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Contract Update--August 27, 2019
PSC Bargaining Team
Dear PSC Members and Colleagues,
Best wishes at the start of the new academic year. We hope you had a good summer.
We believe that we are close to reaching agreement on a proposed contract. Union and management bargaining teams worked throughout the summer, often meeting or conferring daily. If we continue to make progress, we hope to be able to announce a tentative agreement within the next few weeks.
We will update you as soon as we have more information. Bargaining talks are continuing today and, we expect, will continue every day until an agreement is reached. The PSC leadership has also been active in advocacy with New York State and City governments, both of which must approve any proposed settlement. The leadership has also worked productively with CUNY’s new chancellor in his first months in the position.
As a bargaining team, we have kept our eyes firmly on the prize throughout the negotiations: a contract that includes raises across the board every year, additional equity increases for the lowest-paid full-time positions, and an end to CUNY’s wage injustice for adjunct faculty. The PSC set a standard for a transformation in adjunct pay in this round by demanding $7K per three-credit course for adjuncts. Our current bargaining agenda is the most ambitious the union has ever proposed, and we believe that we have built the power to pursue it.
The union leadership will call on you if we need a quick collective action to help us to conclude negotiations, but for now, we send our thanks for your support throughout the campaign. Our power at the table comes entirely from the pressure you generate by taking organized action.
Whenever the two bargaining teams agree on a proposed contract, it must be approved by the union's Executive Council and recommended for ratification by the PSC Delegate Assembly before being submitted to union members for ratification. As in the past, you will receive detailed information about any proposed agreement and have opportunities to discuss it with your colleagues and members of the bargaining team before casting your vote. Before becoming final, any proposed agreement must be approved by the CUNY Board of Trustees as well as the PSC membership.
Please watch for further updates from the bargaining team and at your next union chapter meeting. Thank you for your continued support.
In solidarity,
The PSC Bargaining Team
Barbara Bowen
Andrea Vásquez
Sharon Persinger
Nivedita Majumdar
Michael Batson
Lorraine Cohen
James Davis
Iris De Lutro
Jackie Elliott
Luke Elliott-Negri
Mike Fabricant
Meg Feeley
David Hatchett
Penny Lewis
Steve London
Carly Smith
Michael Spear
Alia Tyner-Mullings
Blanca Vázquez
More In This Section
PSC President Barbara Bowen
Dear PSC Colleague:
I hope your summer is going well. I am writing to update you on contract negotiations. PSC negotiations are complex, so there was no way to make this a short email. Thank you for reading it.
Where do negotiations stand?
We do not yet have a new contract, but progress is being made and negotiations have become much more productive since late spring. I am hopeful that we will have an agreement by the beginning of the fall semester.
The PSC leadership saw an opportunity to push for an agreement in June as New York City budget negotiations coincided with the end of the State legislative session and the first months in office of a new chancellor. The momentum the union created in the spring continues to energize contract talks. Chancellor Matos Rodríguez has shown responsiveness to the hundreds of letters he received from PSC members on his first day in office and the exuberant presence of union activists at CUNY graduations this spring.
A new PSC radio ad pressing for a fair contract for CUNY faculty and staff began broadcasting in NYC the week of May 13. The ad says, “Albany and the City should do better—and do right by our kids.”
As we celebrate the CUNY Class of 2019, please help to make sure that the next generation of CUNY students has the resources they need for a great education. Send this letter calling on the Governor and the Mayor to fund better conditions for students, competitive salaries for faculty and staff, and an end to near-poverty wages for adjunct faculty. Tell New York to fund quality education and wage justice at CUNY.
Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez took office on May 1st--May Day--the international day of workers action and solidarity. And 3,000 of us wore REDforED that day to welcome him and deliver a call to action. We wish the chancellor much success, but in order to be successful, he must negotiate a contract that provides educational justice for CUNY students and wage justice for CUNY faculty and staff. To be successful—to protect the mission and the legacy of CUNY—the Chancellor must fight to end the funding crisis at CUNY, and not just preside over further austerity.
May Day was Day One for CUNY’s new chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez, and we’re sending him a message.
Click "read more" for an online letter you can send to him right now.
Thousands of PSC members wore RedforEd on Wednesday—May Day!—to welcome Chancellor Matos Rodríguez and send him a vivid call to action. We wish the chancellor great success, but to be successful, he must begin his tenure by negotiating a good PSC-CUNY contract with raises for all faculty and staff. And that contract must end the near-poverty pay of CUNY adjuncts.
Latest News on Contract Negotiations--3/25/19
Dear Members and Colleagues:
We write to update you on important developments in contract negotiations.
On March 14, hours after hundreds of members rallied for a fair contract at the offices of the governor and the mayor, the PSC bargaining team put a comprehensive counter-proposal on the table. We called on CUNY management to accept the proposal and bring negotiations to a close.
