ICP Leaflet: City University of New York Teachers Negotiations

On October 21, the Professional Staff Congress announced that the union has formed a contract proposal with the City University of New York. They stated, and the pro-contract faction repeated, that the proposal represents a “historic” victory for the union and its members, and listed all its supposed benefits. These statements were calculated to deceive the rank and file. The truth is that the proposed contract, if ratified by a vote of the membership, will only maintain and legitimize the exploitation of the vast majority of CUNY workers.

Others have already outlined the proposal’s failures, but a few of them are worth repeating. The proposal does little to address the poverty wages paid to adjunct instructors, nor the precarious conditions of their employment. The increase in adjunct pay from $3,222 to $5,500 per course comes with the requirement of one office hour per course each week, to be spent in university facilities under the university’s watch. Additionally, the increase in pay will not go into effect until Fall 2022, three years from now, meaning that inflation will have reduced its real value significantly. Other salaried workers will see a 2% annual increase in their pay, applied retroactively from 2017 to 2022, for an overall increase of 10.41%. It does not take much consideration to see that a 2% raise is only 0.3% above the national rate of inflation, meaning that in real terms overall salaries by 2022 will only be 1.62% above those in 2017. Considering that rents in New York City have increased by over 5% in the past year alone, this cannot truthfully be called a raise.

This is the “historic” contract trumpeted by the PSC leadership: a marginal increase on poverty wages for adjuncts with more supervision and much higher demands, and stagnant wages for everyone else. This, as college buildings crumble, classes get larger or get cancelled, and students suffer through tuition hikes. How can the union leadership call it a victory?

The International Communist Party observed decades ago that “the indispensable instruments for opposing the mobilization of the exploited masses are the trade unions officially recognized by the State”. We call these regime unions. The PSC as it currently stands serves exactly this function. The leadership who betray adjunct lecturers are themselves adjuncts to the power of the bourgeoisie, expressed through the capitalist State.

The main enemy of the working class remains the bourgeoisie, and most of the blame for our situation lies with the university administration, the mayor, the governor, and the financiers who support them. However, the PSC leadership’s collaboration with these exploiters, and their deception and secrecy throughout the entire bargaining process, has done everything to help the administration’s cause. Now they attempt to sell the membership on a contract that delivers almost nothing. They have oriented themselves against the working class, attempted to sabotage its organic activity, and now promote a surrender to the bourgeois State.

CUNY Afterwords

The PSC Delegates Assembly (DA) on November 7 was an utterly shameful spectacle. The objective was clear: jam the contract through as quickly as possible, and woe to the opposition. Woe, also, to the members of the union who chose to attend the DA. Members were relegated to the back of the room, to be scolded like children by the pro-contract faction, the so-called New Caucus around union president Barbara Bowen. There was no opportunity for them to address the DA. One member who politely requested to do so was voted down by a huge majority.

The most odious element of this nonsense was the intimidation of the members present by the pro-contract faction, aided by the security at the hotel in which the DA took place. The situation was this: two members opposed to the contract repeatedly heckled the union president. For their sins, all members present were surrounded by about three security guards from the hotel and about three pro-contract delegates. These sentries kept watch over the membership for the rest of the meeting.

Is this what dues-paying members of a trade union deserve: to be relegated to the back of the room, prevented from speaking to the body, and intimidated by some New Caucus loyalists and three hired thugs? The heckling certainly got out of hand, but its cause was desperation: one heckler said he was an overworked adjunct, basically broke, with no health insurance. It was also a symptom of the membership being prevented from speaking to the DA before this critical vote. It did not warrant the collective intimidation of all members present – and, without question, it was intimidation.

Predictably, the contract proposal passed the DA by a vast majority, accompanied by jeers from the pro-contract delegates towards the rank and file. CUNY workers can expect more of this kind of treatment under the contract recommended by the ruling clique. The bullying exercised by the leadership last night is a twin to the abuse adjuncts will suffer under the productivity increases included in this contract. A no vote will be the first step in putting the present leadership in their place. The vote will not be the end of this struggle, however. Whatever the result, the rank and file must organize and act on their own accord, outside and against the opportunists who have shown their true colors in the present contract campaign.