lClarıonNEWSPAPER OF THE PROFESSIONAL STAFF CONGRESS / CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK APRIL 2005

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS l AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS l N.Y.C. CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL l N.Y.S. AFL-CIO l NEW YORK STATE UNITED TEACHERS

Members grill

mayoralhopefuls

POLITICS

PROTEST

The response to a demonstrationabout on-campus military recruit-ment is part of a wider hostility to dissent at City College, say students,faculty and staff. The arrest and suspension of four protesters drewsharp criticism. PAGE 4

HEALTH

Did you know that the United States will soon be the only countrythat allows direct-to-consumeradvertising for prescription drugs? Find out why. PAGE 9

RF union election atGrad Center in May

RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Close to 200 employees of the CUNY Research Foundation who work at the Graduate Center will have the chance to vote for union representation in early May. PAGE 5

PSC forumdraws all

challengers.PAGE 5

CCNY administrationdraws fire for arrests

Drug ads: are theygood for your health?

CUNY management still refuses to make a contract offer that preserves Welfare Fund benefits, gives realraises, and makes CUNY a better place to work. In response, PSC members are signing up to contribute to aUnion Defense Fund, to cover special expenses of a militant contract campaign. Not since the 1970s, when thePSC first established a Defense Fund, has the need for such a campaign been so urgent. PAGES 6-7, 10-12

MEMBERSMEMBERS SIGNSIGN UPUPPSC DEFENSE FUNDPSC DEFENSE FUND

Gar

y Sc

hoic

het

1 – Comment from CSIl I wish to comment regarding thestory entitled “CSI chapter presseshealth & safety,” which appeared ina recent issue of Clarion.

Since the CSI Willowbrook cam-pus was opened ten years ago, theCollege has consistently dealt withthe issue of mold. Every building oncampus was inspected for mold andreports detailing corrective mea-sures are on file with CUNY’s Officeof Design, Construction and Man-agement, who are handling the re-mediation project through the Dor-mitory Authority of the State ofNew York. In the meantime, the Col-lege handles day-to-day mold issueswith our own mold abatement teamof College personnel under the di-rection of our Environmental Healthand Safety Officer. Members of the

team have been trained specificallyto handle the safe removal of mold.If a project is too big to be handledby the in-house team, outside ven-dors who hold licenses to removemold are called in.

Please note that the College wel-comes any and all inquiries regard-ing issues that affect the health andsafety of everyone at CSI. We re-spond to every inquiry with serious-ness and attention to detail.

Angelo J. AponteVP for Finance & Administration

College of Staten Island

Clarion editor Peter Hogness re-sponds: CSI administration has in-deed worked to remove mold incampus buildings. The article in ourFebruary issue described how thePSC chapter at CSI has pressed foraction, and noted that “there has

been some progress on this persis-tent problem.” The article quotedShah Jayman, of the CSI PSC chap-ter’s executive committee, on thefact that in some areas “the mold isbeginning to disappear…The ad-ministration is responding.” Jay-man commended VP Aponte’s deci-sion to put gutters on one buildingas an experiment.

“The key problem is that as longas water leaks are prevalent on theCSI campus, there will be a problemwith mold,” comments DavidKotelchuck, co-chair of the PSCHealth and Safety Committee.“While it is essential ‘to remove anycontaminated material,’ this is insuf-ficient. Until the leaks are fixed, themold problem will constantly recur.”

As VP Aponte notes, mold hasbeen a problem at CSI since its cur-rent campus opened 12 years ago.

“To realize the college’s mission andeducational objectives in a safe andhealthy environment requires thatthis problem be fixed now, not al-lowed to drag on,” says Vasilios Pe-tratos, PSC chapter chair at CSI. “Itis urgent that DASNY carry out thenecessary repairs, and it is the jointresponsibility of the CSI and CUNYadministrations to make sure thatthis happens.”

2 – 80th Street objectionl It is understandable that the PSCwould wish to spin its story on theLaGuardia case (Clarion, March2005) to make it seem like a victory.The truth, however, is that the PSClost its grievance and could haveachieved far more if it had settledthe case more than three years ago.

In the 1998 summer session, La-Guardia Community College endedits practice of paying instructionalstaff in Cooperative Education atthe teaching hourly rate eventhough only a minimal amount oftheir work involved classroomteaching. The arbitrator denied thePSC’s grievance, finding that theCollege properly paid the non-teaching rate for work other thanclassroom teaching. The court up-held that decision but reversed thearbitrator’s denial of back pay forthose paid the non-teaching rate forclassroom teaching since the sum-mer of 1998.

In September 2001 the PSC andthe College tentatively agreed thatthe PSC would withdraw the griev-ance and the College would guaran-tee existing full-time instructionalstaff at least 150 hours at the teach-ing rate for work in future summersessions. The PSC later wanted ad-juncts and substitutes included, ademand the College rejected. Aftermore than two years of inaction, thePSC walked away from this tenta-tive settlement and lost the arbitra-tion. The result? During summersessions, full-time Cooperative Edu-cation faculty will be paid at theteaching rate only for actual class-room teaching.

Frederick P. SchafferCUNY General Counsel and

Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs

PSC First Vice President Steve Lon-don responds: It is premature forVice Chancellor Schaffer to wag hisfinger at LaGuardia Coop Educationfaculty and tell them they shouldhave settled. Judge Friedman af-firmed that they should be paid atthe teaching rate when teaching andvacated the arbitrator’s award. Thejudge also remanded the matterback to arbitration “...on the amountof unpaid compensation to whichgrievants are entitled for the teach-ing of courses at the teachingrate....” What activities constitute

“teaching of courses” and theamount of back pay owed are the is-sues that will be decided by a newarbitrator.

The vice chancellor also has hisfacts wrong on the history of settle-ment discussions. There was no“tentative agreement” in 2001. Atthat time, the full-time facultyfought to add 12 adjuncts to a list of25 full-time faculty who would bene-fit from the 150-hour prospectivesettlement offered by management.In spring 2003, the grievants and La-Guardia agreed on 21 full-timers asthe list of grievants in settlementdiscussions. When the grievantssought to add two substitutes to thelist of 21, LaGuardia refused andthen took two full-time substitutes,previously agreed upon, off the list.

While it is true that the facultyhave thus far made an economicsacrifice in not taking the originalsettlement offer, the value of theprinciple of solidarity and of notthrowing the weak overboardseems to escape Vice ChancellorSchaffer.

Don’t ‘let market decide’l As a longtime public school-teacher I worry a lot about the cor-porate domination of public schools,but reading in The New York Timesthat IBM’s Lou Gerstner, formergovernors, and other Standardistosare inspiring changes in the CUNYteacher education program suregrabbed my attention. I hope theCUNY faculty is more than “sur-prised” by the new academy (March2005 Clarion, “Education facultysurprised by new academy”). Out-rage and resistance seem more ap-propriate reactions.

When a university chancellor de-clares that he wants a “competitiveenvironment for teacher education”and “let the market decide,” one hasto wonder about where his prioritiesare. Letting the market decideshould be an anathema in a placeconcerned with fostering learning, aplace established to educate teach-ers capable of nurturing students.Letting the market decide soundsmore like selling your baby to thehighest bidder than nurturing it.

In Why Is Corporate AmericaBashing Our Public Schools? my co-author and I document the corpo-rate agenda for public schools. In-stead of scrambling for places in thenew hierarchy, it would be refresh-ing to see professors offering resis-tance. Future public school teachersbadly need this model of resistance,not more marketplace compliance.

Susan OhanianCharlotte, Vermont

Editor’s note: Ohanian was giventhe 2003 George Orwell Award fromthe National Council of Teachers ofEnglish, for distinguished contribu-tion to honesty and clarity in publiclanguage. Her website, www.su-sanohanian.org, features news andcomment about trends in education.

More than 500 educators and 250students attended the Educators toStop the War conference on March5. The PSC was a co-sponsor of theconference, a project of US LaborAgainst the War.

The turnout far exceeded orga-nizers’ expectations. “The numbers,diversity, energy, and focus of thepeople who came convince us thatwe have struck a chord that will res-onate widely in the months tocome,” said co-conveners NancyRomer of the PSC and MichaelZweig of the UUP chapter at SUNY-Stony Brook.

Most participants were from theNYC metro area, but others camefrom Massachusetts, Philadelphia,Washington, DC, and as far away asIowa. They included members of theAFT, NEA and AAUP, as well asboth high school and college stu-dents.

The conference focused on teach-ing about the war in Iraq, organiz-ing against the war in local and na-tional education unions, and the ef-fects of the war on social spendingand contract negotiations.

New York is paying a high costfor the Iraq war. According to the

National Priorities Project, thestate’s proportional share of thewar’s total cost so far is $17.7 billion;NYC’s share is $6.6 billion. In theCampaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit,court-appointed experts called foran additional $14.8 billion in K-12 ed-ucation spending – but the StateLegislature says it does not knowwhere to find the money.

Pedagogical resources for talkingabout and teaching about the warare available at www.educatorstostopthewar.org/resources.htm.The website also provides informa-tion on future plans. DR/PH

2 NEWS & LETTERS Clarion | April 2005

Management responds to ClarionLETTERS TO THE EDITOR | WRITE TO: CLARION/PSC, 25 W. 43RD STREET, FIFTH FLOOR, NEW YORK, NY 10036. E-MAIL: PHOGNESS@PSCMAIL.ORG. FAX: 212-302-7815.

Anti-war educators draw big crowd

Lisa

Qui

ñone

s

By DANIA RAJENDRA

The night of Thursday, March 17, alarge concrete slab fell from the 11thfloor of the Marshak building, whichhouses science research at City Col-lege. No one was injured, but faculty,students and staff were locked out formuch of the day on Friday and class-es did not resume for near-ly a week. At press time,some labs and the outdoorplaza around the building’stower remained closed.

