Month: April 2016

UUP supports the hundreds of nontenured faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who staged a two-day work stoppage to protest the University’s refusal to negotiate on key provisions of a labor contract.

On April 19, members of the Nontenure-Track Faculty Coalition Local 6546 (AFT/IFT/AAUP) walked out of their classrooms and labs in a move to help spur stalled contract negotiations. The local has been bargaining for a new contract for the past 18 months.

“UUP is in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in Illinois,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “They deserve a fair contract and we stand strong and united with them in their quest.”

UUP agrees with AFT President Randi Weingarten, who said that UIUC’s situation mirrors what’s happening on campuses nationwide.

“Across the country, universities are increasingly relying on contingent faculty, but these dedicated educators aren’t being treated fairly,” said Weingarten. “That’s why educators are coming together to demand fairness.

“At UIUC, non-tenured faculty teach nearly 40 percent of all undergraduate courses, yet they have no guarantee of stable employment year-to-year, no vote on department governance and no evaluations to help them measure or improve their teaching. They want UIUC to remain a place where students receive a high-quality public higher education, but that will only happen with a fair contract.”

The union is asking for improved employment security, opportunities for promotion and professional support, and academic freedom protections for non-tenure-track faculty members. Most of the union’s members have temporary, nine-month contracts and many have been ‘temporary’ faculty for over 20 years.

The Nontenure-Track Faculty Coalition represents approximately 500 full-time teaching, research, and clinical faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Every year on April 28, the unions of the AFL-CIO observe Workers Memorial Day to remember those who have suffered and died on the job, and to renew our efforts for safe workplaces.

This year, the struggle continues to create good jobs in this country that are safe and healthy, and to ensure the freedom of workers to form unions and collectively bargain for fair wages and a better future. It’s time for our country to fulfill the promise of safe jobs for all.

If you want to get involved, Workers Memorial Day materials can be ordered from the AFL-CIO Safety and Health Department at (202)637-5366, by fax at (202)508-6978, via email at oshmail@aflcio.org or online at AFLCIO.com.

Unsafe conditions threaten us all

Four decades ago, Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, promising every worker the right to a safe job. Unions and our allies have fought hard to make that promise a reality, but our work is not done.

Many job hazards are unregulated and uncontrolled, and some employers cut corners and violate the law. As a result, each year thousands of workers are killed and millions more are injured or diseased because of their jobs.

We must fight back against efforts to limit or eliminate safety and health protections. And we must succeed—workers’ lives are at stake.

Dear Colleagues,

UUP President Fred Kowal underscores the critical role SUNY’s hospitals play in caring for the sickest and most vulnerable patients, their significant economic impact and the urgent need for the state to provide the funding they require in a commentary airing on WAMC.

Fred’s taped commentary is scheduled to air at around 12:50 p.m. today during “Midday Magazine.” You can listen as it airs at http://wamc.org/player#stream/wamc

This is the latest in a series of commentaries Fred has taped for WAMC.

WAMC is a regional public radio network based in Albany that serves eastern New York and parts of six adjacent states. Stations and frequencies that carry WAMC are below:

New York
Albany – WAMC 90.3 FM
Albany – WAMC 1400 AM
Beacon – 103.9 FM
Brewster – WANR 88.5 FM
Canajoharie – WCAN 93.3 FM
Cooperstown – 97.3 FM
Dover Plains – 106.3 FM
Ellenville – 96.5 FM
Highland – 102.1 FM
Hudson – 97.1 FM
Kingston – WAMK 90.9 FM
Lake Placid – 88.7 FM
Middletown – 106.3 FM
Middletown – WOSR 91.7 FM
Mt. Kisco – WWES 88.9 FM
Newburgh – 107.7 FM
Oneonta – 99.3 FM, 90.1 FM
Plattsburgh – WCEL 91.9 FM
Remsen-Utica – WRUN 90.3 FM
Rensselaer-Troy – 93.1 FM
Stamford – WANZ 90.1 FM
Ticonderoga – WANC 103.9 FM
Warwick – 107.1 FM
Massachusetts
Great Barrington – WAMQ 105.1 FM
Pennsylvania
Milford – 90.9 FM

Don Feldstein
UUP Communications

Click here to read UUP President Fred Kowal’s media statement about UUP supporting striking Verizon workers

Chanting “Who’s the pig? Verizon’s the pig!” and “Union busting is disgusting,” a group of UUP and NYSUT members and staff joined over 200 striking Verizon workers and union supporters in an April 15 strike march in front of a Verizon Wireless store just up the street from UUP headquarters.

And a small group of Empire State College members marched with more than 100 Verizon workers on a picket line on April 16 in Queensbury, Warren County.

Statewide VP for Academics Jamie Dangler, above in red beret, led the UUP contingent, which picketed in front of a Verizon Wireless store in Latham, Albany County; Empire State College Chapter President Pamela Malone walked in Queensbury.

