Public Employee Press


Organizing key in getting an agreement
Mobilization helps win CUNY contract

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Member activism and aggressive bargaining got results in June as the union and the City University of New York shook hands on a tentative contract, which provides for a compounded 10.41 percent total wage increase over the term of the agreement.

During the talks, DC 37 successfully pressed CUNY to agree to extend the state's new $15 an hour minimum wage to its employees. With the rate hikes of the contract and the minimum wage increases, many members will see their current pay boosted by as much as 25 percent by the end of 2018.

On July 1, an independent monitor sent out a mail-ballot to members for the contract vote. The results will be tabulated July 18. (The DC 37 Constitution requires that contract votes affecting more than one union local must be overseen by an outside party.) The CUNY trustees approved the pact on June 27.

Upon ratification, full-time workers will receive a $1,000 cash bonus, which will be adjusted for part-time workers.

On June 10, the day of the settlement, DC 37 Executive Director Henry Garrido expressed his appreciation to CUNY workers who have been working without a contract since 2009.

"Today, their patience and commitment bore fruit with an agreement that truly helps provide them with the economic certainty that had been elusive for too long," said Garrido, who led the final round of talks with David Paskin, the union's director of research and negotiations.

The 87-month contract calls for a 1 percent increase on May 1, 2011; 1 percent on May 1, 2012; 2.5 percent on May 1, 2013, 2 percent on May 1, 2014; 2 percent on May 1, 2015, and 1.5 percent on May 1, 2016. The raises are compounded, which means that the actual value of the agreement is worth .41 percent more than the annual numerical increases. Members will receive retroactive payments to cover the raises

Significantly, the agreement calls for a $200 welfare fund rate increase on Jan. 31, 2017. The $200 will be added - permanently - to the current $1,765 welfare fund contribution the city makes every year to cover the DC 37 benefits of each of its members and retirees.

The agreement covers about 12,000 members of DC 37 locals 375, 384, 983, 1407, 1597, 1797, 2054 and 2627.

The agreement is consistent with DC 37's 2010-17 contract with the city that affects 90,000 members.

The contract agreement comes after members mobilized around a campaign launched earlier this year.

The mobilization included lobbying legislators and the governor for the restoration of a $500 million budget cut for CUNY in executive budget for fiscal year 2017. Hundreds of workers turned out for a demonstration in front of the governor's Manhattan office. And the DC 37 Organizing Dept. trained activists to encourage their coworkers to join the fight.

Garrido expressed his appreciation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken for helping shift the contract talks into full gear in late spring.