PSC chapters are organizing grade-ins, picket lines, and other actions on CUNY campuses to demand a fair contract with raises for all and $7K for adjuncts. Contact your chapter chair to get involved and help build pressure on CUNY management, Albany and City Hall. The developing list of campus actions that you can be a part of is posted below. We'll add new events as PSC campus chapters lock in the details.
| Campus | Action | Date |
| Baruch College | Tabling | Membership Blitz | Grade-Ins + Tabling | Mons & Weds 11 am-4 pm | March 5 | Week of March 18 |
| Bronx CC | Grade-In | March 11 & 12 |
| BMCC | Grade-In | March 7 & 13, April 4 |
| Brooklyn College | Grade-In | March 5 |
| City College | Grade-In/Work-In | Every Thursday, 12:30-1:30 |
| College of Staten Island | Informational Picket | March 26 |
| Hostos CC |
Rally Informational Picket |
March 7, 12pm, 3rd floor bridge March 27 |
| Hunter College | Budget Campaign Tabling | February 25 |
| John Jay College | Grade-In | March 6 |
| Lehman College | Work-In/Lunch-In | Every Wednesday |
| NYCCT | Tabling and T-Shirt Making | March 14 |
| Queens College |
Public Office Hours Wednesday Work-Ins Hearing on Future of CUNY |
Every Day Every Wednesday Wednesday, April 17, 10-11:30AM |
New Development in Contract Negotiations -- 2/22/19
Dear Members,
Yesterday afternoon, after my update on bargaining was sent out, CUNY management made an economic offer to the union. The PSC bargaining team has not yet had a technical meeting with management on the numbers, and we did not receive the offer in writing, so this will be a preliminary report.
New Development in Contract Negotiations -- 2/22/19
Dear Members,
Yesterday afternoon, after my update on bargaining was sent out, CUNY management made an economic offer to the union. The PSC bargaining team has not yet had a technical meeting with management on the numbers, and we did not receive the offer in writing, so this will be a preliminary report.
As pressure builds for an economic offer on our contract, it’s time for some graphic expression of our demands. The eleven new posters in the above slideshow have been issued by the PSC. The posters call for “Contract Now!” and highlight many of the union’s major demands. Send a visual message about the demands that are important to you and show your support for demands that are important to your coworkers. Contact your chapter chair to find out how to get a poster or two, and plaster your hallways!
Demanding A Fair Contract, Funding for Quality Education
Elected leaders of the faculty and professional staff union at the City University of New York (CUNY) were arrested today while demanding a contract that will help ensure a quality education for the half-million CUNY students across the city. Seventeen protesters, including the union president, vice president and secretary, local campus leaders and members of the executive council, blocked the doors to Baruch College near the Flatiron District of Manhattan during a meeting of the CUNY Board of Trustees. Hundreds more CUNY faculty and staff chanted “CUNY Trustees, do you job! Demand the funding CUNY needs!” during the blockade.
CUNY’s 30,000 faculty and staff have been without a contract for more than a year. Their union, the Professional Staff Congress, is demanding that the University Board of Trustees use its power and press the State and City to provide the funding needed to pay competitive salaries to faculty and staff and raise the near-poverty wage currently paid to 12,000 adjunct faculty.
PSC chapters are collecting signatures on local petitions urging the presidents of their colleges to publicly support fair adjunct faculty pay of $7000 per course and increased salaries for all CUNY faculty and staff. Just as important, the petitions urge the college presidents to push for a CUNY budget request that includes public funds to support the union’s contract demands. The current collective bargaining agreement is not sufficiently funded by the State. As a result, colleges have been forced to cannibalize academic budgets to help cover the costs.
At a meeting of the CUNY Board of Trustees held October 29 at Baruch College, PSC President Barbara Bowen urged the Board to take a public stand against the State’s practice of refusing to fund the ongoing costs of labor contracts. “CUNY’s FY 2020 budget request must challenge the premise that poverty funding is all CUNY can expect. Aim higher! It must call for a fully funded contract, with real raises for all and $7,000 per course for adjuncts,” she said. Video of the meeting is posted here (President Bowen speaks at timestamp 41:45).
The meeting was held just a week after more than 100 faculty and staff testified at a Board hearing also held at Baruch. The testimony featured first-hand stories of the damage being done to the University by salaries that lag thousands of dollars behind those at comparable institutions, near-poverty-level adjunct pay and chronic underfunding.
More than 100 faculty and staff of the City University of New York showed up en masse at a CUNY Board of Trustees hearing Monday, October 22, 2018 to share firsthand stories of the damage being done to the University by salaries that lag thousands of dollars behind those at comparable institutions, near-poverty-level adjunct pay and chronic underfunding.
Here are some of their written statements:
Faculty and Staff Demand that CUNY Request Enough Funding to Support Fair Pay for All, $7K per Course for Adjuncts, Quality Education for CUNY Students
More than 100 faculty and staff of the City University of New York showed up en masse at a CUNY Board of Trustees hearing yesterday to share firsthand stories of the damage being done to the University by salaries that lag thousands of dollars behind those at comparable institutions, near-poverty-level adjunct pay and chronic underfunding.