Science faculty expressed frustra-tion at the CCNY administration’slack of communication, both duringthis crisis and in past discussions ofthe building’s many health and safe-ty hazards. But after a flurry ofmeetings with top administrators inlate March and April, several ex-pressed cautious optimism.

BRIEF VIEWWhen the panel fell, it left only a

very thin inner wall between the labspace of Michael Green, professor ofchemistry, and the whistling wind.When construction workers rippedout this inner wall to replace it withmore secure plywood, “I had thisbeautiful view of the Bronx,” saidGreen. “Fortunately, then it was goneimmediately….Except for the elec-tricity along that wall, we are back inbusiness.” The area is used for com-puters, not chemical experiments.

Green said that workers used steelcables to shore up the remaining pan-els in his lab and elsewhere, to ensure

that the incident would not be repeat-ed. Bob Wurman of the PSC’s Healthand Safety Committee said that thepanel’s weight was variously esti-mated at between 1000 and 3000pounds. The morning after it fell,

union officers repeatedlyspoke with administra-tors at 80th Street to en-sure that immediate safe-ty measures were taken

and that no employees lost pay whiletheir workplace was closed.

Problems with Marshak were le-gion even before the panel fell. Wa-ter leaks have damaged the build-ing’s steel reinforcing rods, whichweaken and expand as they rustand force the concrete off in flakes,a process known as “spalling.”Large steel brackets have had to beinstalled on the building’s exteriorto maintain its structural integrity,said Wurman.

“We are now seeing the results ofCity College’s inadequate mainte-nance and its long history of neglectof health and safety issues in theMarshak building,” said PSC Execu-tive Director Deborah Bell. “Thislatest incident is an accident thatdid not have to happen.”

“We’ve been trying for a year anda half to get the administration towork with us to address the prob-lems in the Marshak building,” saidthe chair of CCNY’s PSC chapter,Steve Leberstein. The chapter filed

a grievance in February of 2004, andthough some progress was made,Leberstein said, “up to now we wereunable to achieve that constructiverelationship.”

WORRIES REMAIN“The administration now appears

more willing to include faculty andstaff in communication and decisionmaking,” Leberstein said, “thoughthe reality of the promise is still tobe tested.” He added that the unionis working closely with a committeeof science division faculty to holdthe administration accountable.

“I think we all have worries aboutboth staying in the building indefi-nitely and what will happen whenwe move,” said Physics ProfessorMarilyn Gunner, who was part of agroup of science faculty that metwith CCNY President GregoryWilliams on March 31. “We workedon setting up a working committeethat would allow us to get more in-formation for the faculty and havemore input.”

Earlier the same day, UniversityDean for Research Gillian Small metwith about 50 CCNY science facultyand pleaded for patience. Current

plans call for simultaneous con-struction of a new CUNY-wide sci-ence research facility, located at CCNY, and a new science buildingfor City College, she said.

At that meeting, Biology Depart-ment Chair Jane Gallagher chal-lenged Small and Maria Tamargo,CCNY’s acting dean of science, towork on limiting damage to experi-ments while Marshak undergoesstopgap repairs. The noise, jarringand debris of construction can disruptmonths or years of work, scientistspointed out. During the meeting, loudnoise from a project nearby some-times drowned out the conversation.

STOP GAP MEASURESTo extend the building’s life,

CUNY plans to encase Marshak in aglass curtain wall to protect it fromthe elements and limit further waterdamage, while at the same timeoverhauling the ventilation systems.

Based on reports from engineer-ing and environmental consultantshired by the union, the PSC has ques-tioned whether the glass wall wouldworsen already severe air qualityproblems from soot, mold and bro-ken fume hoods, among other con-cerns. The PSC intends to press ad-ministrators to address these issuesat an upcoming grievance hearing.

Many who work in Marshak saidthat the fall of the concrete panelhas meant more administrative attention, which they welcome. Theseries of meetings that followed leftfaculty hoping for new progress.

Giant slab getsadministrationattention

By CINDRA FEUER

At the end of March, New York law-makers rejected Governor Pataki’sproposal for tuition hikes and cutsto student aid programs. The Marchagreement was hailed by the mediaas the first on-time budget in morethan two decades.

But the Legislature’s budget failsto meet CUNY’s mandatory cost in-creases, leaving the college systemin the red while its student body ex-pands. At Clarion press time, Pata-ki agreed to the Legislature’s budgetfor CUNY, including no tuition increases.

NO HIKEThe budget approved by the Sen-

ate and Assembly struck downPataki’s proposed $500 tuition hikeat public universities, restoring$37.3 million to CUNY’s budget tomake up the difference.

The Legislature’s budget also didnot include Pataki’s scheme to re-structure the Tuition AssistanceProgram (TAP). He wanted to with-hold half the amount of TAP grants

until students received their de-grees, compelling students to takeout more loans. Though Patakidubbed this a “graduation incen-tive,” the PSC, NYPIRG and studentgroups argued that it would be anobstacle to finishing.

Also restored was $7.2 million tothe SEEK program, $363,000 to Col-lege Discovery and funding for oth-er opportunity programs. Statebase aid for community collegeswas boosted by $115 per full-timeequivalent (FTE) student, or about$7.5 million.

But $22 million in operating aid“temporarily” frozen by Pataki lastyear was not restored, in eitherPataki’s FY2006 budget proposal orthe budget just passed by the Senateand Assembly. It becomes a cut toCUNY’s baseline budget. Overall,the Legislature’s budget leavesCUNY $26.3 million short of its costsfor FY2006.

“We’re glad that restorations toCUNY’s budget avoided a tuition in-crease,” said PSC Secretary Cecelia

McCall, coordinator of the union’sLegislative Committee. “But thebudget didn’t restore enough tomake up for reductions last year.”

Legislators in Albany authorized$663 million for CUNY and SUNY’scapital spending plans.

CITY BUDGETMayor Bloomberg’s budget pro-

posal for FY 2006 would provide $151million for CUNY, a decrease in Citysupport of over $30 million.

Bloomberg wants to eliminatetwo key student aid programs, thePeter Vallone Scholarships ($7.0million) and the Safety Net Program($4.5 million). Other funding themayor wants to axe include $470,000for CUNY’s Dominican Studies In-stitute, $469,000 to its Center forPuerto Rican Studies, and $335,000to the Immigration Center atMedgar Evers College.

McCall urged PSC members tocontact their City Council represen-tatives. “The City Council has beenvery good in restoring cuts to the

operating budget,” she said. “Wewant to make sure that continues.”

There is about $100 million in theCity’s capital budget for CUNY, butit says that $201 million is needed tocover the City’s share of these costs.“We need to get the City to matchthe State’s capital spending,” saidMcCall. “They haven’t matched any-thing for ten years. This year it’s really glaring because we have somany needs.”

BUSH-WHACKED?CUNY students will discover this

spring whether President Bush’sgaping cuts to higher learning get agreen light from Congress. For thefirst time in almost 20years, the president’s pro-posed education budget al-locates less money than inthe preceding year. A totalof $4.3 billion in cuts from 48education programs isscheduled in the White House plan,and many key college programs areslated to take a hit.

Bush wants a 67% reduction toadult literacy efforts under theWorkforce Investment Act, a cutfrom $570 million to $200 million inone year. CUNY’s GED and ESLprograms could lose as much as50% of their federal funding.

“Bush’s proposed federal cuts

would deny thousands of NewYorkers the chance to learn tospeak English with greater facili-ty, earn their GEDs, enroll in col-lege and provide more support for their children’s education,”lamented Steve Hinds, a GEDmath teacher at LaGuardia AdultLearning Center.

A rally opposing federal cuts toadult literacy programs will be heldin Union Square on Friday, April 22at 10 am (see Calendar, page 4).

Bush proposes a $500 increase inthe maximum size of Pell Grants,over five years. But he links this so-called increase to the total elimina-tion of $66.1 million in Perkins loans

– which are particularlyimportant for students atCUNY’s community col-leges – and the gutting ofprograms for low-incomestudents such as TalentSearch and Upward

Bound. The net result would be $10billion less in federal spending overten years.

“It’s interesting that all three Re-publicans – the mayor, governorand president – are cutting aid tostudents who badly need it,” saidMcCall. “they are undermining theAmerican economy by making itharder for us to help people becomecollege graduates.”

Clarion | April 2005 NEWS 3

Legislaturenixes Pataki’stuition hike,TAP plan

CUNY’s budget battlesStill more state support needed

At right, rusting reinforcing rods force concrete to flake off. The braces, seen acrossthe window, help hold the building up.

Panel falls from Marshak buildingCCNY, 80th St. promise information and action

Lisa

Qui

ñone

s

4 NEWS Clarion | April 2005

By ELLEN BALLEISENBronx Community College

Three City College students werearrested on March 9 during aprotest against the presence of mil-itary recruiters on campus. Thecharges ranged from obstructinggovernment administration to as-sault on a CUNY security officer,but those arrested insist it was secu-rity personnel who assaulted them.

Carol Lang, a CCNY secretarywho had yelled “let her go” at the of-ficers while one of the students wasbeing arrested, was herself detainedtwo days later. Accused of strikingan officer “with an unknown ob-ject,” Lang was arrested at workand then held for 36 hours beforeher release.

All four of those arrested weresuspended and banned from thecampus before any hearing washeld, a move that was criticized byCCNY’s Faculty Senate. CCNY ad-ministration asserted that the im-mediate suspensions were neces-sary because those arrested “pose acontinuing danger” – including stu-dent Justino Rodriguez, who wasnot charged with assault. Lang, amember of DC 37, was suspendedfrom work without pay.

JOB FAIRThe arrests took place during a

campus job fair in Shepard Hall thatincluded military recruiters. A groupof about 20 student protesters en-tered the job fair and began to chantanti-war slogans in front of the ArmyNational Guard table. About twominutes later, private guards fromBurns Security and campus securityofficers both told them toleave. When they refused,the officers surrounded stu-dents and ejected them fromthe job fair.

