The Professional Staff Congress is the union for CUNY faculty and professionals. PSC recently reached a contract agreement with the CUNY Board of Trustees that was ratified with an 86% yes vote by PSC members. This is the same percentage as the UFT ratification in 2018. What is in the PSC contract?
From the Chief Leader:
The 63-month contract, which runs from Dec. 1, 2017 to Feb. 28, 2023, provides a 10-percent salary increase for 30,000 employees, including a 2-percent raise retroactive to Oct. 1, 2018, with the final of five 2-percent increases set for Nov. 1, 2022.
For years, the PSC pushed for adjunct pay to be doubled to $7,000 per course. And while this agreement does not achieve that goal, the minimum pay for three-credit classes will increase by 71 percent to $5,500, and for four-credit courses to $6,875, in 2022.
A 71% increase for the adjuncts? That is rather amazing.
From PSC President Barbara Bowen:
What makes this contract different from past contracts is that it comes with a commitment of tens of millions of dollars annually in State and City funding, over and above the annual salary increases and equity increases. The additional funding is committed to pay for the new adjunct office hours. The PSC won the support of the CUNY Board, Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio for a major new investment in CUNY’s workforce and its students.
Any increase in K-12 funding usually gets lost in a DOE bureaucratic black hole.
As I was preparing for this piece, I was skimming through some parts of the PSC Contract. I noticed that CUNY teachers cannot be subjected to drive-by, surprise observations.
Specifically, in Article 18.2 (b) 1, it says:
"The employee shall be given no less than 24 hours of prior notice of observation."
Something for us to strive for with K-12 teachers.
There is a comment on the Chief piece on the PSC Contract comparing the PSC to the Transit Workers Union Local 100.
walter.dufresne Dec 2, 2019 9:55 pm
This terrific new contract reverses some of the give-aways from the late 1980s and early 1990s. In those years the weakened PSC negotiated contracts that *added* new, *lower paying* steps. Those steps gave new hires the chance to work at CUNY for lower pay than their predecessors. When the City offered TWU the same deal in 2005, Roger Toussaint led a strike rather than 'sell out the unborn'.
Back in the 1990s, the PSC was controlled by guess who? Unity Caucus. Unity was defeated at CUNY by Bowen who led the New Caucus. Yes, I know the UFT is bigger than the PSC and it is impossible to get to UFT retirees spread out around the country to campaign but an organized, united opposition could beat Unity in the schools. It happened at CUNY. I am also aware that Bowen is now in AFT President Randi Weingarten's orbit.
Speaking of TWU Local 100, they have agreed to a new tentative contract. We don't yet have the details yet but we do have a statement from TWU Local 100 President Tony Utano:
"I am happy to report that we have reached a negotiated settlement with the MTA that I believe the Local 100 membership will ratify in overwhelming fashion. We achieved the framework for settlement over the weekend, and after several days of intense bargaining, arrived at the tentative agreement today, Wednesday, Dec. 4.
"I am calling a meeting of the Local 100 Executive Board for tomorrow to present the MOU for discussion and approval. I wish to thank TWU members for the incredible support you provided to me and the Local 100 leadership throughout this campaign. We were truly united. We will be reporting details of the agreement as soon as the Executive Board has had an opportunity to vote on it."
TWU Local 100 did not strike this time but there was a work to rule slowdown.
From the NY Post:
A workers’ “rulebook” slowdown disrupted service for thousands of riders on more than a dozen Brooklyn bus lines Friday morning as contract talks between the MTA and its biggest union wear on.
The slowdown comes just days after The Post revealed that angry transit workers are organizing slowdowns to up pressure on MTA management — including possibly next week on Black Friday, the year’s busiest holiday shopping day.
Government employees in New York State have to be creative in what they can do to show job dissatisfaction because of the anti-worker Taylor Law that prohibits public sector strikes in New York. The consequences of striking are losing two days pay for every day out on strike. The International Labor Organization (an agency of the United Nations) has ruled that the Taylor Law strike ban violates international law but our bureaucratic union leaders in NYS won't fight for the strike ban's repeal.
There's no Taylor Law in France where today there is a general strike.
From the BBC:
Workers are angry about planned pension reforms that would see them retiring later or facing reduced payouts.
School and transport workers have been joined by police, lawyers and hospital and airport staff for a general walkout that could include millions of people.
President Emmanuel Macron wants to introduce a universal points-based pension system.
