CUNY staff union contract ratified after yearslong struggle

The Professional Staff Congress rallying at Manhattan’s Baruch College in 2017. Eagle file photo by Jonathan Sperling

By Victoria Merlino

CUNY’s 30,000-member staff union has ratified its contract after a lengthy contract negotiation with university officials, solidifying higher wages for both tenured faculty and adjunct professors.  

Members of the union, called the Professional Staff Congress, will see salary increases across the board, as well as minimum pay for a three-credit course increasing to $5,500 by the end of the contract term, up from the current amount of $3,222.

“The 2017-2023 contract prioritized equity and is testament to the unity of our membership. Everyone gains when the salary floor for the lowest-paid is lifted,” said PSC President Barbara Bowen, a Queens College professor. “After years of campaigning, the PSC has won a major increase in adjunct pay. But we will not stop fighting for our members, our students, and a fully funded CUNY.”

Adjunct pay was a contentious issue throughout the contract negotiation. Adjuncts have previously told the Eagle that they have difficulty living in New York City on their current wages, and campaigned to make $7,000 per course. Throughout the spring and summer, a group of adjuncts broke with the union to demand that their be a strike if the $7,000 demand was not met. The official “$7k or Strike” movement social media accounts urged union members to vote against the contract. 

The contract was ratified with 86 percent of staff and faculty, or 13,660 members, voting “yes” and 2,316 voting "no."

“The new PSC contract reflects our equally resolute commitment to our tens of thousands of faculty and staff, whose talents and dedication are critical to CUNY’s ability to remain the nation’s premier urban public university,” CUNY Chancellor Félix Matos Rodríguez said. “I am especially proud of the groundbreaking economic and structural advances we made for our 12,000 adjunct faculty members.”