According to Lang andthe students, they continuedchanting in a hallway outside butnever struck anyone. Lang, who is 54years old, told Clarion, “I’m 4'11" andI’m not crazy. I wouldn’t hit an offi-cer.” (The arrest report incorrectlygives Lang’s height as 5' 5".)

AGGRESSIVEA City College spokesperson de-

clined to answer questions fromClarion, providing only a statementfrom President Gregory Williamsthat was e-mailed to CCNY studentsand employees the day after theprotest. “In the corridor outside theHall, [the students] were told onceagain that they…must take theirprotest outside, where they wouldbe free to continue to express theiropinions,” Williams wrote. “Theconfrontation escalated and severalof the demonstrators grabbed andhit the officer. At this point, thethree students involved in the at-tack on the officer were arrested.”

While “every member of the CityCollege community has the right to

voice his or her opinion,” Williamsconcluded, “we will not tolerate anyacts of violence.”

But a student unconnected withthe protest told Clarion that the only violence he observed camefrom security guards. “One securityguard started to scream at the pro-testers, ‘Move, move, move. Youcan’t be here,’” he recalled. “Othersecurity guards [began] screamingat the protesters as well.” Theguards pushed protesters over toone side of the hallway, he said, andseveral students were knockeddown and lay on the ground. “Whatshocked me was that the security

guards were so aggres-sive,” he explained. “Theywere dragging peopleacross the floor. I saw astudent who was lying onthe floor and the three se-curity guards jumped on

his back. They twisted his hands andhandcuffed him.”

The guards’ violence did not stopthere, he added: “I also saw a girlwho was trying to take pictureswith her still camera. At least twosecurity guards grabbed her, twist-ed her hands, and took the cameraaway. Another security guard washolding a handcuffed protester’shead against the wall while…speak-ing on his walkie-talkie. The protest-er had blood on his face.”

The student gave Clarion a writ-ten statement but requestedanonymity, saying, “I’m afraid. Idon’t know how City College securi-ty works.” He said he did not knowthe protesters, adding, “I’m not anactivist, I find activists a little crazy.But after I heard the charges, Ithought, truth is being turned to itsopposite.”

Marie Nazon, a faculty counselorin the SEEK program, attended thejob fair and saw the protest inside.She told Clarion she believed that

military recruiters had a right to bethere and that it was inappropriatefor the students to protest inside,rather than outside. But she said thatthe demonstrators had been “peace-ful, not abrasive, with no vile lan-guage,” and that it was the aggres-sive attitude of the security guardsthat changed the atmosphere.

Nazon had planned to testify at acollege disciplinary hearing for thestudents on April 8, and the studentwitness who spoke to Clarion wasconsidering doing so as well. Butthat hearing was cancelled at thelast minute, almost a month afterthe suspensions were first imposed.

CCNY’s Faculty Senate objectedto Williams’ decision to suspend stu-dents and an employee without ahearing. In a March 17 resolution,the Senate called for “an open andthorough investigation of the inci-dent,” and said that until such an in-vestigation is carried out, those sus-pended should “be reinstated totheir proper place in the academiccommunity.”

UNFAIRHadas Thier, one of the arrested

students, said Williams had shownhe was not interested in a fair inves-tigation. “[He] sent an e-mail to theentire faculty and student body re-peating the allegations against us asif they were facts,” she said, and didso “without so much as a phone callto see if we were all right, or to findout our side of the story.” Thier,originally from Israel, said it had feltstrange to be excluded from hercampus, unable to attend classes orcampus protests against the arrests.“I’ve tried to stay in touch with myprofessors,” she told Clarion, “butit’s been hard.”

Steve Leberstein, chair of thePSC’s City College Chapter, said thecollege administration’s hostility todissent had been apparent on Febru-

ary 23, when the PSC and CCNY stu-dents sponsored a joint demonstra-tion for a good labor contract andagainst increases in tuition. A largecontingent of New York City policeand City College security officers or-dered the roughly 50 demonstratorsto move inside metal police pens, anaction that Leberstein called “insult-ing and provocative.” The size of thepolice presence and the officers’ ac-tions were both “totally out of pro-portion to the situation,” he toldClarion, and the College of LiberalArts & Sciences Faculty Council hasasked Williams for an explanation.

REPRESSIONOn March 31 the PSC Delegate

Assembly voted to condemn “the re-pression of political dissent at CC-NY.” In early April, several City Col-lege faculty staged a three-dayhunger strike, protesting the arrestsand suspensions as a threat to theFirst Amendment.

The four arrested have all beenactive in previous “counter-recruit-ment” activities on campus, andsay that their previous success is what led CCNY administration to adopt a harder line. Justino Ro-driguez told Clarion that on two oc-casions in the fall, military re-cruiters at CCNY decided to packup and leave when faced withpeaceful, chanting protesters.

“As tuition goes up, people feeldesperate and they think their onlyoption is to join the military,” Ro-driguez said. City College is target-ed by recruiters because of its manypoor and working-class students, heargued, and he feels obliged to chal-lenge their sales pitch.

“Dying in Iraq is not a job oppor-tunity,” argues Rodriguez. For him,this statement is also personal: hisfather has done one tour of duty inIraq with the US Army, and he maybe sent there again.

Several arrested at CCNY protest

Challengingon-campusmilitaryrecruiters

Nick Bergreen (center) spoke at a press conference after his release from jail. City College students Bergreen and JustinoRodriguez (at right) were among those arrested in a protest against military recruitment. CCNY professor Bill Crain is at left.

Aggressive security measures questionedAs Clarion went to press, CCNYlifted the suspensions for CarolLang and the three students. Allfour returned to campus on April11, with Lang going back on payrolland the students returning to theirclasses. Their lawyer was in nego-tiations with both CCNY and theManhattan District Attorney, seek-ing to have both administrativeand criminal charges dropped.

The students’ disciplinary hear-ing, originally scheduled for April8, was cancelled. Carol Lang’s StepOne disciplinary hearing, original-ly scheduled for April 14, was alsocancelled. She will have a Step Twodisciplinary hearing at the CUNYCentral Office in mid-May.

– EB

Update:CCNY liftssuspensions

FRIDAY, APRIL 22: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm/Recapturing the “public” in PublicHigher Education. With JenniferWashburn (see page 10). Registra-tion info at 212-794-5538.

FRIDAY, APRIL 22: 10 am/ Rally to pro-tect NYC adult literacy programs.At Union Square Park in Manhat-tan. More info at www.glcnyc.org.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 4: 6:00 pm/ Health& Safety Watchdogs meeting. Atthe PSC office, 25 W. 43rd Street.Contact Bob Wurman, bobwurman@yahoo.com.

FRIDAY, MAY 6: 9:15 am– 5:00 pm/TIAA-CREF representative VitoRuvolo at the PSC office. Call LindaSlifkin, 212-354-1252.

FRIDAY, MAY 6: 12 – 5:00 pm/ PSC Ju-nior Faculty Development Day:How to Survive and Thrive atCUNY. Advice on getting tenureand more. At CCNY Center forWorker Education, 99 Hudson St.Contact Jeremy Borenstein, 212-354-1252 or jborenstein@pscmail.org.

FRIDAY, MAY 6: 4:00 pm/ DA Part-timePersonnel Committee, at the PSC of-fice, 25 W. 43rd St. Contact MarciaNewfield, 212-354-1252, mnewfield@pscmail.org.

TUESDAY, MAY 17: 4:00 pm/ Women’sCommittee meeting, at the PSC of-fice. Contact Norah Chase, 212-354-1252, or NChase91@ aol.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 28: Deadline for con-test, co-sponsored by the SankofaReview and Medgar Evers College,for a free tour in Egypt (includinghotel, cruise and meals) from July23 to August 2. Call Clinton Craw-ford, 718-756-8904.

CALENDAR

Jake

Kor

nega

y

By MANNY NESSBrooklyn College

Every Democratic and Republicanchallenger to Mayor MichaelBloomberg took part in a mayoralforum sponsored by the PSC onMarch 23 at the CUNY GraduateCenter. The event drew a crowd of150 PSC members, students, andmembers of other unions.

There was lively discussion ofcitywide issues, from affordablehousing and public transportationto Bloomberg’s stadium scheme.But most of the audience’s questionsfocused on issues specific to highereducation and to municipal labor.

ANTHONY WEINERCongressman Anthony Weiner

cited his mother’s 35 years as ateacher, and expressed gen-eral support for higher payfor educators. “We have tonegotiate for raises,” Wein-er said. “They deserve to bepaid more.”

When a member of theTransit Workers Union asked ifworkers should have the right tostrike, Weiner answered, “Peopleshould have the opportunity tostrike, [but] obviously not in viola-tion of the Taylor Law” – whichbans strikes by all of New York’spublic employees.

On the issue of academic free-dom, Weiner was asked if he sup-ported the NYC Education Depart-ment’s decision to ban ProfessorRashid Khalidi of Columbia from fu-ture participation in its teacher edu-cation programs. “I wouldn’t havehired him in the first place,” re-sponded Weiner.

GIFFORD MILLER

City Council Speaker GiffordMiller emphasized how he hasmoved efforts to fund CUNYthrough the City Council. “I thinkCUNY is a huge portion of the solu-tion to our problems – whether it’sjobs, whether it’s economic justice orbeing more competitive,” Miller said.

On labor negotiations, Miller didnot disavow the concept of patternbargaining but suggested his inter-pretation would be more flexible.

Miller did not support repeal ofthe Taylor Law, but called it “one-sided and unfair as it is currentlywritten.” The process today is “sounbalanced that the mayor can just

choose not to negotiate,”he said.

