We have joined together as the CUNY ALLIANCE in order to provide the membership with an alternative vision for the union in the April 2009 Executive Council elections. We are a group of your colleagues who will provide union representation that is committed, first and foremost, to the needs and well-being of CUNY’s faculty and staff: full-time and part-time, active and retired. We intend to change the leadership and the current direction of the PSC. We believe the leadership should focus on the interests of its members: our salaries and benefits, our working conditions, grievances and job security. (Continued below...)

INTEGRITY AND LEADERSHIP

The Alliance has members from across the university, representing all constituencies. Among our candidates are two current, and several former, chapter chairs; a founding member of the PSC and former member of the Executive Council; members of campus chapter executive committees; grievance officers; and others with years of experience in, and commitment to, the union. The CUNY Alliance also includes new members with new ideas. We provide the right mix of experience and fresh approach.

FOCUS

The PSC was formed to serve the interests and concerns of CUNY faculty and staff. The New Caucus management has embarked on a campaign to recruit, as members, workers who are not CUNY employees. Recruiting those workers in large numbers would vastly reduce the ability of CUNY faculty and staff to influence the policies of our own union. Why has the NC leadership done this? We believe that it is partly because they want power within the union movement, and partly because every new member brings dues. Both of the latter extend the leadership's ability to broadcast its message. What is that message? One of social and political activism, activism that has no relevance—whatever its merits—to the essential tasks of a faculty-staff union. The CUNY ALLIANCE, by contrast, has pragmatic aims: to focus on issues of faculty and staff welfare.

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

The past 9 years have been marked by unrelenting losses for union members. Our negotiated raises failed to keep up with cost of living increases. Since 2002, our base salary increased 11.9% as the result of contracts negotiated by our opponents, far short of the 19.5% cost of living increase over that period. We lost 7.5% purchasing power in that time! These losses are a result of the New Caucus focus on global politics to the detriment of union business. We've paid the price for that distracted leadership for too long. The CUNY ALLIANCE is different. We will focus on the bread and butter issues of members of our educational community.

THE WELFARE FUND

The Alliance will serve your interests by competently managing the Welfare Fund, something that our opponents have failed to do. They drove the Welfare Fund into near-bankruptcy. All active faculty (part-time and full-time) and professional staff were required to relinquish $31 million of retroactive pay in 2006 to save the Reserve. (A typical member lost $1000-$2000 in retroactive pay, with some losing as much as $2600.) As a result, we suffer degraded dental benefits and loss of free life insurance. When elected, we will survey the membership about priorities, make those survey results public (our opponents are fond of conducting surveys and keeping the results to themselves!), shift funding accordingly, and negotiate and obtain substantially greater infusions into the Fund. We will restore your benefits in the most cost-effective ways with the best possible providers.

RETIREES' WELFARE BENEFITS

There should be no distinction between the benefits of retirees and active faculty and staff. This is a principle that the current officers overturned when they applied to retirees a $50 deductible for prescription drugs. A small amount, but a dangerous precedent. The contributions that retirees have made to CUNY entitle them to equal consideration and benefits. We are committed to negotiating a better benefit package for retired and for active faculty and staff.

COMMITMENT TO OUR CONSTITUENTS

The Alliance recognizes that many constituencies comprise the PSC. In consultation with them, we identify and address the needs of our members. Please click here to view our mission statement.

Part-time faculty. We are committed to increasing the base pay for part-time faculty. Adjuncts, especially those with long-term service to the university, deserve improved job security, working conditions, salaries and benefits.

HEOs, CLTs, Librarians. HEOs, CLTs and Library faculty all deserve increases in annual leave and development opportunities. HEO's deserve true job security.

Counselors. We will fight to restore the status of faculty counselors, which was decimated under New Caucus management.

Continuing Education. We will insist on a real salary scale for Continuing Education Teachers.

EOC's. Educational Opportunity Center employees are still without a contract! This is an unconscionable desertion of dues-paying members. The New Caucus fiddles while the EOC's burn; in the meantime, lobbying for higher taxes takes precedence over contract negotiation.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

Negotiating a successful contract with the University is our first priority.

We will use professional negotiators, and will have a short list of demands that center on salary, benefits, teaching loads, and support for research. We will get better benefits, wages and working conditions by tough and tenacious negotiating, not by theatrics and empty strike threats. We pledge to get an agreement that substantially advances our members' interests. We are prepared to deny the university a contract unless and until we meet that goal. We don't believe that posturing, delayed negotiations, or noisy demonstrations will make us successful. The New Caucus leadership postures, delays, and demonstrates, to no effect.

CUNY ALLIANCE MEANS EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

The central issue in this election is leadership. Our platform and proposals are only a small part of achieving our goals. They must be modified through the bargaining process in any case. The problem has been that the PSC has not been able to reach the goals broadly shared by the entire membership – substantial gains in salary and improvements in benefits and working conditions – because of the poor judgment and the misplaced militancy of our opponents. We cannot afford another three years under New Caucus officers who care more about global politics than they do about union business. There is an alternate future: choose the CUNY ALLIANCE, and we will devote our considerable talents and energy to negotiating good contracts and to protecting your benefits.

VOTE CUNY ALLIANCE