Wefare Fund Woes:

The details on how a negotiating blunder by the Bowen-led union helped drive the Welfare Fund towards bankruptcy.

 

Competent management of the Welfare Fund is critical to your interests, as shown by the fact that your lost benefits over the last four years can be traced to a negotiating blunder made by the current union leaders.

Here's how:

Background:

Two different boards manage our benefits: the Welfare Fund (WF) oversees benefits for CUNY workers, and the Municipal Labor Committee (MLC) oversees a package of basic benefits for all city workers including some at CUNY.

Money is channeled into the MLC's fund according to a set formula established by all municipal unions and the city of New York many years ago. The only way to improve our benefits through negotiation is to get the University to add funds to the Welfare Fund.

Barbara Bowen's Big Blunder:

When the Bowen-led union reached a contract agreement in 2002, they blundered badly: the contract did not require the University to add new funds to the WF. Instead, the Bowen gang robbed Peter to pay Paul: funds were transferred from the MLC to the WF, a zero sum game that merely shifted benefit funds from one pocket to another. (In contrast, the last pre-Bowen contract required the University to add new funds to the WF.)

The Bottom Line:

The Bowen-led union incompetently failed to get the University to add new funds to the WF in 2002. Mistakes like that happen because current union leaders have their attention focused elsewhere, on their interests in global politics, not on your interests in better benefits.

The CUNY ALLIANCE believes that union leaders owe its members competent representation focused on the interests of CUNY workers.

If you elect the CUNY ALLIANCE in elections this April, we pledge to focus on union business, especially on the competent management of your Welfare Fund