Breaking News: Court Says No to Furloughs for CUNY
The many thousands of CUNY faculty and staff who were recently threatened with a 20% decrease to their weekly salary, can rest easy, at least for now. Thanks to the efforts of several local unions, including the Professional Staff Congress of CUNY and the Civil Service Employees Association, the one day furloughs, proposed by Governor David Paterson and approved by the state legislature earlier this month as part of an emergency bill, have been defeated.
On May 28th US District Judge Lawrence Kahn issued a preliminary injunction against the furloughs, which were originally set to take affect May 11. In a strongly worded statement that left little room for misunderstanding, Judge Kahn agreed with plaintiffs that “the permanent 20 percent loss in salary and wages that the furlough plan effects constitutes irreparable harm.” Kahn also chided the Governor more directly adding that “The contractual impairments were the sudden and sole work of the executive and were proposed in a manner that largely precluded legislative deliberation.”
Union leaders were pleased with the decision. In a formal statement issued on the PSC Website Barbara Bowen, the President of the PSC, argued that the furloughs were a distraction from the real problems of balancing the budget, saying that “New York’s furlough scheme had nothing to do with closing the budget deficit: it would have produced about $240 million, while the deficit is $9 billion. The only real way to solve the budget crisis is to enact progressive tax reform, something the governor and the legislature have so far refused to do. I hope this decision sends them back to the bargaining table and convinces them of the need for closing tax loopholes and restoring a fair tax system.”
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