Attendance: 20+ present in the room, 11 on zoom, representation across multiple titles: graduate workers, HEOs, faculty (library and instructional), post-docs 

 

Issues and concerns expressed

• Science students are paid through three source, and the funding through their professors/advisors sometimes gets decreased when the teaching pay goes up
• Delayed pay, relying on good will of the advisor to get paperwork done – penalties for speaking up
• Getting stipends into the contrac
• exclusion of tuition-only fellows who are ⅓ of doctoral students – funding for all 
• Bargaining for the common good 
• No lines created to replace retiring GC faculty – workload problem for those who remain and impact on students 
• Fulltimer faculty expressed that their priority is adjunct pay over salary steps 
• MA students working as RAs outside of the union, with no protections, not professionalized, e.g. Stone Center 
• More money has to be demanded for all titles, all titles have experienced a decline in pay in real $ because of inflation in the last 20 years 
• NYSHP for all students 

 

Breakout group 1 (pay)

• Pay raises 
• Delay in payment, including for international students – caused by lack of staffing in Central 
• Why should individuals faculty have power over pay? Science fellow pay should go through the GC 
• GC is 2nd least well paid in NY when compared to other schools in the city; “academic sweatshop”
• Funding equity for grad workers 
• $53000 as minimal compensation
• Faculty grants should be required to use NTA rates 

 

Conversation about bargaining processes

• A range of concerns about the bargaining process
  • Survey as an inadequate tool for building power 
  • Act on the strike readiness resolution passed last year and build power against management
  • Members attending bargaining sessions
• Direct ask of the two bargaining team members present, Lynne and Luke, for 
  • sharing the time and location of sessions with the chapter 
  • CUNY administration’s demands
  • Minutes from sessions

→ Lynne and Luke respond that they cannot promises this but assure members that “those topics have been brought forward” 

• Follow up ask by members to be given a rationale by the bargaining team for such decisions and not to infantilize members 
• Bargaining team cannot win a good contract without all of us and ur students 
• Call to include BLM demands, CUNY 4Abortion demands, Free CUNY demands
• Why should we trust the process will be more democratic? Hard to motivated for contract when it hasn’t been. 

 

Organizing plans

• Work with DGC and USS, including sharing lists and join events