PTU View
Item
——
PIU View
The Newsletter of the Part-Time Instructional
and Research Staff Union
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P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009 (212) 790-4447 August 1986
Right Now, Being an Adjunct Is a Dead-End Street
If you're one of the 4,000-plus graduate assistants and adjunct lecturers at CUNY, then you
are working under these intolerable conditions:
Lack of job security
Inadequate or nonexistent medical insurance
Low pay
Little opportunity for full-time, tenure-track employment
Bnef prior notification of employment
Arbitrary access to unemployment benefits
No opportunity for professional development and research
No night to participate in departmental affairs
No nght to choose your courses
Lack of respect from tenure-track faculty
HHH KR HH HH HH)
As a part-time faculty member, you are represented by the Professional Staff Congress
(PSC). This union is dominated by full-time, tenure-track faculty. Do you believe that the PSC
has demonstrated a strong commitment to the concerns of part-timers? Think about these facts:
The vast majority of part-timers are excluded from PSC medical benefits and tuition
waivers.
The PSC has done nothing to improve job security for part-timers, or to improve
prospects for advancement or rewards for longevity.
The PSC refuses to help part-timers in their attempts to receive unemployment benefits.
‘* The PSC has done little either to increase awareness of the plight of part-timers or to win
adjuncts the respect of tenure-track faculty.
What Can Adjuncts Do to Improve Their Working Conditions?
The Part-Time Instructional and Research Staff Union (PTU) is a group of part-time faculty
from all the CUNY colleges who are attempting to improve our working conditions. The PTU
feels that conditions will improve only if part-timers form a new union, separate from the PSC,
which will concentrate solely on the needs of part-timers. The PSC has represented us for
seventeen years, and during that time our working conditions have, if anything, deteriorated. It is
time for part-timers to make their voices heard.
If the PTU is to break away from the PSC, at least one third of all part-time faculty (there are i.
currently approximately 4 COQ musi sienunig. authorization cards requesting that the PTU 7
represent them. These cards must be signed between June 5, 1986, and November 30, 1986. The /
cards will be filed with the New York State Public Employees Relations Board by November 30, |/
1986. [For a full explanation, see the PTU pamphlet "Certification of a New Union") 7
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR WORKING CONDITIONS,
SIGN A UNION AUTHORIZATION CARD NOW!
PTU Demands
If the PTU is certified as the part-timers union, we will demand and fight for these basic
benefits:
* Comprehensive medical benefits for all part-timers, with no restrictions
* Job security for those who wish to remain part-time as well as those who wish to become
full-timers:
-- legal protection against arbitrary hiring and firing
-- opportunity for tenure-track positions
-- one-year (or more) contracts for part-time employees, no more
semester-to-semester hiring
Equal pay for equal work: pay pro-rated according to full-time levels
Right to receive unemployment benefits, as other professionals do
Access to university funds for research and development
Right to participate in and vote on departmental personnel and budget committees
Enforcement of affirmative action programs for part-time women and minorities
Special consideration to be given to part-time teaching experience in requirements for
tenure-track positions
A, pa taser ba RIA Wt i a a
What Can You Do Now?
Union authorization cards are available from your PTU college contact (see below), or write
or call the PTU at P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009, (212) 790-4447.
Contact us: What problems have you encountered as an adjunct? Have you tried to collect
unemployment benefits and been denied?
Donate money or time: If we are to organize by November, we need all the help we can get.
If you can do clerical work, campaign, or write pamphlets, please call Joan Wathen at (212)
§33-1123. :
If You Sent Us a Union Authorization Card That Was Returned by
the Post Office...
... please send us a new card. During June and July the Post Office returned all
PTU mail as undeliverable, thanks to a bureaucratic mistake (theirs, not ours). If you tried to send
a card to P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009, and it was returned by the Post Office, please
send us anew card. This is our address, and the Post Office is now delivering our mail.
College Contacts
For more information, contact any of the following people:
Tom Smith Hunter College (718) 275-8349
Sally O'Driscoll Queens College (212) 254-1094
Jim Ciment City College (212) 677-9147
Vincent Tirelli Graduate Center (718) 790-4447
[DSC office]
Jeff Gerson Brooklyn College (718) 763-0343
Ron Lehrer iets aoe (718) 377-0631
Harry McArdle Medgar Evers College (516) 744-5332
Rocco Serini Manhattan C.C. and (718) 624-5000
Bye; Technical C.
Pamela Ansaldi Bronx C.C. and (212) 543-2978
Lehman College
Andrew Kolin John Jay College (212) 882-1038
As a college contact you can help organize CUNY part-timers and keep them informed. If you
would like to become a PTU contact for the college where you teach, or if you can volunteer to help
in any other way, please call Joan Wathen at (212) 533-1123.
PIU View
The Newsletter of the Part-Time Instructional
and Research Staff Union
tee eee eee ee eee eee eee eee eet eeeeeee eee eeeeeke eee e ee t
P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009 (212) 790-4447 August 1986
Right Now, Being an Adjunct Is a Dead-End Street
If you're one of the 4,000-plus graduate assistants and adjunct lecturers at CUNY, then you
are working under these intolerable conditions:
Lack of job security
Inadequate or nonexistent medical insurance
Low pay
Little opportunity for full-time, tenure-track employment
Bnef prior notification of employment
Arbitrary access to unemployment benefits
No opportunity for professional development and research
No night to participate in departmental affairs
No nght to choose your courses
Lack of respect from tenure-track faculty
HHH KR HH HH HH)
As a part-time faculty member, you are represented by the Professional Staff Congress
(PSC). This union is dominated by full-time, tenure-track faculty. Do you believe that the PSC
has demonstrated a strong commitment to the concerns of part-timers? Think about these facts:
The vast majority of part-timers are excluded from PSC medical benefits and tuition
waivers.