As mayor, Miller wasasked, would he bringpart-time CUNY employ-ees into the City health in-surance plan like other

part-time City workers? While non-committal, Miller commented that“it’s no benefit to the City of New Yorkwhen workers who are working forthe City don’t have health benefits....They’ll eventually end up in our pub-lic hospitals.”

C. VIRGINIA FIELDSManhattan Borough President C.

Virginia Fields extolled CUNY forproviding a high-quality educationdespite lack of funding. “When youlook at the fact that average SATscores are going up...that’s the goodnews,” Fields said, also praisingCUNY’s two recent Rhodes scholars.

Like Miller, Fields said she hadfought to restore funds for CUNY,both as a Council member and asManhattan Borough President. Shesaid that “keeping CUNY as an insti-tution with doors open to the many,not the few” is a critical task. Speak-ing against proposals to increaseCUNY tuition, Fields said, “It’samazing to hear the discussion[among politicians] as if having topay another $250 doesn’t matter.”

Fields spoke against “the use ofour schools as a recruitment groundfor the military,” and said that asmayor she would make it easier forhigh school students to opt out of

having their personal informationgiven to recruiters.

FERNANDO FERRERFerrer, who was endorsed by the

PSC in the last mayoral election,said, “I consider the future of theCity and CUNY as inseparable.” Hecriticized the fact that CUNY com-munity college tuition is “among thehighest in the land,” and said NewYork cannot afford such “barriers toopen opportunity.”

On contract negotiations, Ferrerdrew applause when he said, “Toput a proposal on the table that islower than the rate of inflation issimply saying, ‘Work for less.’”

Told that starting pay for CUNYLanguage Immersion Program(CLIP) instructors has not gone up

in 10 years (from $36,000), Ferrersaid that “if we want to build a greatuniversity,” this is bad policy. “I justdon’t think it’s right,” he said.

Asked about his recent commentsthat the shooting of Amadou Dialloby police was not a crime, Ferrersaid “it was a bad shooting” thatshowed “a failure in policing policy”that went all the way up to then-Mayor Giuliani. He said he hadfought for police reform, even “sub-mitting myself to voluntary arrest.”

TOM OGNIBENEFormer City Councilman Tom

Ognibene, challenging Bloombergfor the Republican nomination, saidhe expects to run on the Conserva-tive Party line in November even ifhe loses the GOP primary.

Ognibene praised “our great may-or, Rudy Giuliani” for “raising thestandards” at CUNY. With studentsmeeting those standards, Ognibenesaid, he believes in principle thatCUNY tuition should be free – “thatwas the original deal” – but he saidhe does not believe the City has theresources to reach that goal today.“The only thing I can promise you,”he said, “is that if I am mayor, edu-cation will be a priority.”

STEVEN SHAWAnother Republican candidate,

Steven Shaw, has never held electiveoffice. Shaw emphasized his opposi-tion to what he called NYC’s “oppres-sive tax structure.”

Mayor Bloomberg was invited andhis staff said that he would like to at-tend. In the end he was not able tocome, but promised to meet with theunion’s leadership.

Cecelia McCall, coordinator of theunion’s Legislative Committee, saidthat the event reflected the PSC’sgrowing political strength. “AsCouncilman Bill Perkins said recent-ly, ‘The PSC has built a constituen-cy for CUNY,’” said McCall

By DANIA RAJENDRA

Research Foundation workers atthe CUNY Graduate Center gotsome welcome news at the end ofMarch: they will finally get to votein a union election.

The vote will be held on May 3and 4. It’s been a long time coming –RF workers at the Grad Center havebeen organizing since May 2003, butthe election has been stalled by Re-search Foundation (RF) objections.

After the regional office of the Na-tional Labor Relations Board (NL-RB) issued a ruling ordering a unionelection last June, RF managementfiled an appeal. The regional NLRBdirector then reopened the hearingsand asked both sides for more infor-mation. On March 31 she ruled thatthe election should go forward.

Some RF employees are angryabout the repeated delays. “It’s crim-inal that the RF is spending the hard-

earned money of the grant procur-ers on expensive lawyers to deny usthe right to make a basic decision,”said Robert Sauté, an RF worker andgraduate student in sociology.

RF workers say they want aunion in order to win tuition remis-sion, job security, and fairer policieson vacation and sick time. Even if anRF employee works on the sameproject for years, her or his pay-check may be financed by a succes-sion of different grants. As a result,many find that they lose accruedsick or vacation time. They also saythey want programs to run smooth-ly, with transparency and consisten-cy from the RF.

SIDE-BY-SIDERF employees may work side-by-

side with people whose paychecks

come from CUNY, often doing thesame or similar work. Yet they lackthe union protections that CUNYemployees have had for years.“Whatever type of work you do, itshould be covered by the samerules as everybody else’s,” saidLorraine Towns, a Science Pro-gram Coordinator for nearlyfour years. “As a worker, myrights have to be protected.”

In three previous union elec-tions, RF workers elsewhere atCUNY voted for PSC representationby 85%, 81% and 88%. “The supportfor the union has been overwhelm-ing,” said PSC Associate ExecutiveDirector Mary Ann Carlese. As inthe recent vote at City Tech, profes-sional employees will have a differ-ent, two-part ballot. They will voteon whether they want a union, and

on whether they want to be part ofthe same bargaining unit with otheremployees. At City Tech, 94% of pro-fessionals voted in favor of all unionmembers being in the same unit.

Because about half ofRF employees at the GradCenter are graduate stu-dents at CUNY, RF man-agement has tried to ar-gue that they cannot join aunion. In July, a national

NLRB panel ruled that graduate stu-dents at private universities do nothave a right to unionize, since theirwork as teaching assistants is al-legedly not a job but simply part oftheir education. The ruling does notapply to public universities such asCUNY, where the Public Employ-ment Relations Board has long rec-ognized graduate student employ-

ees’ right to be union members.The RF has tried to argue that

since it is a private foundation, itsemployees who are grad studentsmay not unionize. In response, thePSC has noted that that CUNY andthe RF have long insisted that theyare separate employers and that theRF does not grant degrees. The re-gional director of the NLRB sidedwith the union, and ordered the May3 and 4 election.

APPEALS CONTINUEIf the RF decides to file another

appeal, the ballots cast by grad stu-dents will be impounded after thevotes are cast, and will be countedonly after the appeal is resolved.

“The RF can stall all it wants,”said Irene Meisel, a graduate stu-dent at the Center for Media andLearning. “That’s all it is – stalling.That’s why it’s important we allvote.”

Clarion | April 2005 NEWS 5

RF workers finally vote on unionGrad Center employees waited two years

Electionwill beheld onMay 3 & 4

PSC forum draws mayoral hopefulsFocus on CUNY, union issues

Anthony Weiner

All majorchallengersappear atunion event. C. Virginia Fields

Fernando Ferrer

Gifford Miller

Phot

os: G

ary

Scho

iche

t

By PETER HOGNESS

In a March 21 open letter, Chancel-lor Goldstein declared that “theUniversity has not underfunded theWelfare Fund.” But the numberstell a different story.

As these graphs show, the Wel-fare Fund is on the brink of insol-vency. The reason is simple:CUNY’s contributions are notenough to cover the costs of currentbenefits. The gap between the two islarge. Before the end of this sum-mer, that gap will have to be closedin one of two ways: by increasingCUNY’s contributions, or by shift-ing even more costs onto members,effectively cutting benefits.

In contract talks, CUNY manage-ment negotiators have suggestedthat the Fund cut benefits – start-

ing with retirees (who typicallyhave higher prescription drugcosts than other members) and ad-juncts (whose basic health insur-ance depends on a separate contri-bution stream from CUNY). Foreach group, CUNY contributes sub-stantially less than their benefitscost. Union negotiators have reject-ed this idea, and are demandingthat CUNY contribute enough tothe Fund so that benefits can be notonly maintained, but improved.

Despite the WF Trustees’ deci-sion two years ago to reduce fund-ing of the dental benefit and to shifta larger share of drug costs to mem-bers, the Fund’s reserves are almostgone. If benefit cuts are to be avoid-ed, CUNY must pay more. Trying todeny these facts won’t make themgo away.

By DANIA RAJENDRA

Over and over, CUNY managementnegotiators had insisted that theywould not offer more than 1.5% un-less the union first reduced its owndemands. But on March 17, theyyielded and came to the table with ahigher offer, even without PSC con-cessions.

Union leaders credit member action with forcing CUNY’s shift inposition. “Because of the pressureapplied by people in this room, andmany others, they did come with animproved offer,” PSC President Bar-bara Bowen told the March 31 Dele-gate Assembly.

But CUNY’s offer is still a recipefor austerity, said the union’s bar-gaining team. At 6.25% compoundedover four years, CUNY’s latest pack-age would still mean raises that fallbelow the increased cost of living – inreal terms, a pay cut. It would not

solve the Welfare Fund crisis, anddoes not address the need for im-provements in equity and workingconditions.

“While the exchange of compre-hensive packages represents a dif-ferent level of engagement,” saidPSC President Barbara Bowen,“there is no justification for startingfrom the position that improvementsare out of the question” – especiallygiven this year’s $2.5 billion surplusin the New York City budget.

SALARIESCUNY’s offer on salaries is 6.25%

compounded over four years, plus a1% self-funded “productivity in-crease” that would be dependent onmembers doing additional work.

The PSC counterproposal, madeon March 22, also covers four years:it includes a 2% increase for the Wel-fare Fund, across-the-board salaryincreases worth 10.6% plus an $800increase in base salary for all, and a $500 longevity increase. Of theacross-the-board increases, 1% wouldgo toward union economic demandssuch as sabbaticals at 75% of full payand paid parental leave.

“We’ve taken the best features ofthe UUP-SUNY agreement and pro-posed a combination of percentageand cash increases,” Bowen ex-plained. “Percentages alone wouldwiden the gap between highest- andlowest-paid members, whereas cashincreases to base salary contributeto equity.”