The professors, lab technicians, financial aid counselors and others spoke at a public hearing of the CUNY Board at Baruch College. They were there in support of their union, the Professional Staff Congress (PSC/CUNY), and its demand for a fully funded contract with money to support good raises for all workers at CUNY and a new minimum of $7,000 per course for adjunct professors.
PSC Members March Through Wall Street Calling for Competitive Salaries and Funding for CUNY
Manhattan—Nearly a year after the expiration of their union contract, 600 CUNY faculty and staff marched through the Financial District today to demand public investment in The City University of New York and raises for underpaid faculty and staff. Led by a brass band and carrying lighted signs, hundreds of union members picketed outside the NY Stock Exchange before chanting their way to the investment banking firm of William C. Thompson, chairperson of the CUNY Board of Trustees.
Full-time salaries at CUNY lag thousands of dollars behind those at comparable institutions such as Rutgers and University of Connecticut. The 12,000 adjunct faculty who work at CUNY now teach the majority of courses, but are paid a near-poverty wage despite having PhDs or other advanced degrees. The union has called for an increase in adjunct pay to $7,000 a course, to bring pay at CUNY in line with adjunct pay at Fordham, Penn State and Rutgers.
The new issue of Clarion, which will be in campus mailboxes this week, includes a report on contract negotiations, and we invite members to read the Clarion article as well as this update.
Here is where negotiations stand:
• Labor and management representatives have held nine formal bargaining sessions and many other informal discussions since negotiations began. The next formal session is scheduled for October 4. Click here if you would like to attend this session or future sessions as an observer.
• Bargaining sessions have been productive, but CUNY management has not yet made an economic offer. The major issues in this contract are likely to be economic; therefore much of the discussion about demands remains preliminary. The union has pressed for more frequent sessions and for an economic offer. Meanwhile, other NY public-sector contracts have been ratified with annual increases in the 2-percent range.
Since the Supreme Court’s Janus decision, more than a thousand faculty and staff at CUNY have joined or reaffirmed their commitment to the union. PSC members are defying the right-wing attempt to crush the power of working people and our unions. The PSC is at its largest membership ever.
Barbara Bowen, PSC President
July 3, 2018
On June 27, as the Supreme Court decision in the Janus case was being announced, the PSC was at the bargaining table, pushing for salary increases and a new contract. As we presented contract demands, new membership applications were streaming in to the union office.
Thank you for your commitment to union membership. The PSC’s power at the bargaining table comes from our members. Now more than ever, the union depends on your continuing commitment to membership.
The PSC bargaining team brought the strength of our membership to the table at the two most recent bargaining sessions, both of which focused on the union’s salary demands—the first on full-time salaries and the second on salaries for part-timers.
Barbara Bowen, PSC President
March 19, 2018
After months of pressure by the PSC, CUNY management came to the table last week for collective bargaining for a new contract. The current contract, the 2010-2017 agreement, expired on November 30, 2017. Under New York State law its provisions remain in effect while a new agreement is being negotiated. Two bargaining sessions were held last week, on March 14 and March 16.
It was a good beginning. The PSC bargaining team presented the union’s list of demands for a new contract and argued forcefully for the union’s full bargaining agenda. The union stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement far more quickly than in the last round and emphasized that members will not tolerate inordinate delay.
PSC Kicks off Contract Campaign for Fair Salaries, Quality Education
Unions, Community Orgs, Elected Officials Press CUNY to Negotiate a Competitive Contract for 30,000 Faculty and Staff
With our union contract four days expired, hundreds of PSC members kicked off an energetic contract campaign tonight in midtown. The kick-off—a press conference, rallies at two CUNY campuses, disruptions of the CUNY Board of Trustees meeting, a lighted march, and a 25-foot light-up sign—pressed the CUNY trustees to negotiate an agreement that protects CUNY quality and helps students to succeed.
A message from PSC President Barbara Bowen
November 20, 2017
Earlier today I sent a formal request to Bill Thompson, Chairperson of the CUNY Board of Trustees, to begin negotiations for a new contract.
Contract rally at the Board of Trustees on December 4th
4:30 PM Gather at CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Ave., at 34th St.
5:00 PM March to Baruch Vertical Campus, 55 Lexington Ave., at 25th St.
5:30 - 6:30 Rally Outside CUNY Board of Trustees Meeting, 25th St Pedestrian Plaza, Baruch College
A Message From President Barbara Bowen
On Monday, December 4, the PSC will hold a major demonstration to start our campaign for a strong new contract. No more six-year delays! If a fair and prompt contract is a priority for you, make it a priority to be there on December 4.
A message from President Barbara Bowen
Last night the union’s elected delegates overwhelmingly approved a new bargaining agenda. I will now send a formal request to CUNY management to begin the next round of collective bargaining. The PSC is ready to begin immediately, and we will call on CUNY to start before the end of our current contract on November 30.
The single most important thing you can do right now to build the power we will need for this round of bargaining is to sign the PSC’s new membership card, if you haven’t signed already. The Trump Supreme Court is about to decide a case that is designed to destroy the strength of public-sector unions like the PSC. The case aims to crush American unions and strip us of the power to win higher salaries and better working conditions.