The PSC has done nothing to improve job security for part-timers, or to improve
prospects for advancement or rewards for longevity.
The PSC refuses to help part-timers in their attempts to receive unemployment benefits.
‘* The PSC has done little either to increase awareness of the plight of part-timers or to win
adjuncts the respect of tenure-track faculty.
What Can Adjuncts Do to Improve Their Working Conditions?
The Part-Time Instructional and Research Staff Union (PTU) is a group of part-time faculty
from all the CUNY colleges who are attempting to improve our working conditions. The PTU
feels that conditions will improve only if part-timers form a new union, separate from the PSC,
which will concentrate solely on the needs of part-timers. The PSC has represented us for
seventeen years, and during that time our working conditions have, if anything, deteriorated. It is
time for part-timers to make their voices heard.
If the PTU is to break away from the PSC, at least one third of all part-time faculty (there are i.
currently approximately 4 COQ musi sienunig. authorization cards requesting that the PTU 7
represent them. These cards must be signed between June 5, 1986, and November 30, 1986. The /
cards will be filed with the New York State Public Employees Relations Board by November 30, |/
1986. [For a full explanation, see the PTU pamphlet "Certification of a New Union") 7
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR WORKING CONDITIONS,
SIGN A UNION AUTHORIZATION CARD NOW!
PTU Demands
If the PTU is certified as the part-timers union, we will demand and fight for these basic
benefits:
* Comprehensive medical benefits for all part-timers, with no restrictions
* Job security for those who wish to remain part-time as well as those who wish to become
full-timers:
-- legal protection against arbitrary hiring and firing
-- opportunity for tenure-track positions
-- one-year (or more) contracts for part-time employees, no more
semester-to-semester hiring
Equal pay for equal work: pay pro-rated according to full-time levels
Right to receive unemployment benefits, as other professionals do
Access to university funds for research and development
Right to participate in and vote on departmental personnel and budget committees
Enforcement of affirmative action programs for part-time women and minorities
Special consideration to be given to part-time teaching experience in requirements for
tenure-track positions
A, pa taser ba RIA Wt i a a
What Can You Do Now?
Union authorization cards are available from your PTU college contact (see below), or write
or call the PTU at P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009, (212) 790-4447.
Contact us: What problems have you encountered as an adjunct? Have you tried to collect
unemployment benefits and been denied?
Donate money or time: If we are to organize by November, we need all the help we can get.
If you can do clerical work, campaign, or write pamphlets, please call Joan Wathen at (212)
§33-1123. :
If You Sent Us a Union Authorization Card That Was Returned by
the Post Office...
... please send us a new card. During June and July the Post Office returned all
PTU mail as undeliverable, thanks to a bureaucratic mistake (theirs, not ours). If you tried to send
a card to P.O. Box 2314, New York, N.Y. 10009, and it was returned by the Post Office, please
send us anew card. This is our address, and the Post Office is now delivering our mail.
College Contacts
For more information, contact any of the following people:
Tom Smith Hunter College (718) 275-8349
Sally O'Driscoll Queens College (212) 254-1094
Jim Ciment City College (212) 677-9147
Vincent Tirelli Graduate Center (718) 790-4447
[DSC office]
Jeff Gerson Brooklyn College (718) 763-0343
Ron Lehrer iets aoe (718) 377-0631
Harry McArdle Medgar Evers College (516) 744-5332
Rocco Serini Manhattan C.C. and (718) 624-5000
Bye; Technical C.
Pamela Ansaldi Bronx C.C. and (212) 543-2978
Lehman College
Andrew Kolin John Jay College (212) 882-1038
As a college contact you can help organize CUNY part-timers and keep them informed. If you
would like to become a PTU contact for the college where you teach, or if you can volunteer to help
in any other way, please call Joan Wathen at (212) 533-1123.
Title
PTU View
Description
The August 1986 PTU View newsletter called for adjunct faculty to sign a "union authorization" card. In addition to listing how the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) had failed to represent the interests of contingent faculty, the PTU’s demands outlined in the newsletter included comprehensive healthcare, job security, and equal pay for equal work. The Part-time Instructional and Research Staff Union (PTU), although never formally approved as a collective bargaining agent, consisted of a group of graduate students and part-time faculty who felt that it was impossible to improve the working conditions of adjunct faculty without breaking away from the PSC and forming their own union. They filed a PERB request for representation in 1986 that would ultimately fail.
Contributor
Professional Staff Congress
Creator
Part-time Instructional and Research Staff Union
Date
August 1986
Language
English
Rights
Obtained from Contributor - Copyright Unknown
Source
The Tamiment Institute Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Original Format
Newspaper / Magazine / Journal
Part-time Instructional and Research Staff Union. Letter. “PTU View.”, CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE, accessed March 10, 2026, https://stephenz.tailc22a4b.ts.net/s/cdha/item/1421