The PSC and CUNY Resume Contract Negotiations: What Graduate Students and Adjuncts Can Expect
by Carl Lindskoog
Students who have been at the Graduate Center for any length of time will surely remember the long, difficult contract campaign of the last few years. Thanks to CUNY’s intransigence, faculty and staff went years without a contract. Despite protests, picket lines, and a huge meeting at Cooper Union, it seemed CUNY was never going to give us a decent offer.
So, many were relieved when the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) announced in the spring of 2006 that it had reached a tentative agreement with CUNY. Although the contract was severely lacking in what it offered “part-time faculty” (a category that includes both graduate students and adjuncts), the conclusion of the contract struggle and the promise of retroactive pay was appealing to many. As a result, a majority of union members voted to approve the contract settlement.
Now, just one year later, the PSC and CUNY have begun negotiations over the next contract; the current contract is set to expire in September of this year. As the two sides resume bargaining, what can we expect this time around? Will there be a quick settlement or another endless struggle? And more importantly, once the next contract is settled, will graduate students and adjuncts have anything to show for it, or will we emerge, once again, with our basic needs unaddressed?
Recent developments suggest that this time, things could be different. To win a contract that meets key demands of part-time faculty, the whole union — from the president down to the rank-and-file full-time and part-time faculty — has to be committed to this goal. Based on the results of the recent PSC Delegate Assembly (DA) meeting, it seems we may be approaching the necessary consensus on the importance of adjunct issues.
On February 15 the Delegate Assembly, an elected representative body of the PSC, met to discuss and vote on the contract demands which the bargaining team will bring to negotiations with CUNY. The proposed demands that were distributed for the delegates’ consideration included a number of long-time demands of part-timers, including health insurance for graduate students and their dependents, a seniority system for part-timers, and the university-wide extension of the paid professional hour. Regarding salary increases, demand number one begins, “Salaries must be comprehensively lifted — for all titles and all ranks.” But the same demand states that “Inequities of salary must also be addressed.”
So which was it, we wondered. Was the union demanding equal, across-the-board increases, or did it intend to close the huge gulf between the pay of full-timers and that of part-timers? Michael Seitz, an adjunct from John Jay, pointed out the contradiction in this first demand, noting that a single percentage increase applied to all levels would actually enlarge, not reduce salary inequities. This contradiction was partially reconciled when the delegates unanimously voted for a proposal from the floor by Holly Clarke, another adjunct from John Jay, which committed the union to a “movement toward pay equity.” A second proposal which added the demand for annual step pay increases, as opposed to the three year step system which is currently in place, was also approved. The approval of key part-timer demands is an encouraging step toward significant improvements for graduate students and adjuncts in the upcoming contract campaign.
Other aspects of the DA meeting also seem to bode well for part-timer advancement. Two full-time faculty members delivered impassioned speeches about the exploitation of adjuncts and the urgent need to address the inequity of the labor system at CUNY. In addition, a statement released with the proposed contract demands reveals that a critical element of the PSC bargaining agenda will be to “tackle CUNY’s abusive job system” since “the over-reliance on part-timers, paid a fraction of the full-time salary, and on other contingent positions, is abusive of the individuals in these positions and undermines salaries, job security, and academic freedom for all.”
CUNY will no doubt continue denying that this university system runs on the extreme exploitation of part-time faculty, but apparently the union is no longer willing to entertain this nonsense. While part-timers may not yet be considered full partners in the union, at least the position and experience of part-timers is no longer considered a peripheral issue. All the contract demands, including those concerning adjunct equity, are being treated as university-wide issues which matter equally to all faculty and staff. And this effort to promote unity as well as the union’s inability to marginalize part-timer concerns may lead to significant improvements for graduate students and adjuncts in the upcoming contract.
Still, if part-timers have strengthened their power and position within the union, it does not necessarily mean that the contract will meet any of our key demands. After all, CUNY is unlikely to surrender the significant power and revenue it retains by maintaining a system in which more than half of its teaching positions are staffed by low-paid, contingent labor. CUNY has revealed its determination to maintain this system in its recurrent use of the term “flexibility.” Before it even had its first meeting with the PSC over contract negotiations, CUNY asserted its will to have a considerable degree of “flexibility in titles.” In other words, CUNY believes it must have the power to control the academic workforce through a “flexible” system in which much of the work is done by an insecure, and thus easily manipulated contingent workforce.
If the PSC is serious in its intention to “tackle CUNY’s abusive job system,” and if it intends to strongly defend part-timer demands at the bargaining table, then it must prepare for an immense struggle with CUNY. Will the union prevail, or will CUNY’s commitment to “flexibility” result in the PSC scrapping part-timer demands when the going gets tough? Only time will tell. But graduate students and adjuncts can help determine the outcome by keeping pressure on the union to fight for part-timers. We can talk to people at the Graduate Center and on our campuses about the contract demands and what is at stake. We can attend bargaining sessions to ensure that we are being represented effectively. By letting both CUNY and the PSC know that we are paying attention and that we will not be satisfied with a contract that ignores key part-timer demands, we can make sure this contract yields significant improvements. Let’s not let CUNY or the PSC produce another contract that ignores our needs!
