CUNY ALLIANCE'S Vision of Union Leadership

The CUNY ALLIANCE believes that it is the duty of union leaders to focus on real and tangible improvements in the working lives of union members.

Improving wages, benefits, and working conditions will be our prime focus. General political issues are important, but must not interfere with that focus. Utopian objectives are not only beyond our means at present, but if they constitute our major policy objective we are much less likely to achieve any near-term improvement in our lot. Not only do we risk alienating those with whom we have to deal, we dilute our energies, and winning at the bargaining table and in the political process is incredibly labor-intensive. Furthermore, because bread-and-butter issues are detachable, they are consistent with many different political alignments and agendas. It is therefore prudent to build relationships across ideological divides.

CUNY ALLIANCE’S Vision of Union Activism

CUNY ALLIANCE activities will be exclusively focused on winning improvements in members’ bread-and-butter situation.

Basic bread-and-butter issues come down to wages, benefits, job security and working conditions. Every member’s wages should exceed inflation. Welfare Fund benefits must keep up with the health-care needs of members. Improvements in the workplace treatment of all members, full- and part-time, need to be won. Crafting focused demands that reflect these needs are manageable in number, and are realistic. These improvements constitute the Union’s most important jobs. Our demands must also reflect the great diversity of interests and needs within the PSC, so that no group of employees is pitted against the others.

Once crafted, our bread-and-butter agenda will be pursued through focused and professional negotiation. Additionally, the CUNY ALLIANCE pledges to use political endorsements to advance our needs as opposed to satisfying an ideological agenda. All too often, failure to endorse obvious winning candidates has needlessly squandered opportunities to build political capital.

Finally, we pledge to use every lever at a union’s disposal, but to use it wisely. We are not loathe to say no to a bad deal. We are very confident that with professional negotiation, innovative thinking, good will, opportune alliances and perseverance at the bargaining table, we are confident that we will win good contracts for the PSC membership: contracts that raise real wages substantively, expand Welfare Fund benefits, and improve the working lives of our members.