PEP, June 2008: CUNY settlement provides raises and more

DC 37 and CUNY agreed to a new contract that will boost the pay of workers by 11.57 percent over 37 months. The May 6 settlement came after two years of bargaining between the union and negotiators from the City University of New York, the city and the state.

The agreement calls for pay increases of 3.15 percent retroactive to Oct. 1, 2006, 4 percent back to Oct. 1, 2007, and 4 percent due Oct. 1, 2008. The pact runs from Oct. 1, 2006, to Oct. 31, 2009.

One of the key gains is a “dedicated sick leave” plan, which will allow employees to donate sick days to a sick bank for employees with long-term illnesses who have exhausted their leave.

For the first time since 1994, CUNY will boost the meal and car allowances and the overtime cap. The new meal allowance ranges from $8.25 for two hours of overtime to $12.75 for 5 hours. The car allowance will be increased to 28 cents per mile and the new overtime cap will be $68,490.

CUNY also agreed to extend family leave, increasing the time employees may take off to care for an ill family member from a day to three days. The agreement boosts welfare fund contributions for each employee and retiree by $50 (prorated for part-time employees).

“What’s great is that we don’t have any givebacks,” said Esther (Sandy) Tucker, president of City University of New York and Education Opportunity Centers Local 384.

Tucker said she was encouraged by the rank-and-file support for the union as it negotiated the agreement. Members participated in a letter-writing campaign to pressure CUNY, the city and the state to settle. DC 37 locals with members at CUNY also joined activists of the Professional Staff Congress, which represents the faculty, at two campus demonstrations in April.

“We had hoped to win a long-term goal of our local for the part-time workers we represent — paid holidays on the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving and Christmas — and we will continue our fight to get it,” said College Assistants Local 2054 President Colleen Carew-Rogers. “But while we didn’t get everything we wanted, we are basically pleased with the economic terms and happy these long negotiations are over,” Carew-Rogers said.

Historically, negotiations at the university system are complicated because the union deals with three parties. While CUNY is the employer, the purse strings are controlled by the state for the senior colleges and the city for the community colleges.

The 10,000 DC 37 members covered by the agreement will vote by mail in a process overseen by the American Arbitration Association. The vote count will occur June 13. The union has already begun pressing the state Legislature for the “pay bill” required for the new salary rates to take effect.

In addition to Tucker and Carew-Rogers, the union negotiating team included Maf Misbah Uddin, president of Local 1407 and treasurer of DC 37; Local 375 President Claude Fort and CUNY Chapter President Uma Kutwall; Local 983 President Mark Rosenthal; Local 1597 President Eric Latson; Local 1797 President Charles Farrison, Local 2627 President Ed Hysyk and Local 2627 1st Vice President Robert Ajaye. Director Dennis Sullivan and Sr. Assistant Director David Paskin of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept. served as the lead negotiators.