------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 10, 2004 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
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.
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