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Multi-Union Efforts in New York
By Marcia Newfield
The Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union for twenty-two thousand faculty and staff members at the City University of New York, has been successful at gaining New York State aid for tuition remission for doctoral students and health insurance for graduate student employees, increasing budget allotments to CUNY, and obtaining transit checks, which allow all faculty and staff to pay for public-transportation cards with pre-tax money.
Since spring 2001, the PSC has been lobbying the New York State legislature for unemployment and short-term disability insurance for adjuncts and for higher budget allocations for CUNY that include conversion lines for adjuncts. The union has a legislative committee, which four times a year sends between twelve and twenty members to Albany to lobby legislators of both parties on the higher education and labor committees. We go there bearing brochures, statistics, and talking points. In addition, members and officers testify numerous times each year at various hearings of the health, labor, and higher education committees and meet with leading legislators. We have also established a tradition of hosting a yearly higher education breakfast at which we honor legislators who have helped promote our bills and issues. An “Act Now” feature on our Web site (www.psc-cuny.org) allows members to send instant faxes or e-mail messages to legislators and our chancellor.
Securing access to unemployment insurance for adjuncts has been a recent focus of our lobbying efforts. The PSC is affiliated with the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in addition to the AAUP. Beginning in 2003, the PSC initiated resolutions, which were passed by the NYSUT Representative Assembly, in favor of amending New York State labor law to enable adjuncts to receive unemployment insurance when their courses are not guaranteed. Currently, CUNY, a self-insurer, sends letters to adjuncts stating that part-time appointments are contingent on funding and curricular needs. Yet these same letters are deemed “reasonable assurance” of future employment and used to disqualify part-time faculty from receiving unemployment benefits. Sponsors in both houses of the state legislature have supported several iterations of a bill granting adjuncts access to benefits in these cases. The chancellors at both CUNY and the State University of New York have written memoranda of opposition to this legislation, grossly exaggerating the costs of unemployment benefits to the colleges and the state.
This year, a New York State multi-union task force included the unemployment bill in its statewide campaign for higher unemployment insurance benefit levels. Although the bill was defeated, the task force will continue to lobby. Moreover, at the 2008 AFT convention, the PSC introduced a resolution, which was passed at the meeting of the union’s Higher Education Committee, recommending that the AFT study and develop a legislative strategy to amend the federal law mandating that states comply with the unemployment benefits provision that adversely affects adjuncts. The AFT Executive Council will consider this recommendation
in 2009.
On the local level, the PSC has lobbied, testified at, and petitioned the New York City Council and local legislators on behalf of budget restorations. Our CUNY Rising outreach program, which is designed to reach a broader community of students, alums, and community organizations, is being publicized in fall 2008.
New York State higher education locals have also pursued omnibus bills consistent with the AFT’s Faculty and College Excellence initiative, which would include proportionate aalaries and benefits for adjunct faculty.
Marcia Newfield is an adjunct lecturer in English at the City University of New York Borough of Manhattan Community College. She is vice president for part-timers and a member of the executive committee and bargaining team of the Professional Staff Congress/CUNY.
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