PSC President James Davis leads a walkout at the October 21 Board of Trustees hearing. (Credit: Erik McGregor)
More than two dozen PSC members were arrested on October 21 in an act of civil disobedience outside a CUNY Board of Trustees hearing to protest the CUNY administration’s resistance to settling a new PSC-CUNY contract.
The action began inside the BOT hearing taking place at John Jay College and was the result of growing frustration among CUNY faculty and staff that the University administration has been dragging its feet in negotiations. The action took place on the 606th day the union had been without a contract, PSC First Vice President Jen Gaboury said.
“CUNY offered unacceptable raises seven months ago, a year after their top executives received 27% and 30% bumps in pay,” said PSC President James Davis, who led a member walkout of the hearing and was arrested at the civil disobedience action. “They haven’t shown faculty, staff and students the respect of a fair economic offer and haven’t put another dollar on the bargaining table since March. We’re demanding real raises, job security and urgency. There can be no business as usual at CUNY until we get a fair offer.”
PACK THE HALL
Nearly 250 PSC members and student supporters packed the John Jay auditorium for the hearing. After about 30 minutes of testimony (including fiery statements about mold in campus libraries), much of it from PSC faculty and staff, Davis interrupted the hearing and led a walkout, as the room and hallways filled with chants demanding a contract.
Members blocking the John Jay College entrance. (Credit: Erik McGregor)
PSC members marched to the college’s 10th Avenue entrance for a raucous rally on the streets. After several minutes, PSC members – including Davis, Secretary Andrea Vásquez and former President Barbara Bowen – blocked the entrance, insisting on blocking the pathway until the administration agreed to a contract that met faculty, staff and student needs. One by one, NYPD officers arrested PSC members, with dozens of students and passersby witnessing the demonstration.
“Standing up for ourselves by demanding a fair contract is also standing up for our students and generations of CUNY students to come,” said Youngmin Seo, a teaching adjunct at LaGuardia Community College who was among the arrestees. “Our teaching and working conditions are our students’ learning conditions. We can’t focus fully on teaching and mentorship if we’re constantly stressed about how to afford to live.”
The PSC has been without a contract since February of 2023. CUNY was slow to begin bargaining – the administration finally agreed to sit down with the union after months of protests.
The bargaining process, which has included dozens of bargaining sessions attended by rank-and-file PSC observers, has been sluggish, to be sure, in large part due to management’s hostility toward the union’s initial economic offer. In that time, the union has held several demonstrations demanding a new contract. With a new contract still unsettled, the union has escalated with this civil disobedience event, and members are preparing for further escalations.
The union’s bargaining committee has been engaged in many negotiation sessions with management since the start of the Fall semester. While some progress has been made at the table, CUNY still resists on many key items. “We are at a really critical juncture of the contract campaign,” Davis told members during a mass meeting in September. “Every bit of progress we have made to date has been because of the active engagement of PSC members.”
Arrested members were held for several hours. (Credit: Erik McGregor)
PROGRESS MADE
Davis explained that management has made progress toward agreements with the union on several key issues including retroactive raises, extension of the remote work agreement, expansion of paid parental leave, adjunct equity for jumbo courses and increased contributions to the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund. Management has also shown a willingness to negotiate on college laboratory technician promotions, supplemental reassigned time, job security for CLIP and CUNY Start workers, multiyear appointments for adjunct instructors, lecturer promotions and including SEEK and College Discovery employees in the bargaining unit, Davis said.
But the administration has resisted finding agreements with the PSC when it comes to the union’s educational technology demands and common good demands, Davis said. The main sticking point, of course, is that the administration has also not offered a real economic counteroffer, Davis explained – the union is fighting for real raises to adequately reflect the work PSC members do every day. “They’ve resisted our environmental proposals and proposals around class size,” he said.
TIMELINE
- November 1, 2022: Last contractual raise for PSC members.
- November 2022: Top CUNY administrators receive 27% and 30% raises ($90,000).
- February 28, 2023: PSC-CUNY contract expired.
- June 27, 2023: Bargaining begins after management’s four-month delay.
- March 2024: CUNY management made their one and only economic offer.
- There have been 34 bargaining sessions since negotiations began.
- CUNY’s offer of 3% in 2023, 3% in 2024, 3.125% in 2025 and 3.125% in 2026 fails to keep pace with the rate of inflation and the rise in housing costs in NYC. It is below the national average rate of increase for college faculty.
- Salaries for CUNY professors lag thousands of dollars behind those of professors at comparable institutions including Pace University, Fordham, University of Connecticut, Rutgers University, and Stony Brook University.
- Most CUNY adjuncts earn $5,500 per course. In comparison, NYU and Columbia/Barnard adjuncts make $10,000 or more per course, and New School, Rutgers and Fordham adjuncts all make between $8,000 and $10,0000 per course through recently settled contracts.
- PSC has proposed raises totaling 18% over 4 years, while CUNY’s offer adds up to only 12.25% over 4.5 years. The union also wants pay parity and job security for adjunct faculty, better benefits, remote and flexible work options for staff, and strong workplace safety and health provisions, among other key items.
- CUNY management is focused on reducing operating costs at the expense of workers and students, and maximizing managerial authority and “flexibility.”
Published: October 29, 2024
