A message from President Barbara Bowen, October 7, 9 PM

I am delighted to tell you that the PSC Delegate Assembly voted this evening to recommend the proposed 2017-2023 contract for ratification.

I ask you to follow their recommendation and vote yes to ratify the agreement.

The text of the proposed contract is available on the PSC website, along with explanatory documents and FAQs.

If the agreement is ratified, our raises, back-pay and other provisions will go into effect following final approval by the CUNY Board. Salaries will go up, equity increases will be added for thousands of lower-paid full-time employees, and 12,000 adjunct faculty will see a major boost in pay. Starting next semester, many adjuncts will see increases of more than a thousand dollars per course.

If the proposed contract is not ratified, none of its provisions will take effect. If that were to happen, the union leadership would immediately call for a reopening of negotiations, and we would do our utmost to mobilize for and negotiate a new agreement. But we could expect changed political conditions at the bargaining table, and there would be no guarantee that anything we have won in this contract would remain in place.

On behalf of the union bargaining team, Executive Council and Delegate Assembly, all of whom voted after careful consideration to approve the proposed contract, I urge you to vote yes and allow this groundbreaking contract to take effect. Your vote matters.

You may vote as soon as you receive your secure Personal Identification Number (PIN), which will be provided to you early next week by the American Arbitration
Association. Your PIN will be sent to you by both surface mail and email. (Contact the PSC if you have not received it by next Friday, November 15.)

Once you have your PIN, you may vote either by telephone or through the American Arbitration Association website. Directions about how to vote will be included in the mailing with your PIN.

Voting will end at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 26.

This was a hard-fought contract, and thousands of PSC members joined the campaign. The gains in the agreement would not have been possible without your support. The proposed contract does not achieve everything we demanded or deserve, and it doesn't solve the problem of austerity. But it offers new hope at CUNY and it gives us a platform on which to build even greater power.

Please join me in voting yes to ratify the agreement.

In solidarity,
Barbara Bowen
President, PSC/CUNY