[Education\PSC-CUNY Contract]
Mayor de Blasio: “Ensuring educators are well-supported is crucial to student success.”
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday, Mayor Bill de Blasio released the following statement regarding the CUNY Board’s vote to approve the PSC-CUNY contract.
“I commend the CUNY board for voting to approve the historic agreement between the City University of New York and the Professional Staff Congress, raising wages for over 30,000 employees in our public university system.
“Ensuring educators are well-supported is crucial to student success. With more New York City public school students entering college than ever before, we need strong public colleges and universities to be ready to lead them into the future.
“I’m proud to have been part of these negotiations and that the City is investing millions to strengthen CUNY Community Colleges’ standing as a leader for all students as they move on to higher education.“
According to PSC President Barbara Bowen, the contract was approved “With an 86 percent vote in favor and the union’s highest-ever voter turnout on ratification.” Bowen noted that “Of a total of 21,416 eligible voters, 15,976 votes were cast, a participation rate of 75 percent. 13,660 members, or 86 percent, voted “yes”; 2,316 voted “no.”
Bowen pointed out that although the contract was approved there are still other outstanding issues to be resolved with CUNY.
“Ratification does not mean that this contract resolves every labor issue PSC members face at CUNY or that it alone can fix CUNY’s austerity budget,” said Bowen. “And it certainly doesn’t mean that the union will stop organizing and fighting…Starting Monday, the PSC leadership and staff will concentrate on pushing CUNY management to pay our increased salaries and back pay as soon as possible. We will also begin to work on implementation of many of the other new provisions in the agreement, such as paid family leave and the anti-bullying campaign. ”
