Public Employee Press



Editorial
CUNY contract now!

Custodial Assistant Rory Satchell is one of 12,000 DC 37 members who work for the City University of New York. Like his coworkers, Rory has gone years without a raise or a contract. Rory, who earns $10.99 an hour, told us his purchasing power has plummeted so much that some days he goes without eating. “We basically live like poor people,” he said.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that CUNY workers and state workers are currently exempt from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed, statewide $15 minimum wage.

Recently, as he proposed the new minimum wage, Cuomo also made it possible for fast-food workers to receive a $15 hourly wage. We applaud those actions, but the governor must also take care of his own house and make the “Fight for $15” a fair fight for all workers — including public service workers.

DC 37 opened talks on a new contract with CUNY in late 2014. But for nearly a year, CUNY and the state, which funds a significant portion of CUNY’s budget, have failed to put an offer on the table.

The governor apparently wants to impose the terms of the contract with state workers — including a three-year pay freeze — on CUNY employees. That contract was negotiated during the worst national economic downturn since the Great Depression. And our members at CUNY don’t have a step-pay plan with automatic pay increases that state workers enjoy.

Today, the economies of the state and city have profoundly improved. So the money is there for a new contract. On the same day that Cuomo made his announcement about the $15 wage for fast-food workers, CUNY Chancellor James B Milliken expressed support for a new contract in a “message to colleagues” to mark the new academic year. But during the past months, the chancellor has proved to be ineffectual in moving the negotiations process along, leading us to sometimes wonder if his $670,000 salary and $19,000 monthly housing subsidy hinder his ability to empathize with his economically-battered employees.

Chancellor Milliken needs to get serious and press the state to agree to a fair contract. And the governor — who has so rightly noted that “It’s wrong to have any economy… where the American dream of mobility and opportunity has become more of a cruel myth” can help realize his admirable goal of easing the economic burden faced every day by thousands of low-wage New Yorkers.