The PSC has made an innovativeproposal on part-time salaries, whichwould significantly boost the adjunctfaculty salary scale. Currently, adjunct faculty get a paid office hour if they teach six hours at a singlecampus. The PSC plan would attachunpaid office time to all adjunctteaching – but would increase adjunctwages to a level that would morethan compensate for the change.

Bargaining team members say theproposal acknowledges work that

6 CONTRACT Clarion | April 2005

Raises below inflation, no WF solution

$0

$500

$1,000

$1,500

$2,000

$2,500

$3,000

$3,500

2005*200420032002200120001999199819971996

Fiscal years *Estimate

Rx CPI

Medical CPI

How CUNY isunderfunding theWelfare Fund

The last contract increased CUNY’sannual contributions to the WelfareFund by $200 per member. A July2004 agreement between municipalunions and New York City added$65 per member, but this has not

kept up with steep increases inhealth care costs. Prescription drugcosts, by far the largest factor inWelfare Fund expenses, have goneup fastest – and CUNY’s contribu-tion rate has lagged far behind.

CUNY’s contributions don’t come close

$15

$20

$25

$30

$35

2005*200420032002200120001999199819971996

Fiscal years *Estimate

IncomeActual expensesProjected expenses(if benefits had not been restructured)

Mill

ions

of d

olla

rs

CUNY pays less than benefits cost

$0

$2

$4

$6

$8

$10

$12

$14

$16

$18

$20

2005*200420032002200120001999199819971996

Fiscal years *Estimate

Mill

ions

of d

olla

rs

Inadequate contributions by CUNY haveforced the Fund to use up its reserves.The constant gap between benefit costsand CUNY’s contribution rates has re-quired the Welfare Fund to draw on thosereserve funds year after year. Now the re-

serves are almost gone, despite benefitchanges that were made to contain costs.Unless CUNY contributes more – andsoon – cuts in benefit coverage will be un-avoidable.

The Fund’s reserves are almost gone

In almost every one of the last tenyears, CUNY has contributed less tothe Welfare Fund than the cost ofbenefits. This ongoing shortfall hascreated a financial crisis for theWelfare Fund, and has forced it touse reserves to cover deficits.

The fact that CUNY’s contribu-tions consistently fall short of ex-penses forced the Welfare Fund torestructure benefits in 2003. Restruc-turing helped contain costs, asshown in the chart above – thosechanges saved an estimated $8.2 mil-

lion in projected expenses in FY 2004alone. While about half of these sav-ings came from making the Fundmore efficient, half stemmed fromthe simple fact that members nowpay more of the costs.

But members’ sacrifices have notsolved the problem. In 2004/2005,the high rate of increase in pre-scription drug prices (currently es-timated at 18% per year) pushed theFund’s expenses back up again.CUNY’s contribution rates, howev-er, increased very little.

[Figures for 2005 are estimates. Income figures reflect some short-term fluc-tuations, such as a one-time additional contribution by CUNY in 2003 tomake up for past underpayments.]

[Above, the growing gap between what CUNY pays the Welfare Fund and therising costs of health care and prescription drugs. CPI = Consumer Price In-dex. Figures for CUNY’s contributions are a weighted average of contributionrates for retired and active members; each CPI applied to avg. for 1996.]

[Above, summary of year-end reserve balances show how the Welfare Fund has had tospend down its reserves to dangerously low levels. Experts recommend that benefit fundsmaintain a balance equal to 12 months of expenses. The WF last met this level in 1998.]

PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund Income & Expenses

CUNY’s Per Capita Contribution Rates vs. Medical InflationPSC-CUNY Welfare Fund Depletion of Reserves

CUNY moves but still falls short

The PSC will run 30-second televisionads featuring union members beginningApril 15. “An investment in us is an in-vestment in CUNY,” says the narrator, asphotos of faculty and staff in the class-room, with names and years of service,fill the screen. The 30-second ads willrun mostly on cable stations, includingCNN, MSNBC, NY1, WCBS and WABC.See it at www.psc-cuny.org.

Dat

a fo

r all

grap

hs fr

om P

SC-C

UN

Y W

F

adjunct faculty already do. “The peo-ple have been professional, but thiswould make the structure more pro-fessional,” said Marcia Newfield, whoserves on the bargaining team.

“This is an enhancement for stu-dents, because they need that timewith their professors,” Bowen added.

WELFARE FUNDAt the start of the new contract,

CUNY’s offer would include an $800one-time cash contribution to the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund (WF) for eachfull-time employee, pro-rated for part-timers. As a one-time payment, how-ever, this would not help to close thegap between the WF’s expenses andits ongoing income – and this lump-sum payment would soon be eaten upby the ongoing deficit.

Management says it would considera larger one-time payment, but only ifthe additional amount is subtractedfrom the retroactive pay from the sec-ond year.

The PSC proposal puts more moneyinto the Welfare Fund at the start of anew agreement, and does so in a moreeffective way. “Instead of a one-timecash payment to the WF, our propos-al would put a rate increase – a recur-

Clarion | April 2005 CONTRACT 7

o WF solution

$0

$2

$4

$6

$8

$10

$12

$14

$16

$18

$20

2005*200420032002200120001999199819971996

Fiscal years *Estimate

Mill

ions

of d

olla

rs

serves are almost gone, despite benefitchanges that were made to contain costs.Unless CUNY contributes more – andsoon – cuts in benefit coverage will be un-avoidable.

ves are almost gone

By DANIA RAJENDRA

With new and creative tactics, PSCmembers continued their responseto the state of emergency in con-tract negotiations. Campus rallies,street theater, a “town meeting”and picketing by a “flying squad”were among the tools that membersused to press for a fair contract.

Union members were vocal in re-jecting CUNY management’s latestcontract offer, which would leaveWelfare Fund benefits in dangerand lose ground in salaries. The lo-cal protests in March and earlyApril helped organize for a union-wide demonstration on April 19, atthe office of Board of Trustees ChairBenno Schmidt.

FAT CATSThe union’s Delegate Assembly,

which declared the state of emer-gency in bargaining in January,moved at the end of March to estab-lish a Union Defense Fund. TheFund is a voluntary fundraising ef-fort for an intensified and more mil-itant contract fight. “We have seenthat our pressure works,” the DAresolution states, “but we will needto be prepared to press even harder

to break through management’sausterity framework.”

A series of local actions kicked offon March 26, when more than 100members and students rallied to-gether at Brooklyn College for a faircontract and against increases in tu-ition. “We [students] need to thinkabout this as, ‘This is my contract!’”Ali Chaudary, a senior ma-joring in psychology, saidat the demonstration. “Ifour professors are worry-ing about paying the rent,or health insurance, howcan they give a good lec-ture, or concentrate on helping me?”

The Brooklyn rally also featureda bit of street theater. CUNY “fatcats” – complete with paunch, earsand tail – handed out flyers withsuggestions such as, “CUNY facultyand staff: if you need more money,get a second job.” Student perform-ers rattled cups, panhandling for tu-ition for themselves and health careor child care for their professors.

March 27 was CUNY Day, as es-tablished by the NYC City Councilfour years ago, and the PSC chapter

at Bronx Community Collegemarked the day with a “town meet-ing” on contract negotiations. Twen-ty PSC members and a student tooka turn at the microphone to testifyon the urgent need for CUNY to in-vest in the people who do the workof education. “The attitude of admin-istrators at 80th Street is that facul-

ty, staff and students arean irritant, a bother – in-stead of their reason forbeing,” said union dele-gate Ben Carney.

The PSC chapter at La-Guardia presented a doc-

umentary about open admissions, at-tracting an audience of students, fac-ulty and staff who discussed the con-tract fight. Other CUNY Day actionsincluded a large rally at BMCC, co-sponsored with student groups, in-formational picketing at Queensbor-ough and Queens, and informationtables and leafleting at City Tech.

Chapter meetings to discuss thestatus of negotiations were held overthe next several days at York,Baruch, Lehman, KCC, City, Hunterand John Jay, with turnout general-

ly far above average. Chapters con-tinued to participate in the “MyFive” one-to-one organizing pro-gram and made weekly calls to man-agement decision-makers on “Con-tract Wednesdays.” BoT ChairSchmidt, Chancellor Matthew Gold-stein and Mayor Michael Bloombergwere all targeted in March and April.

NEW TACTICSIn a new tactic, a “flying squad” of

PSC picketers welcomed ChancellorGoldstein at City Tech on April 5,when he arrived to testify before theState Regents on CUNY’s new Mas-ter Plan. In his testimony, Goldsteinpraised CUNY’s faculty and staff –but PSC activists gave all who at-tended a leaflet that said, “Chancel-lor Matthew Goldstein, talk is cheap– we need a contract!”

As preparations began for theApril 19 rally at Schmidt’s office inmidtown Manhattan, the union alsolaunched a drive to ask members tocontribute to the new Union De-fense Fund. The Delegate Assem-bly voted to establish the Fund to“expand the union’s capacity towage a public, militant campaignfor a fair contract.” (See pages 11and 12 for details.)

Acting on state of emergency

Membershipand leadershipratchet up thepressure

ances show how the Welfare Fund has had tow levels. Experts recommend that benefit fundsexpenses. The WF last met this level in 1998.]

Pete

r Hog

ness

ring amount – into the Fund,” saidBowen. Since the existing contractexpired in November 2002, the PSCproposal calls for CUNY to pay thefirst two years of that rate increaseto the WF immediately, in order tobolster the Fund’s reserves.

The Welfare Fund rate increaseproposed by the PSC for the begin-ning of the contract would be equalto 1.25% of payroll, and the unioncalls for CUNY to make a secondrate increase, equal to 0.75% of pay-roll, in the contract’s final year.

