RY Adjunct Alert

Vol3,No.4 — . March/April 2000 >.
Produced by CUNY Adjuncts Unite! P.O. Box 254 NY, - 10009 212/780-2155
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NOW IS THE TIME FOR UNION MEMBERS TO .0.........0.sces000e voTrE BUT
A GLITCH THREATENS ADJUNCT VOTING ELIGIBILITY >

BALLOTS SHOULD BE SENT TO YOUR HOME APRIL 3 ; THEY ARE DUE BACK APRIL 24 °

You may have voted recently in college PSC chapter elections, but they are not to be confused with
these general officer elections, which take place every three years. You may vote for the entire slate of
either the New Caucus or the CUUC/Unity Caucus, or vote for individual candidates of either caucus.
These are important choices—the leadership negotiates our contract with city, state, and CUNY
central administration, handles grievances, administers the union’s seven million dollar budget, and
represents us in Albany. .

Union members in good standing for at least four months prior to the mailing of ballots on
April 3 are eligible to vote for CUNY-wide general officers of the PSC union, and delegates and
alternates to the New York State United Teachers and American Federation of Teachers conventions.
To be included in the count, ballots must be returned in the sealed envelope by 10 a.m. on April 24.
The February 2000 issue of the Clarion contained the notice of nominations and election procedures
and stated that any member who does not receive a ballot by April 14 should call the American
Arbitration Association at (212) 484 3220 for a duplicate ballot. CAU! says call by April 8.

BUT ithe first adjunct paychecks of this semester were delayed for hundreds of adjuncts at
Baruch, Hunter, NY Tech and other schools. One consequence (see below***) of not being paid is that
union dues are not deducted, and Diana Rosato, PSC Coordinator of Membership Services, doesn’t
know whether these individuals are still working and thus eligible to vote. She has sent letters out to
try and verify membership and will continue to do so, based on subsequent payrolls. Look on your
check stub, lower left hand corner. If you know you sent in your yellow card, it should say “PROF
STF C-U with the amount ($7.69 for adjuncts). If it doesn’t, CALL MS. ROSATO 354-5230 (be nice
to her—it’s not her fault). CALL THE CAU! HOTLINE 212 780-2155 so we can help. _

ee ff you know your JSN, you’re in. According to ‘city laws, in order for union dues to be
deducted, there has to be an exact match of social security number with title, college, and the Job
Sequence # on the union card authorizing dues deduction. The JSN number (from | to 9) can be found
on your pay stub in a little box on the Electronic Fund Transfer Info line. Since this number is
necessary for Community College payrolls., it seems inattentive of the PSC not to have highlighted
this information for us!

NO BUTS, IFS OR MAYBES. If you joined the union before December 3,

1999, and informed the PSC of any changes in your college or title, you are entitled to a ballot and
vote in this election. If you joined after December 3 you are entitled to vote in future elections and on
the contract that is about to be renegotiated (the current contract expires July,2000). Every two weeks
a list of new joins is submitted, but deductions don’t show up till the following pay check.

WHAT DO ADJUNCTS WANT? Join the discussion about adjunct demands for the next
contract regarding salaries, job security, working conditions. There are 7,000+ of us—let’s work

together. Come to the CAU MEETING—FRIDAY 3 P.M. May 5™ 25 West 43 St. 19™ floor

*** WHAT THE ADJUNCT PAY DELAY REALLY AMOUNTS TO

Many reasons have been given by CUNY Management and the union for the delay of the first
paychecks of the semester. The primary one is that Department Chairs are late in sending in the
Personnel Action Forms verifying adjunct employees to the college payroll offices. Therefore, they
miss the state and city payroll deadlines. When this delay occurs, the amount of the first check is
spread over the remaining checks (versus being paid in full along with the second check), thus
amounting to adjuncts loaning their money to the University (with no interest payments!). As one
adjunct wag put it: “Congratulations, you have been made a banker by the City University of New
York. (And you thought you were just a teacher and a scholar!) I'm both proud and ashamed of you
for loaning money, interest free, to our City and State: proud of your kind donation in these booming
times, ashamed that you haven't received better recognition.” Supposedly, the PSC and Chancellor’s
office are working to clear up this all-too-frequent problern, but it’s happened several times before, so
we hope this is the last “hold-up.” By the way, isn’t it illegal to withhold salaries?


we

CAUL REPORT CARD ON’ THE SLATES ASD CANDIDATES
CAU! is anindet cout group, committed to representing the point of vie . Seg We are not affiliated with shack : ie
caucus.-The following assessment is based on our perspective as adjuncts, a perspective we intend to. continue no matter

__S#ibich slate wins. Adjuncts are concerned with pay, job security, retirement hd health benefits. We want respect for the ~~ =. ~~.
“work we do and have done ; we want inclusion in . union, in our departmests and in faculty governance.

