CUNY workers walk out
By a Professional Staff Congress member
New York
On May 27 the Professional Staff Congress, an
American Federation of Teachers affiliate that represents the
faculty and staff at the City University of New York, staged a
one-day strike at the University Application Processing
Center.
About 75 percent of the UAPC workers walked out. The
Teamsters recognized the line and halted deliveries.
Construction workers, whose picket lines at CUNY sites have
been supported by the PSC, sent a delegation--along with one of
the big inflated rats they use to satirize the bosses. Most of
the PSC leadership showed up and walked the line.
While CUNY, as a public institution, is covered by New York
state's Taylor Law making strikes illegal, the UAPC was
privatized decades ago. Workers there have been paid by the
Research Foundation of CUNY, a private institution affiliated
with CUNY whose money doesn't come through state or city
appropriations.
Thousands of CUNY workers are paid through the foundation.
City University has 19 campuses and a number of independent and
semi-autonomous institutions--such as academic institutes, high
schools, print shops, data processing centers, car pools and a
police force--and workers paid by the foundation are scattered
all over the city.
A few years ago, the PSC decided to organize workers paid by
the foundation who were not in a union. The PSC won an election
at the UAPC by a substantial majority and has been trying to
gain a contract for over a year.
Recently, however, after losing a grant from the city that
had partially funded the UAPC, CUNY decided to close it down.
Two-thirds of the workers on the foundation payroll were to be
transferred to CUNY and the others laid off.
Most of the transferred workers would be put in temporary
and provisional entry-level positions without seniority.
Skilled veteran workers would have the status of new hires on
probation. The laid-off workers could take a job with CUNY, if
they could find one, but the foundation wasn't going to give
them any help.
This caused a great deal of anger. When CUNY refused to
bargain, the UAPC workers voted overwhelmingly for a
strike.
Organizers for the PSC report that CUNY became more flexible
after the strike and that progress is being made.
It should be noted that the PSC has also taken a very active
stand on social justice issues. It has brought big contingents
to most of the major New York anti-war rallies under the slogan
"Money for education, not for war." Its leadership says that
the struggles against the war and against higher tuition for
immigrant students are part of the struggle for a better
contract and working conditions for the membership.
Reprinted from the June 10, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyrighted
under a Creative
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