Under CUNY’s proposal, its regu-lar contributions would not rise un-til late in the third year of the agree-ment. Then they would go up by$100 per capita, an increase that isrepeated a year later. The increasein the WF’s income would be sub-stantially smaller than in the PSCproposal.

In a March 21 letter to employ-ees, Chancellor Goldstein said hewanted to “clear up some miscon-ceptions” about CUNY and theWelfare Fund. “The Universitydoes not have a demand on the bar-gaining table to cut benefits for re-tirees” or other employees, thechancellor declared.

While CUNY has not presented aformal demand for benefit cuts, itscurrent proposal would make theminevitable: the amount of money

CUNY has so far offered for the WF isnot enough to pay for current benefits.

EQUITYSome of the best news for the PSC

in CUNY’s new proposal is thatmanagement dropped its aggres-sive push to slash job security forHigher Education Officer titles in itsnew proposal. “No concessions onArticle 13.3b was a union priority,”Bowen said. But defining the priori-ty as holding the line against con-cessions meant that the union hadto scale back its proposal on promo-tions and drop, for this round, itsproposal on paid overtime forHEOs. The PSC continues, however,to demand presidential reasonswhen those in HEO titles are notreappointed.

The two sides reached tentativeagreements on additional reas-signed time for research for new li-brary and counseling faculty, andcame closer on proposals to reducethe teaching load at New York CityTech, currently the highest of anyCUNY senior college. This progress,however, remains tentative until afinal agreement is reached.

At press time, the PSC bargainingteam was waiting for a responsefrom CUNY to the union’s counter-proposal.

Members nix ‘austerity framework’

und Depletion of Reserves

ut still falls short

More than 100 Brooklyn College members and students rallied for a fair con-tract and against tuition hikes on March 26.

By MARCIA NEWFIELD

The five-day Northeast RegionalSummer Institute for UnionWomen is a whirlwind for thosewho attend, one that leaves an in-delible impression.

At 8:30 every morning, more than100 participants gather to previewthe day’s events and sing “Solidari-ty Forever” in one of three lan-guages. Then we rush off to work-shops on collective bargaining, legalrights, public speaking and leader-ship skills. There are lunchtimemeetings, followed by afternoon ses-sions on writing for union work, us-ing the internet or combating do-mestic violence. Evening events include guest speakers and a dra-matic slide show documenting theachievements of women in the labormovement. For homework, we ana-lyze our own union contract struc-tures and by laws, write articles forthe school newsletter, and practicefor the Institute chorus.

AWARENESSAlex Tarasko, professor of nurs-

ing and a union grievance counselorat Queensborough Community Col-lege, attended in 2002. She sums itup this way: “Being introduced tothe history of the labor movementfrom a woman’s perspective andseeing women who fought for therights of workers created a shift inmy awareness and consciousness. Ifelt empowered, and when I cameback in the fall, I was tuned in to thelabor issues [of] women on the cam-pus....And because I came to the In-stitute with a HEO, an adjunct, anda CLT from CUNY, I received an ed-ucation from them about their laborconcerns.”

Tarasko is one of 17 faculty andstaff whose attendance the PSC hassponsored since 2001, when DebraBergen, the PSC’s director of con-tract administration, introduced theInstitute to the union’s newly elect-

ed leadership. Bergen first attendedas a student in 1987, and since 2000has been on the faculty, teachingleadership skills and advancedgrievance training. Each year theInstitute is led by two co-coordina-tors, one from academia and onefrom the union movement. Bergenwas chosen as the labor co-coordi-nator for 2003.

ROOTS GO BACKThis summer, the Institute will

hold its 30th annual session. Butwhile the Institute was established30 years ago, in many ways its rootsgo back much further. It was in-spired in part by earlier university-

based educational projects for work-ing-class women, such as the BrynMawr Summer School forWomen Workers.

The Bryn Mawr school wasformed in 1921, shortly afterwomen won the right to vote.College President MarthaCarey Thomas, Dean HildaSmith and YWCA leaders wanted togive women factory workers an op-portunity to “widen their influencein the industrial world.” As Thomaswrote, “The peculiar kind of sympa-thy that binds women togetherseems to come only to those whohave not been free. It belongs at thepresent time to all women because

of their age-long struggle, which isnot yet over, for human rights andpersonal civil liberty.” This pro-union space for learning survivedfor 17 years and spawned many oth-er residential workers’ schools inthe United States.

A modern successor to the BrynMawr Summer School, the NortheastRegional Summer Institute for UnionWomen was conceived in 1975 by thelate labor educator BarbaraWertheimer, author of several well-respected books including We WereThere: The Story of Working Womenin America from Pre-Colonial Timesto the Early 20th Century and LaborEducation for Women Workers.

The Institute’s goal is to bring to-gether labor educators, union lead-ers, and rank-and-file members tohelp strengthen women’s knowl-edge of the US labor movement, un-derstand its present challenges andissues, and develop skills that moti-vate them to be more active unionmembers in an atmosphere of sis-terhood and solidarity.

PSC attendees have realized thatpromise, and have brought thelessons of the Institute back toCUNY. Maria Doherty, a PSC orga-nizer, says she has used techniquesshe learned at the Institute to orga-

nize Research Foundationworkers at LaGuardiaCommunity College. EllenSteinberg, a CLT chapterofficer, commented, “WhatI got was a sense of solidar-ity with other union

women, and inspiration to impartmy enthusiasm and activism to oth-ers.” HEO Vera Weekes called thesummer school “truly a life-chang-ing experience.”

Helen Creedon, a PSC memberwho teaches at the Hunter CollegeCampus Schools, said, “I have at-tended many schools and confer-

ences, yet never felt the level of ac-ceptance, warmth and support as Idid that week from such a diversegroup of women. My five-year-oldcan now sing, ‘The union makes usstrong.’ She also enjoys Click, Clack,Moo, the children’s book on how thefarm animals organize and use thetypewriter” to tell the farmer whatthey need.

Debbie Parker, director of theWomen’s Center at BMCC, was in-spired to import the Women’s LaborHistory slide show for a women’shistory event on March 10, whereretail workers’ union leader Ida Tor-res, an Institute founder who is nowtreasurer of the New York CentralLabor Council, spoke, along withPSC President Barbara Bowen.

MANY VOICESThis summer’s Northeast Region-

al Summer Institute for UnionWomen will be held at Cornell Uni-versity in Ithaca from August 7 to12, with the theme of “One World –Many Voices of Union Women.” Co-sponsors are United Association ofLabor Educators (UALE), the Coali-tion of Labor Union Women(CLUW), and the AFL-CIO. Locals ofmajor unions in the northeast, in-cluding AFSCME, CWA, SEIU,TWU and the UAW, are all expect-ed to send students. UALE is alsosponsoring three other schools forunion women this summer (infor-mation at www.uale.org).

For a brochure and more informa-tion on the Northeast Institute, con-tact Debra Bergen at dbergen@psc-mail.org, or 212-354-1252.

Marcia Newfield, PSC VP for part-time personnel and adjunct griev-ance counselor, has attended the In-stitute since 2002. She became inter-ested in the portrayal of labor in chil-dren’s literature, and in 2003, alongwith teaching a workshop on writingfor union work, offered a mini-work-shop on teaching labor to kids.

8 NEWS Clarion | April 2005

By PETER HOGNESS

“With deep regret,” PSC staff re-signed in March from their posi-tions with the Belle Zeller Scholar-ship Trust Fund. They acted afterthe Fund’s board insisted on ap-pointing a trustee who refuses tojoin the union.

The scholarship fund was createdby the PSC in 1979 in honor of BelleZeller, the union’s founding presi-dent and a committed trade union-ist. Criteria for the annual awardsinclude both academic achievementand service to the community.

The trustees’ choice of a facultymember “who has consciously cho-

sen not to join the union constitutesan act of such disrespect to thePSC/CUNY and to the memory ofBelle Zeller that we can no longerserve as staff support to thetrustees,” stated PSC Executive Di-rector Deborah Bell and Pensionand Welfare Benefits DirectorClarissa Gilbert Weiss, in a letter ofresignation on March 17. PSC staffhad done most of the Fund’s admin-istrative work and organized its an-nual fundraising dinner.

Shirley Beheshti, chair of theFund’s board, told Clarion that “the

sole function” of the Fund “is toaward scholarships to deservingstudents, according to our criteria.”Therefore, she said, “the Board ofTrustees consists of people who canbest identify such students with noreference to their political views,whether they are members of theunion or fee payers, Republicans orDemocrats.”

The non-union appointment cameafter years of friction between theFund’s board and the PSC. For thelast several years, the self-selectingboard had rejected all PSC nomina-

tions for Fund trustees. The unionnonetheless continued to supportthe Fund; Bell and Weiss’s letternotes that the PSC “has subsidizedthe Trust Fund’s fundraising andscholarship application processingwork for the past 27 years.”

“The PSC ExecutiveCouncil took our responsi-bility to nominate trusteesvery seriously,” said PSCSecretary Cecelia McCall.“This year we nominateda member from a chapterthat had expressed particular inter-est in promoting the Belle ZellerScholarships, a young faculty mem-ber who was extremely well quali-

fied and very interested in the mis-sion of the Fund.”

“We have never had a fee payeras a trustee in the entire 25-year his-tory of the Fund,” said Irwin Yel-lowitz, a member of the Fund’sboard who also serves as its treasur-

er. “In my mind it runscounter to the basic spir-it of the Belle Zeller Fund,which was set up to hon-or the first PSC presidentand a person who was alifelong unionist.” Yel-

lowitz called the move “a very greatmistake on the part of the trustees,”and “an act that will be to the greatdisadvantage of the students.”

Belle Zeller Fund parts ways with PSCInsists on non-union trustee

Buildingskills andknowledgeof labor

Northeast Institute part of labor, women’s history

Summer school for union women

Established in 1921, the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Working Women helpedinspire today’s union women summer schools.

