Big PSC Ratification For Pact With 10.5% Raises Despite Adjuncts' Protests
By DAVID SIMS
The 22,000-member Professional Staff Congress has voted 6,764 to 480 to ratify a new contract which guarantees members a salary increase of at least 10.5 percent between September 2007 and October 2010.

BARBARA BOWEN: Makes CUNY pay competitive.

The across-the-board salary increases for all employees include a retroactive 3.15-percent raise effective September 2007, then 4 percent this October and 3 percent in October 2009. Many employees at the senior level in their positions will get additional raises, with the top Professors' salary rising by 13.8 percent and the top adjuncts' pay increasing by 16.7 percent.

Bowen: An Innovative Deal

PSC President Barbara Bowen said after the tally was announced Sept. 3, "I think it's a strong contract, and it's also a creative contract. It delivers some real salary increases, and also in a very innovative way it takes a part of the available economic package and maximizes it by concentrating it on the top salary step for each title."

Assistant Professors and Higher Education Assistants in the middle of their salary schedules will see a raise of 26.9 percent by the end of the contract due to combined across-the-board and step increases. College Laboratory Technicians will see a raise of 20.6 percent over the same period.

"One of the things that we wanted to address was the lack of nationally competitive salaries at CUNY, because it has hampered CUNY in recruiting," said Ms. Bowen. "Faculty and staff are willing to make a certain amount of sacrifice to teach at CUNY ... but you can't expect people to take way-below-par salaries and stay here when they're being offered much-higher salaries elsewhere."

CUNY management had demanded the elimination of salary steps and the introduction of merit pay, but its efforts were successfully halted during negotiations.

Looking Long-Term

"Our members know that even if they are not on that top step this year, eventually they will be on that top step and they'll have the benefit of that concentrated increase," Ms. Bowen added.

But she lamented that more could not be done for the adjuncts in the union, who make up about one-third of the membership. A statement from the PSC said that union negotiators believed much of the vote against the contract came from adjunct members, some of whom organized a "vote no" campaign protesting the continued job security problems they face.

"One of the priorities that I announced in October when we set out a strategy for the contract was to address job security for adjuncts," said Ms. Bowen. "They can teach for 15 years at CUNY and then be told 'Sorry, we don't want to hire you anymore."' She said that CUNY's refusal to budge on the issue was "the major disappointment" of the contract.

Adjuncts did receive some attention in the contract, with $1.5 million being donated to the Adjunct Professional Development Fund over the next three years by CUNY. A separate letter from CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein contains a commitment to create 100 new full-time Lecturer positions, with the hiring pool limited to experienced CUNY adjuncts, subject to legislative funding.

'Some Progress, But ...'

"We think [the adjunct system is] a brutal system. It's unfair and it's brutal. We made some progress on that issue. For those 100 people it's transformative. But it hasn't changed the basic system," said Ms. Bowen.

Other specifics in the contract include a new fund that pays for parental leave for up to eight weeks for all full-time instructional staff at CUNY. A mother, father or domestic partner on leave to raise a child under one year of age is covered under the fund, which becomes effective Oct. 5.

A new sick-day provision allows other staff members to effectively donate their sick days into a "Sick Leave Bank" for other employees who have not accrued enough sick days but need paid time off for an acute medical need. Members can also now use up to three sick days annually to care for an ill family member.

Another provision for part-timers at CUNY gives health insurance to doctoral candidates employed at the university. However, Ms. Bowen added, the health insurance was "only for a portion of our part-timers" and "does not solve CUNY's failure to provide fully for adjuncts."

"I think it's a contract that moves CUNY forward in that it provides better support for the faculty and staff. That's important for people whose families and children go to CUNY," Ms. Bowen concluded.