That would replace France's current system, which has 42 different pension schemes for its private and public sectors, with variations in retirement age and benefits.
"What we've got to do is shut the economy down," said union official Christian Grolier of the Force Ouvrière (Workers' Force). "People are spoiling for a fight."
I've said it before and I will say it again: Workers have the power if we would just unite and use it. Notice how the teachers and transport workers are together in France along with many others.
I proposed a teacher transit workers joint labor action alliance in 2005 at the UFT Executive Board. UFT leader Randi Weingarten responded that she had spoken to TWU Local 100 President Roger Toussaint but shortly thereafter she was agreeing to the 2005 "Givebacks R Us" UFT Contract. I still have that united labor dream today where in France it is reality. I understand the yellow vest people are involved in the French general strike.
The perception here is that in the United States the people are afraid of the government. We see that fear often in the comments on this blog where teachers are totally scared to challenge their almighty principal. In France, it is the government that is afraid of the people. That's how it should be. I think that's called being accountable to the people.
People are rising up all over the world - Hong Kong, Chile, Colombia, France - while here in the US the #McResistance TM has people leashed and immobilized by the magical thinking that Russiagate/Son of Russiagate/Impeachment are going to remove Trump, rather than re-elect him.
ReplyDeleteYou want to get rid of Trump? Then offer people tangible improvements to their living standarda - health care, housing education, etc. - and not virtue-signalling poses and unhinged conspiracy theories...
Silence from the anonymous union busters here. Unity was beaten at CUNY and now no drivebys. France is in a general strike. NY Transit workers won a contract with a slowdown. What do they have in common? Unions.
ReplyDeleteUnity hasn’t beaten anyone but the UFT rank and file. (Yes, I know you weren’t referencing the fraudulent racketeering club of the UFT) Almost everyone that comments here is pro- union, just not pro Unity (as in Mulgrew/Weingarten) UFT. If Mulgrew starts touting these union victories as somehow related to the UFT, he should be laughed of his throne. The UFT was once a union - it is no more.
ReplyDeleteTypical DOE. can our careers by any more awful? More than 100 irate Queens parents demanded the cancellation of a Department of Education school diversity meeting in Jamaica Thursday night after they were barred from entry because the room was full.
ReplyDeleteAt least 250 parents showed up to hear the DOE’s diversification plans for District 28 schools — but there were only 112 available seats, officials said.
An excluded crowd formed in front of an elevator bank outside the meeting room and demanded entry. But flustered school safety officers explained that the venue was already packed.
Several raging parents ripped the DOE for failing to anticipate the massive turnout and argued that the meeting should be rescheduled to accommodate demand.
The situation grew so tense at one point that police were called to finally quell the throng and convince them to disperse.
But the mood inside the meeting of Community Education Council 28 which represents some of the city’s top schools in areas like Forest Hills and Rego Park – was equally fraught.
To help shepherd their diversification plan, the DOE contracted with WXY Studio, an architectural and urban planning firm that also manages public engagement on thorny civic issues.
A DOE spokeswoman repeatedly referred to the group, helmed by Adam Lubinsky and Claire Weisz, as a “neutral” party Thursday and intimated that the DOE was assuming a peripheral role.
“Having a neutral facilitator could add value,” said DOE Director of Community Affairs Sadye Campoamor. “It could provide a neutral approach so that DOE isn’t making decisions.”
But that notion was met with immediate derision from parents who grilled attending WXY representatives about everything from their childbearing status to the exact nature of the contracts they signed with the DOE.
The MTA got about 10% over 4 years.
ReplyDelete615, you make no sense. I did drop out, but not anti union. I am against what has been done to this profession, and what has been allowed. The contract is almost worthless. We actually lose money every raise vs inflation.
ReplyDeleteYou are anti union if you dropped out of the union unless you are working to build a stronger one.
ReplyDeleteWe disagree on how to work. I have tried to talk to any and every person, in any and every school, the 2014 contract got almost 80%. the 2018 contract got more. Every election is a landslide. Out rights and salaries erode. My only option was to opt out. If you have another suggestion, feel free. I mean a suggestion that would work...
ReplyDeleteI understand the frustration 3:42 but I haven't given up and I get a buzz to this day fighting for teachers. I still do grievances, support teachers and we often do okay for them. I just wish we collectively found a way. I am staying involved hoping one day the spark will light and spread like it has all over the country. You never know.
ReplyDeleteStart your own group or join with one. That is what we can do. Complaining online anonymously is a complete waste of my time and yours.