CUUC/Unity Slate)

We mustn’t let the adjunct tail wag the
dog.” “Adjuncting is not a profession” are two
of PSC President Richard Boris’ recent

remarks, along with a “cordial” letter from the

Unity Slate about the “adjunct question,” which
states: “Unity Caucus stands opposed to an
agency fee for adjuncts.” What this means is
that Unity opposes using the mechanism of
automatic agency fee deduction that it uses for
full-timers. This might result in more adjuncts
1) knowing there is a union, and 2) joining it.
Consistent with this position, Unity has
blocked recruiting of adjuncts, even when
1,200 faculty union members (most of them
full-timers) signed a petition requesting a
referendum on this issue. They have refused to
release union authorization cards for adjuncts
until pressured by the New Caucus.

Arnold Cantor, candidate for VP for
Part-timers held the post of Executive Director
from 1972-95, when he retired with a specially
crafted six-figure retirement package. During
his tenure he negotiated a contract clause which

specifically forbade PSC chapter chairs from

recruiting members during union time.
Unity has provided one Vice President
and no other officer for 7,000 adjuncts. For

years, Susan Prager, the VP and Grievance

Officer for adjuncts, routinely discouraged
adjuncts from filing grievances. Health
insurance options were recently reduced, and
reimbursement plans curtailed

CUUC now says “the adjunct salary
schedule needs to include paid office hours and
improved benefits,” yet during their 26-year
tenure, they have not achieved this for the
7,000 adjuncts who comprise 60% of the
faculty and teach 60% of the courses.

CUNY ADJUNCTS UNITE! CAMPUS CONTACTS
(communicate to build community)

Baruch Sylvia Rackow 212-410-2455
BMCC Shirley Rausher 212-721-0099
Bronx CC Ingrid Hughes 212-254-0635
Brooklyn Vinny Tirelli 212-642-2143

«= CONY. Rob Wallace 212-650-8608
CSI Libby Garland 718-875-0005
Hostos Anna Lopez - 212-427-3874
Hunter Mark Halling 718-596-0654
Hunter Soc. Susanna Jones 718-243-0660 |
John Jay Michael Seitz 212-229-9180
Kingsborough CC Jerry Karol 718-330-0916
La Guardia Cynthia Wiseman 212-663-8055
Lehman Kyle Cuordileone 212-491-2653
Medgar Evers . David Hatchett 718 862-9735
NYC Tech. Wendy Scribner 212-982-0097
Queens Kristen Lawler 718-997-2827
Queensborough Howard Pflanzer 212-496-7452
York — MikeVozick

212-874-7650

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_ VS.

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The New Caucus

The New Caucus position is that

providing pay parity for adjuncts with” fuil- -

timers at the same rank is the only way to
pressure the university to increase full-time
lines. Adjunct lecturers must receive the same
pay per course, including pay for office hours,
as full-time lecturers, and so on up’ the ranks.
At current starting pay, parity for adjunct
lecturers would amount to $3333 for a 3-credit
course. The New Caucus helped adjuncts
recruit 300 new members into the union this
past fall. .

New Caucus is committed to building a
democratic union where transparency rather
than secrecy marks the leadership’s approach
to negotiations, and participation and broad
discussion is solicited. Barbara Bowen, the
candidate for president, has: 20 years
experience working in, and writing about the
labor movement (in addition to being a
Renaissance scholar) and has revitalized the
chapter at Queens.

Eric Marshall, candidate for VP for
Part-timers is a graduate student adjunct in the
English Department at Queens. As an elected
member to the Delegate Assembly and the
University Faculty Senate, he has brought forth
many resolutions on behalf of adjuncts, and
written about our predicament in higher ed. He
is a founding member of CAU! and COCAL
(The Coalition of Contingent Academic
Labor), a former editor of the Alert and leader
in the Doctoral Student Council.

Ingrid Hughes, another adjunct on the
NC Slete, for Community College Officer, is a
poet, editor of the Alert, and staunch activist
for adjuncts in CAU!. She currently teaches at
BMCC and the City College Center for Worker
Education; she has also adjuncted at Bronx CC,
Baruch, and LaGuardia.

READ THE MAY ISSUE OF THE ALERT
to find out what happened at City College
when the new Dean of Humanities mandated
that the English Department Chair observe all
adjuncts, regardless of length of service. Since

- the contract says that after 10 semesters, only a

Department Chair can initiate such an action,

and the adjuncts and chair were
disagreement with this policy, — the
ombudsperson was called in.

in |