Robe

rt F

. Wag

ner L

abor

Arc

hive

s, N

YU, L

ouis

e Sh

anbe

rg P

hoto

Col

lect

ion

A scholarshipestablished tohonor a lifelongunionist

By FRANCINE BREWER & PETER HOGNESS

If you watch television, you’ve cer-tainly seen them. Very attractivepeople (who don’t look sick) areshown in bucolic settings, livingpain-free, symptom-free, disease-free lives. These ads suggest that ifyou ask your doctor for a certaindrug, you will also live a wonderfullife. Direct-to-consumer drug adsare beautiful, filmed in bright,cheerful colors. They are designedby the best advertising agencies,and they produce results.

Major pharmaceutical companies(Merck, Pfizer and others) spend $4billion a year on direct-to-consumeradvertising. They’re not doing it fortheir health – or for yours. The pur-pose of all that spending is to stimu-late sales of the drugs that yield thehighest profits.

BAD RESULTSThe results can be bad for individ-

ual patients, and for the entirehealth care system. New Zealand isplanning to ban direct-to-consumerdrug ads – which will leave the USas the only industrialized countrywhere they are allowed.

Direct-to-consumer advertisingbegan in earnest in 1997, when theFood and Drug Administration(FDA) changed its rules. “No longerwould the FDA require...volumi-nous information about the drug’sside effects in television and radioads,” explains the pharmaceuticalindustry group PhRMA. Since thenspending on direct-to-consumer adshas boomed, growing more thanfive-fold since 1996.

Many people believe that drug ad-vertising is well regulated. They aremistaken. One study found that half

of respondents thought that theFDA must approve drug ads beforethey are shown. This is not the case,and FDA efforts to monitor the flood

of television ads have been under-staffed and underfunded.

The number of FDA enforcementactions has steadily declined in re-cent years. In 2002 – 2004, the FDAsent out 70% fewer warning and vio-lation notices than in the previousthree years.

“In the rare cases where the FDAtook action…there were long delays,”a report by House Democrats con-cluded earlier this year. In 2003, theaverage delay between the appear-ance of a false or misleading ad andthe FDA’s first action was 177 days – almost six months.

Even ads that do notdraw an FDA complaint canbe harmful to patients’health. One example is thearthritis pain medicationVioxx: in 2000, its makerMerck spent $160 million onconsumer ads for Vioxx,more than was spent on advertisingfor Budweiser or for Pepsi. The re-sults were impressive: retail sales ofVioxx grew four-fold in just one year,reaching $1.5 billion in 2000.

PUSHING VIOXXBut Merck was forced to with-

draw Vioxx from the market in Sep-tember 2004 due to studies showinga substantial increase in risk of car-diovascular problems (heart attacksand strokes) if patients took thedrug for 18 months or more. Therehad been evidence for the heart at-

tack link as early as 2000, andfor many patients Vioxx – anexpensive drug – offered littleor no more benefit than over-the-counter medicines like as-pirin, ibuprofen (Advil) ornaproxen (Aleve).

Would Vioxx have been so wide-ly prescribed and taken if demandhad not been artificially stimulatedby direct-to-consumer ads? “The un-derlying problem with these drugs,”concluded a New York Times editor-ial, “is that they have been heavilypromoted and thus prescribedpromiscuously to patients who didnot need to take them.”

But doctors are in a difficult posi-tion when a patient wants to take adrug (perhaps influenced by thosebeautiful ads). “Many of these pa-tients are already convinced that theproducts advertised are the answerto their problems – and they mis-

trust [their doctor] if [thedoctor] says otherwise,”noted an article in the jour-nal of the American Collegeof Physicians (ACP).

When prescription drugsare marketed like other con-sumer products, patients

start to think of buying a drug as justanother consumer choice. “Patientsalmost feel that the physician’s officeis the drive-through window at McDonald’s, where they put their or-der in and you fill it,” a Kentuckyphysician told the ACP.

If the doctor refuses to prescribea drug, the patient may go to anoth-er physician to obtain it. In a study published in the Journal of FamilyPractice, one-quarter of those inter-viewed said they would do so – and15% would consider changing to anew doctor for good. It is thus not

surprisingthat the drugs that are

most heavily prescribed are thosemost heavily marketed to con-sumers, according to a study by theCenters for Disease Control.

MISLEADINGThe pharmaceutical industry

group PhRMA argues that direct-to-consumer drug advertising is edu-cational – that it “enhances con-sumer knowledge about diseasesand treatments.” Dr. Marcia Angell,former editor of the New EnglandJournal of Medicine, disagrees.These ads “mainly benefit the bot-tom line of the drug industry, notthe public,” she wrote in The NewRepublic. “They mislead consumersmore than they inform them, andthey pressure physicians to pre-scribe new, expensive and oftenmarginally helpful drugs, althougha more conservative option mightbe better for the patient. That isprobably why direct-to-consumerads are not permitted in other ad-vanced countries less in the thrall ofthe pharmaceutical industry.”

The billions of dollars spent on ad-vertising and the over-selling of the

most ex-pensive drugs are two

important reasons for the skyrocket-ing prices of prescription medica-tions. The charts on page 6 of this is-sue of Clarion show how this hashurt the PSC/CUNY Welfare Fund.

Where, then, can you get reliableinformation about different drugs?How can you educate yourself aboutthe appropriateness of a particularmedication for your use? With thesupport from the AFL-CIO and oth-er pro-consumer groups, ConsumerReports has launched a website de-signed to do just that, www.crbest-buydrugs.org. Other good sources ofunbiased information include thebook Worst Pills, Best Pills and therelated website, www.worstpills.org, both from Public Citizen. (Forinformation and a laugh, seewww.prescriptionforchange.org.)

It often takes years before a safe-ty warning is added to a drug’s labelor it is withdrawn from the market.Forget those beautiful TV ads – ifyou have questions about medicineand your health, consult your doctorand do your own research.

Francine Brewer is a member of thePSC Health Care Reform Committee.To contact the committee, write to frangail@earthlink.net.

Drug ads may be harmfulto your health

Clarion | April 2005 NEWS 9

By DEBORAH BELLPSC Executive Director

The Fall 2005 academic calendarhas finally been resolved. CUNYmanagement’s proposed calendarincluded three days of no classes inOctober for Rosh Hashanah, whichwould not allow for 15 weeks ofclasses and a full exam period be-fore Christmas. Therefore, CUNYproposed starting Fall semester onAugust 29, one day earlier than thecontractual end of the full-time fac-ulty’s annual leave period.

Because the summer annualleave period is a provision of the

PSC contract, CUNY must negoti-ate with the union about changingit. In bargaining for a new contract,management has proposed a per-manent change in annualleave, with faculty re-turning earlier in Au-gust. PSC negotiators ar-gue that the summer an-nual leave period is cru-cial for scholarly work, givenCUNY’s teaching load, and shouldnot be reduced.

On CUNY’s proposal for the Fall2005 schedule, the PSC respondedby insisting that full-time faculty becompensated for returning one day

early. After several months of dis-cussion and threats to extend Fallsemester into January, a settlementwas reached.

For Fall 2005, Mondayclasses scheduled to endafter 4 pm will begin onAugust 29. All other class-es will begin August 30.Full-time faculty who

teach on August 29 will be compen-sated at the appropriate adjunctrate for time worked that day. OnMonday, October 3, the first night ofRosh Hashanah, all classes endingbefore 4 pm will be held, and allclasses ending after 4 pm will not.

Fall calendar is settled

Direct-to-consumer marketing boom

They’re goodfor companyprofits, butbad forviewers.

YOUR HEALTH

Schedulechanges forRosh Hashanah

PSC PRE-RETIREMENT CONFERENCE

The annual PSC Pre-Retirement Conference will be held on Wednesday, May 18, 2005,from 9 to 4 at the CUNY Graduate Center. This conference, designed for members who areabout five years away from retirement, will feature speakers on financial planning, healthbenefits and taxes. Please return the form below. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

I will attend the PSC Pre-Retirement Conference. Enclosed is $_____ registration fee for _____ places at $20 each.

Name __________________________________________________________

Address _________________________________________________________

City ___________________________ State _________ Zip _______________

Retirement System ___________________ College _______________________

Date of original CUNY employment __________________

Make checks payable to Professional Staff Congress and return by May 11, 2005 to:Clarissa Gilbert Weiss, PSC, 25 W. 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Gre

gory

Nem

ec

By RENATE BRIDENTHALBrooklyn College (emerita)

University, Inc: The Corporate Corruption of HigherEducation. By Jennifer Washburn. BasicBooks, 2005, 326 pp., $26.00.

This stunning study of how thecommercial ethos in universitieshas subverted the values of hu-manism and the public good is achilling heads-up for anyone in-

volved in higher education. Jennifer Wash-burn has accumulated an alarming amount ofinformation about the consequences of the in-trusion of the market into research universi-ties. Not only are academic activities skewedin the interests of profit, but the public atlarge is also cheated and sometimes harmed.

Washburn’s chief focus is to show howthe corporate stranglehold on academic sci-ence, particularly in medicine, pharmacolo-gy and biotechnology, has sacrificed basicresearch and even integrity to industry’sshort-term bottom line. Here are some ofher examples:

n In the 1990s, the tobacco industry paidacademic scientists up to $20,000 each topublicly downplay the risks of smoking.

n The Enron Corporation financed theHarvard Electricity Policy Group, whichwrote 31 reports promoting deregulation ofCalifornia’s energy markets.

n At Brown University, Microfibres Inc.tried to prevent Dr. David Kern from pub-lishing his findings on a potentially fatal newlung disease that affected workers at its fac-tory. Microfibres was being asked to donateto a new project for Brown Medical School,and the Brown administration told Kern notto publish or present his work. After protest,Brown backed off and Kern presented his re-sults at a conference – but a few days later,his position at Brown was eliminated.

n Also at Brown, it was revealed that Dr.Martin Keller, lead author of a study endors-ing the safety and effectiveness of the anti-depressant Paxil, was paid over half a mil-lion dollars in a single year in consulting feesfrom drug companies. One of the companieswas the maker of Paxil, later identified as po-tentially inducing suicide among teenagers.

