CUNY Union Sets Deadline for Strike
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The faculty union of the City University of New York announced last night that it would resume contract negotiations with the administration but set a deadline of November 3 for when union leaders would decide whether to inch toward a strike.
Calling a strike “the most potent weapon of our union,” the president of the Professional Staff Congress, Barbara Bowen, outlined an elaborate series of steps that would precede an actual strike that would violate state law and potentially shut down academic life at the public university.
Public employees in the state are prohibited from striking. CUNY faculty members who go on strike would be docked a daily amount of twice their rate of pay, and those who aren’t tenured would risk being fired. The union would also relinquish membership dues, and Ms. Bowen would face possible arrest and imprisonment.
The faculty’s previous contract expired in October 2002. CUNY has offered the union a 2.5% retroactive salary increase for the 2003-04 academic year, a 2.75% increase for 2004-05, and a 2% increase effective November 1. The union demands a 10% accumulative increase and more money for its welfare fund, a virtually empty health-benefits fund that is controlled by the union. CUNY officials say there is a fixed pot of public money from which to draw, and that they are not budging from the university’s offer.
Speaking before a crowd of about 1,000 people at the Great Hall of Cooper Union in the East Village, Ms. Bowen said the union would return to the bargaining table on October 6.
If a contract agreement isn’t reached by November 3 – five days before the New York City mayoral general election – the union’s executive council would then decide whether to hold a membership referendum on a strike. That date is less than a month after the deadline the United Federation of Teachers has given Mayor Bloomberg for settling a contract with city public school teachers.
If the CUNY faculty approves a strike, it would use the vote to put more pressure on the university’s administration to offer additional concessions, Ms. Bowen said. Finally, if that route fails, the executive council would decide whether to strike or take some other form of job action.
One other option, aside from a complete work stoppage, would be to withhold grading, Ms. Bowen said, eliciting rapturous cheers from an audience that included full-time, part-time, and retired faculty members, students, and members from other local unions.
She said the union would stage “informational pickets” on October 19 and 20 in front of campus entrances to raise awareness of their position, and encouraged students to participate. Ms. Bowen also requested that members put their “writing projects on hold” and focus their energy on organizing for the union.
Asked his opinion on a strike after listening to Ms. Bowen, a faculty member from Hunter College said, “It’s a little scary to think about.” He did not want to be identified.