Above: A sea of purple "invisible faculty" signs as PSC members pack the gallery at the Jan. 24 B.O.T. monthly meeting.

FEBRUARY 16,
2005 UPDATE

February 16, 2005

Contract negotiations have continued during the final weeks of January and early February. Some progress is beginning to be made toward tentative agreement on certain PSC proposals, but the two sides are still far apart. Management has not budged from its 1.5% financial offer, and continues to resist many of the PSC proposals for improving benefits and working conditions. Below are summaries of the January sessions; February to follow.

January 18, 2005

The first topic at this session concerned the PSC demands on moving toward equity in research time and annual leave time for full-time faculty in the Counseling and Library departments, who have research requirements similar to those for other full-time faculty, but do not have equitable leave time. The union has repeatedly expressed concern about providing adequate numbers of qualified counselors to meet the needs of our students. Management responded to the PSC counterproposal and indicated a willingness to take some steps toward improvements for these positions, as part of an overall agreement. The union seeks further improvements.

The PSC then moved to our demands on health and safety protections. We offered to drop several demands and concentrate on those that are most crucial: fire evacuation procedures and air quality. Management replied that they intended to comply with safety procedures, but they were opposed to providing contractual protections in this area. There was also discussion about Article 1 of the contract, which stipulates who is included in the union’s collective bargaining unit.

January 19, 2005

Management started with their response to the PSC proposals on equity for adjuncts presented the previous week. They indicated that they would be willing to make some improvements in the areas the PSC views as basic requirements for a decent workplace, but rejected PSC’s larger equity proposals for adjuncts, including an enhanced salary scale for adjuncts, fairness in sick days for adjuncts, a seniority proposal or an expansion of the adjunct office/professional hour negotiated in the last contract. The PSC pointed out that the University has de facto restructured its workforce and relies on 9,500 part-timers to teach the majority of CUNY courses; now salaries and working conditions for part-timers must also be restructured.

CUNY management also responded to PSC counterproposals on employees in the Higher Education Officer series, indicating some movement on the proposals on job security. The PSC repeated its opposition to weakened job security, and offered some counterproposals on ways of addressing our needs.

We ended the session by pressing management for an increase in their financial offer.

Barbara Bowen
PSC President

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