Dear Teaching Adjunct Colleagues,
The PSC has filed a grievance challenging management’s attempt to implement the new multi-year appointment pilot in a way that does not represent our bargaining agreement fully and accurately. The disputed areas are not extensive (see below), and they will affect few members, but we must fight for them, and an important principle is at stake. You can support the grievance by signing this letter to CUNY management expressing your opposition to their distortion of the negotiated agreement.
The multi-year appointment for long-serving teaching adjuncts was a PSC priority for the 2023-2027 contract. Outrageously, CUNY management threatened to eliminate the pilot program (Appendix E) that was successfully in effect for eight years. Only extensive negotiations and mass mobilization of PSC members brought about an agreement on the elements of a successor pilot program. Its cornerstone is a 2-year appointment of 6 or more contact hours per semester in the same department or qualifying program, with the option to extend to a 3rd year at the department’s discretion.
The parties agreed to these elements in December 2024, shortly before reaching agreement on the full terms of the contract. The Memorandum of Agreement documents included the prior October 2024 proposal as well, which the PSC had not accepted but which provided a contractual framework to incorporate the elements of the December agreement following ratification. Standard good-faith bargaining would require that a final document express language agreed upon by both parties in consultation with each other. However, CUNY management undertook the process of incorporation unilaterally. They published a flawed version of Appendix E, distorting parts of the agreement, and presented it to college administrators and department chairs.
While the fundamental elements of the new multi-year appointments are not in dispute, management’s flawed version of Appendix E contains significant errors. After notifying management in writing, they conceded to make some modifications but not all.
- A review of credit-bearing courses in academic programs for eligibility needs to be conducted immediately. Eligibility for additional academic programs must be clarified in time for appointments beginning in Fall 2025, not stalled.
- The December 2024 agreement did not include the following; they should not appear in Appendix E:
- Restriction on the application of Article 20 (the complaint, grievance, and arbitration Procedure) to performance reviews.
- Section 5(b): Assessment of continuing need for the position.
- Reference to lateness to class as grounds to void an appointment.
- Rather than “availability of funding” in a department, Appendix E should refer to “review of the fiscal and programmatic needs” of a department and/or college, as the December 2024 agreement does. The former is vague; the latter is a rigorous standard.
We are outraged at the contempt management has shown CUNY’s 11,000 teaching adjuncts and our union. The PSC will not allow CUNY management to railroad a flawed implementation of this hard-won pilot program. Their approach reveals the lengths to which they will go to maintain extreme contingency in CUNY’s teaching workforce. Errors and disputes could have been avoided by consulting the union in the spirit of good faith bargaining. Instead, management has misrepresented elements of our agreement and revealed a tenuous grasp of the work performed by department chairs, P&B committees, and adjuncts themselves.
Note that critical gains the PSC won on multi-year appointments are not in dispute, including:
- Grandfathered eligibility for adjuncts who would have been considered in Spring 2024 if the previous Appendix E had been in place and who taught both semesters of 2024-2025, regardless of contact hours.
- Full individual COBRA payment by the college for up to one semester for any adjunct on a multi-year appointment who would otherwise lose their health insurance due to a reduction in teaching contact hours.
- The ability for an adjunct on a multi-year appointment whose teaching contact hours fall below 6 in a semester to maintain eligibility for a subsequent multi-year appointment by teaching in another department or CUNY college up to one semester.
Appendix E is in effect. Implementation of a new contract rarely proceeds without tensions, and eligible PSC members should not be deprived of consideration while the parties resolve disputes. Based on the facts, we are confident in our position in the grievance procedure. We ask you to sign onto this letter to CUNY management. Express your outrage at their implementation of Appendix E and distortion of the negotiated agreement.
The PSC is also communicating with Department Chairs about this matter. They too need to understand why the PSC is challenging management’s approach to the disputed issues. We will pursue the challenge to the fullest extent to secure the gains we made at the bargaining table.
Please sign this letter to take a stand against radical contingency in faculty appointments and tell CUNY management to honor the negotiated agreement.
In solidarity,
James Davis, PSC President
Published: April 4, 2025