NOVARTIS GETS A VOTEIncreasingly, corporate influence goes

beyond exerting pressure from the outside.Novartis, the Swiss-based multinationalpharmacological company and producer ofgenetically engineered crops, signed anagreement in 1998 with the University ofCalifornia at Berkeley to fund research in itsDepartment of Plant and Microbial Biology.In return, Novartis got the first right to ne-gotiate licenses on one-third of the discover-ies, whether funded by its donations or bytaxpayers’ money. Novartis also got two offive seats on the departmental committeethat determined how the money would bespent; the three university appointees all re-ceived large research awards from the firm.An external review by a team from Michi-gan State University concluded that suchagreements should not be repeated becausethey created conflicts of interest for the uni-versity as an institution.

Such concerns were amplified when aleading opponent of the Novartis deal was

denied tenure at Berkeley. He had publishedresearch indicating that geneticallymodified corn had contaminated native maize in Mexico; his depart-ment had recommended him for tenureby a vote of 32-1.

Despite this and other corporate bully-ing at UC campuses, Governor GrayDavis pushed for UC to increase its col-laboration with industry, with the cre-ation of the California Institutes for Sci-ence and Innovation. Davis offered $100million a year in public funds to eachof four new UC institutes, contingenton each raising twice that much fromother sources. The goal of this public/ private project is commercialization of discoveries through the academicintegration of venture-capitalmanagement and business incubators, with industrialparks intertwined with uni-versity research facilities.

PUBLIC FUNDING IS CUT“When these expensive commercial-re-

search centers were being launched,” Wash-burn writes, “state spending on the UC sys-tem declined by 14 percent, even as enroll-ment climbed 18 percent.”

Washburn knows that university-basedresearch in the US has often tended towardutility, originally through land grants foragricultural colleges and later for war-relat-ed research. But, she argues that 1980 legis-lation, the University Small Business PatentProcedures Act, or Bayh-Dole Act, whichpermitted universities to patent and license

federally sponsored (taxpayer-financed) re-search on a large scale, has led to a new par-adigm, a “market-model university,” that in-creasingly puts short-term profit ahead ofhumanistic education and basic research.

The more public universities are starvedof public funds, the more they will find pri-vate resources tempting. But the intellectualand moral costs are high. Secrecy has en-closed the scientific commons. Intellectualproperty battles have led to charges of steal-ing research and the abuse of junior scien-

tists and students. Distorted research re-sults injure the general public and createdistrust of university work.

Finally, curricula are distorted to favorscience and business, while humanities and

social sciences wither. In general, thelatter fields have fewer “prod-ucts” to market and therefore at-

tract less funding in a “market-model university.” This model has already

affected the structure of the professoriate.Washburn gives NYU as an example, where“stars” are offered salaries in six figures,while the majority of classes are taught byadjuncts whose academic freedom is peren-nially at stake.

THE ‘MARKET MODEL’Have we at CUNY been affected by these

processes? According to the 2004 – 2008 Mas-ter Plan, $198 million will go to building an

Advanced Science Research Centeron the City College campus. Its

focus is to be biosensing, tech-nologies that can be used for

the identification, monitor-ing, and/or control of bio-logic phenomena. While

this has some medical uses, expected exter-nal collaborators include Raytheon, Lock-heed Martin, Northrop Grumman and IBM.Some of us ought to do some Washburn-typeresearch about all that.

Editor’s note: Jennifer Washburn will be thefeatured speaker at the April 22 UFS confer-ence, “Recapturing the ‘Public’ in Public High-er Education,” 9:30 - 3:00 at the CUNY Gradu-ate Center. To register, call 212-794-5538 or e-mail Vernice.Blanchard@mail.cuny.edu.

10 REVIEW & COMMENT Clarion | April 2005

BOOK REVIEW

The following letter, addressed toChancellor Goldstein and theTrustees of the City University ofNew York, was signed by 45 elect-ed officials prior to manage-ment’s latest contract offer.

As a member of the New YorkCity delegation, I write in supportof the 20,000 members of the Pro-fessional Staff Congress, the fac-ulty and professional staff at theCity University of New York. ThePSC’s contract with CUNYexpired more than twoyears ago, and the instruc-tional staff has gone morethan three years without araise.

While it would not be ap-propriate for me to become in-volved in the details of collectivebargaining, I wish to express mysupport for a fair and speedy res-olution of the contract. If therehas been a renaissance at CUNY,it is primarily because of thework of the faculty and staff. It isthey who teach the students, sup-port their academic growth and

conduct the research that buildsthe University’s reputation....CUNY’s offer is considerably be-low the level of inflation and outof line with the recent settlementreached with the SUNY facultyunion for 15% in increases overfour years. Such an offer not onlyinsults people who have giventheir professional lives to CUNY,it risks undermining the CityUniversity itself.

During the past few years, theLegislature has invest-ed significant politicalsupport in CUNY, press-ing for increased re-sources on the groundsthat the University wasundergoing a renais-

sance. While I am gratified to seethe expansion of CUNY and en-hancement of many of its pro-grams, I am alarmed that a fail-ure to provide adequate salaries,health benefits and working con-ditions will jeopardize recentgains.

How many of the 600 full-timefaculty hired in the last two

years will begin to look for positions elsewhere if CUNYsalaries do not even keep pacewith inflation?

I call on you to do everythingyou can to reach a fair settle-ment with the Professional StaffCongress. By supporting com-petitive salaries, decent benefitsand good working conditions forCUNY’s faculty and staff, youcontinue the forward motion ofthe University.

Signed by:Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry Assemblyman Michael Benjamin Assemblyman James Brennan Assemblyman Ronald Canestrari Assemblywoman Ann M. Carrozza Assemblywoman Barbara Clark Assemblywoman Adele CohenAssemblyman William Colton Senator Ruben Diaz, Sr.Assemblyman Jeffrey DinowitzSenator Thomas Duane Assemblyman Adriano EspaillatCouncilman Eric GioiaAssemblywoman Deborah GlickAssemblyman Richard Gottfried

Assemblyman Pete GrannisCouncilman Robert JacksonAssemblywoman Rhoda JacobsCouncilwoman Melinda KatzSenator Jeffrey KleinCouncilman Oliver KoppellSenator Liz KruegerAssemblyman Ivan LafayetteCouncilwoman Margarita LopezAssemblywoman Nettie MayersohnAssemblyman Brian McLaughlinAssemblyman Joel MillerAssemblywoman Cathy NolanAssemblyman Clarence NormanAssemblyman Daniel O’DonnellSenator Kevin ParkerSenator David PatersonAssemblyman José PeraltaAssemblywoman Audrey PhefferSenator Mary Lou RathCouncilman Phil ReedAssemblyman José RiveraAssemblyman Peter RiveraSenator Diane SavinoSenator Eric SchneidermanCouncilman Larry SeabrookSenator José SerranoSenator Toby StaviskyCouncilman Kendall StewartAssemblyman Scott Stringer

Political support for PSC contract needs

Corporate influence is growing.G

rego

ry N

emec

Academia for sale?

“Failureto provideadequatesalaries”

CONTRACT FIGHT

By BARBARA BOWENPSC President

On the night of March 31, the PSCtook a major step in our escalat-ing fight for a contract. Uniondelegates voted overwhelming-ly to create a Union Defense

Fund. Not since the PSC’s long campaign fora first contract, in 1973, has the union feltthe need to take such serious action.

Why a Defense Fund – and why now? Theanswer begins with the developments at thebargaining table in the middle of March.

After months of very little movement,CUNY management responded to the pres-sure you have brought through marches,pickets, phone calls and faxes. Managementdid what they had vowed they would neverdo – they gave us a higher offer even thoughwe had refused to lower our own proposal.

Five days later, the union made a compre-hensive counterproposal. The difference be-tween the two proposals defines our fight.

Although management’s March 17 proposalrepresents significant movement from theirdisastrous 1.5% offer, it still amounts to a de-mand for concessions on wages, benefits andworking conditions. However much the Chan-cellor may try to disguise the fact, his propos-al suggests we take cuts in benefits, loseground on salaries, work more hours, andmake concessions such as the removal of de-partment chairs from the union. I cannotimagine any reason to accept such an offer.

NO SALARY CUTConsider management’s latest proposal ele-

ment by element. On salaries it offers a total in-crease of 6.25%, compounded, over four years,with an additional 1% increase to be funded byour own increased workload. I’ll come back tothe increased workload, but the obvious fact onthe salaries is that they don’t even keep upwith the cost of living. An “increase” of 6.25%means that the real-dollar value of our salarieswould fall. Despite Chancellor Goldstein’sclaim in his e-mail message of March 21 that“our first priority in these negotiations is to apply as much as possible of the economicpackage to across-the-board salary increases,”what he has actually proposed is a salary cut.

It’s the same story on benefits. Althoughthe Chancellor claims that his proposal responds “to the PSC’s concerns regardingthe Welfare Fund,” before the end of thiscontract it would leave us facing the samedilemma we face now. The $200 increase offered by management comes nowhere near the galloping cost of prescription drugs,and thus provides no real solution to theWelfare Fund crisis. Without larger annualincreases, that reserve would be spent downin a few years.

The third concessionary element of theUniversity’s proposal is on working condi-tions. Management’s offer includes a demand that we finance 1% of our below-inflation “raises” by adding seven days tothe full-time faculty work-year, returning tocampus on