PSC Members,
I’m proud to announce that the 30,000 faculty and professional staff represented by PSC will receive long-overdue raises, along with other contractual gains, because an overwhelming 90 percent majority of PSC members voted to ratify the new PSC-CUNY contract.
The agreement between the PSC and CUNY management includes 13.4 percent minimum raises, a $3,000 ratification bonus (prorated for part-time faculty and staff), and additional equity increases in salary for our colleagues in CUNY’s lowest-paid titles, including teaching adjuncts. The raises are retroactive to March 1, 2023.
- Use this Excel tool on the PSC website to estimate your back pay.
- Click here to review the new salary schedules.
The timing of payment of the bonus and back pay, and the dates on which our increased rates will appear in paychecks, are still being determined. We believe the payments will be made as soon as practicable in Spring 2025 and will inform members as soon as dates are known, with as much advance notice as possible. The timing is affected by CUNY’s payroll processing and by processing at the City (for Community Colleges) and State (for Senior Colleges) Comptroller’s offices.
After more than 40 bargaining sessions and two years of organizing, members got to decide and 66% percent of eligible voters participated in the three-week ratification, of whom 90% voted yes. The bargaining sessions, open to union members, were observed by more than 900 faculty and staff. Thousands more participated in union-wide meetings, marches, pickets, press events, and protests of the CUNY Board of Trustees. Thirty PSC members were arrested demanding a good contract at an October Trustees hearing. Every significant gain in this contract is the result of PSC members’ solidarity and action. Thank you to all who participated in the campaign and to all who voted.
Other enhancements in the contract include, but are not limited to, investments in the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund that provides supplemental health benefits, expansion of Paid Parental Leave from 8 to 12 weeks, protections against outsourcing of teaching to AI, new paths to promotion, a major step toward adjunct pay parity, improvements to reclassification and comp time for HEOs, assurance of a raise with promotion or reclassification, and additional support for research and professional development.
Job security for adjunct faculty was a site of significant struggle throughout the negotiations, after management refused to renew the multi-year appointment pilot agreement established in an earlier round of bargaining. But this new contract rebuilds a multi-year appointment pilot agreement for teaching adjuncts that provides two-year appointments with a discretionary third year. We did not win a contractual provision on remote work, but the current Remote Work Agreement remains in effect.
The union’s work is not done! The City and State Budget sessions will soon be underway. Our spring membership campaign is essentially the first phase of the next contract struggle. The gains we did not achieve in this round will become more possible as we increase membership rates and strengthen our union. And finally, we’re excited to begin the work of contract implementation: educating members about improvements to our terms and conditions, ensuring that every new or expanded benefit and every opportunity for professional advancement is fully realized for every member who is eligible, and pushing management to get you the money you are owed as soon as possible.
It has been my great honor to lead the PSC bargaining team in the negotiations. I thank them for their extraordinary service and commend every member who contributed to the success of our contract campaign.
In solidarity,
James Davis, PSC President
Published: January 13, 2025
