Rank and file members of the PSC and others in the CUNY community plan to picket on the sidewalk in front of the PSC union headquarters during lunch hour this coming Thursday to bring attention to the campaign to vote "No" on the contract.

Respond if you want to attend or just want to learn more. Please give your personal email, not your CUNY email. Click "Interested" when you're ready.

As active rank & file union members, we think we deserve a better contract -- especially after we demonstrated, performed civil disobedience, and even voted to authorize a strike! The PSC leaders had voted and pledged to reduce inequity within our union, but instead they accepted a contract that makes the inequity worse.

The cost of living has increased at least 12% over the time the contract covers, but we're getting only a 10.41% raise. This is a pay cut, and it hurts adjuncts and graduate students and other low-wage workers the worst.  

This contract is not progress and it weakens our union. The across-the-board wage increase widens the pay gap between full-time and adjunct faculty. The contract also accepts a gap between the full-time faculty and the increased number of elite faculty with no upper salary limit. Just to take one glaring example of inequity dividing our union community, bereavement leave is a welcome gain for some, but how it's awarded is a slap in the face for others -- 4 days bereavement leave allowed for full-time faculty, but adjuncts must use their one sick day when a loved one dies and are requested to give notice in advance (?!).

For a tiny fraction of adjuncts, the contract provides a partial system of temporary job security, but it leaves all the others with no security. And the deal allows the university to create 250 more full-time faculty positions that will never be eligible for tenure.

More criticism of the contract, and the rationale for voting "No!", can be found on the CUNY Struggle blog.