After two years without a contract, the Professional Staff Congress CUNY (PSC-CUNY) was able to ratify a new contract on Jan. 14th with a 90% majority vote.
The PSC is a coalition representing CUNY staff and faculty through advocacy for improved working conditions. The ratification of the contract symbolizes a victory for PSC members following a turbulent period of organizing, with over 30 PSC members arrested in October 2024 during a union protest for a fair contract outside of a CUNY Board of Trustees public hearing. The members were taken into custody after their refusal to unblock John Jay College’s 10th Avenue entrance unless they received an offer that guaranteed a contract with worker raises.
The new contract will take effect retroactively from March 1st, 2023, and will run until Nov. 30th, 2027. PSC members will receive retroactive pay in the coming months, which constitutes two of the previous raises as the last contract expired Feb. 28th, 2023. Additional economic gains include ratification bonuses, equity pay, as well as salary increases for adjunct and graduate assistants, according to the PSC Memorandum of Agreement.
Erica Doran, professor in the Queens College Psychology department and the co-chair of the QC PSC Chapter, mentioned the retroactive pay as being impacted by the length of negotiations:
“The longer the negotiations dragged on, the more time that money — our money — was kept from us. It not only impacts our salaries, but also our retirement savings and our tax liability (these lump payments of the retroactive pay and the ratification bonuses are taxed at a higher rate),” Doran told The Knight News.
Members’ rights and benefits for over 30,000 PSC-represented faculty and staff will also be expanded in the new contract. These benefits include but are not limited to the extension of the paid parental leave program from 8 weeks to 12, the addition of a Health and Safety labor committee for every CUNY college and $4 million additional yearly contributions towards the PSC-CUNY welfare fund, according to the PSC Memorandum. Other advancements include college discovery and Search for Education, Elevation, and Knowledge (SEEK) directors joining the PSC bargaining unit. In terms of worker equity, the new contract will allow adjuncts who teach large classes to receive workload credit on the same level with full-time faculty members.
Karen Weingarten, a professor in QC’s English department and the former chair for the QC PSC Chapter, told The Knight News:
“I was a voting member in January 2025, and I voted for the contract. I’ll be receiving a raise as well as a $3,000 signing bonus as a full-time CUNY employee. I voted for the contract because it was an achievement given the economic climate in the city and state; while I would have liked to get higher raises, these are the raises I was expecting given that they matched what other city unions recently won.”
PSC members that voted against the contract had grievances such as across-the-board raises not keeping up with inflation and a lack of adjunct and remote job security provisions, according to Left Voice.
In terms of inflation, the PSC Memorandum of Agreement acknowledges that rises for the lowest-paid colleagues exceed public-sector trends and outperform inflation from equity raises. However, members who only receive across-the-board raises will not exceed the post-COVID-19 2021 inflation rates.
Karen Sullivan, a professor in the QC department of European Languages and Literatures, and the co-chair of the QC chapter of the PSC, told The Knight News that the contract, “Is an achievement since it helps CUNY in terms of worker fairness. However, it does not go far enough in guaranteeing the full staffing that would greatly improve students’ learning experience at CUNY colleges. The full-time faculty to student ratio at QC is still shamefully high. CUNY relies far too heavily on adjunct instructors who barely earn a living wage and some areas (advising, Registrar’s office, IT) are woefully understaffed.”
When asked if President Donald Trump’s administration’s earlier freeze of federal funds and projected reductions for higher education institutions could delay the contract’s execution, Sullivan said:
“No. CUNY management and New York State have agreed to fund the new contract, and they are required to do so. However, CUNY occasionally attempts to muddy the waters by blaming academics and staff for management failures. Students should know that their professors support them in their struggle for a better CUNY.”
Although the PSC has negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that will last until 2027, the issue remains: what more has to be done to improve workers’ conditions and get increased funding for CUNY to achieve satisfaction from all PSC members?
