for 125 Distinguished Lecturer and Clinical Professor positions, 45 more than previously. Those in both titles will be able to work for a maximum of seven years, where previously it had been five, part of an attempt to address needs in limited or special fields.

As part of a separate agreement, 100 of CUNY's most-experienced adjunct instructors will become full-time faculty.

E-Mail in Retirement

Faculty and staff will be able to maintain their CUNY e-mail address after retirement, an initiative requested by many former employees, according to Ms. Bowen. She noted that this will allow them to maintain their connection with the university as they research and publish after their CUNY career.

Even with these improvements, Ms. Bowen said that "CUNY still needs to invest much more heavily in faculty and staff salaries to be much more effective." She called the tentative pact a step in the right direction.

She also contended that the university must continue improving its treatment of adjunct employees. "We do not feel that it is acceptable for part-time faculty to work without substantial job security," she said. "They can work for 15 years, and be fired in an instant. There is still much more work that needs to be done to reform that system."

"We are deeply grateful to the Governor, the State Senate, and the State Assembly for providing the financial underpinnings for this collective bargaining agreement," said CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein. "Our dedicated faculty and staff deserve the support. Our ambitious student body will continue to receive high quality educational services. The true beneficiaries, therefore, are the people of our city and state whose elected representatives took action in a timely and positive manner."