Union sisters and brothers from UUP and NYSUT joined the Verizon picket lines to show their support for more than 39,000 striking Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers employees across New York and the East Coast.

The CWA/District 1 and IBEW/Local 2222 workers have been without a contract since August 2015. Verizon workers went on strike April 13.

“Despite making $18 billion in profits in the last 18 months and top executives raking in $249 million over the last five years, Verizon is still insisting on slashing job security, health care and retirement security, and refuses to engage in serious bargaining toward a fair contract,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “This is not fair to their workers and our sisters and brothers in labor.”

“As the son of a 50-year member of the IBEW, I can empathize with these workers, who are fighting for their families and their futures,” he said in an April 13 media statement.

Albany Chapter UUP member Ross Mealey, above, a 15-year member of CWA and a Verizon employee, said he’s disheartened that Verizon won’t bargain in good faith.

“Verizon makes so much money—they basically have a license to print money—and to not give regular, middle-class union people a good contract is just disgusting,” he said.

Malone, above, holding a UUP sign that read “Fair contract for Verizon Workers,” said she took part in the action because labor has to stick together.

“We have a company that posts billions and billions of dollars in profits every year, and instead of doing what’s right, they’re going after the rank-and-file and trying to take away their earned benefits and that is just not fair,” she said.

UUP members plan to join picket lines outside other Verizon Wireless stores, including an April 16 protest in Queensbury.

UUP members, like Secretary Eileen Landy, above, made their voices heard at NYSUT’s 44th Representative Assembly in Rochester, April 8-9, as they spoke out for public colleges and universities, spoke up for collaboration with their K-12 sisters and brothers, and cheered Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s vision of an equitable, adequately funded public education system accessible to all.

Clinton’s speech touched on several issues vitally important to UUP, including the decline in enrollment at New York’s teacher education programs, and college student debt. UUP plans to continue advocating for two of its initiatives that would address those issues, including a proposal to recruit and retain talented teacher candidates.

I would have a national campaign to elevate and modernize education, including recruiting and attracting talented, diverse candidates into teaching, and a student debt forgiveness program that really works,” Clinton, above, told the cheering assembly.

Clinton, UUP in sync

UUP President Fred Kowal, above, speaking to the RA delegation, told members during UUP’s RA breakfast that much work remains to be done in the post-budget season, both in Albany and in home districts, and Clinton’s remarks on public education reflected the union’s sense of urgency.

Elsewhere through the two-day statewide policy-making convention, UUP members spoke up at resolution committee meetings and on the floor of the full assembly before 2,000 fellow NYSUT unionists.

Two of the three resolutions sponsored or co-sponsored by UUP passed the full assembly, one of which would encourage collaboration between K-12 and higher education members of NYSUT, and the other of which would encourage the state and federal governments to take a compassionate and humane approach to the resettlement of African and Middle Eastern refugees.

Kowal asked the body to refer the third UUP-sponsored resolution to the NYSUT Board of Directors for further discussion; that resolution encouraged the creation of a single-payer health care system.

A handful of statewide officers and Executive Board members were all in at the AFT Joint PSRP and Higher Education Conference, and were motivated to unite, inspire and lead at the annual NEA Higher Education Conference.

The conferences took place April 1-3 in Las Vegas and San Diego, respectively.

UUP Secretary Eileen Landy, below, left, was a panelist in separate NEA workshops on moving from membership to activism, and on the privatization and corporatization of public higher education. VP for Professionals Philippe Abraham flew 330 miles from the NEA conference to lead an AFT workshop on strengthening the link between teachers and professional employees.

AFT is “All In”

The joint conference—which brought together higher ed academic and professional faculty, and K-12 paraprofessionals and school-related personnel—included programs and strategies to activate and motivate members working in public schools, colleges, universities and hospitals around the country.

“We are together in the values we share, in our fight for fair and just workplaces, and a living wage; and we fight together for racial equity and justice,” noted UUP President Fred Kowal in a welcome letter to conference-goers. “A strong union is the only way we can build our power to achieve our shared goals.”

Unionists—including UUP Membership Development Officer Tom Hoey and Executive Board member Jeri O’Bryan-Losee, shown at top with Abraham, center—honed their skills and shared success stories in workshops ranging from campus safety and sexual assault, to student debt and school discipline, to multicultural and multiethnic education, and the contingent labor force.

“This was my first AFT conference and first nationally attended union event,” said O’Bryan-Losee of SUNY Cobleskill. “It was interesting to know what’s going on politically in other states, especially those classified as ‘right-to-work.’ Hearing real stories about what (public employees) are going through was truly eye opening and gave me a renewed dedication to do everything I can to not let that happen in New York.”

NEA: “Unite. Inspire. Lead.”

Executive Board member Anne Wiegard of SUNY Cortland came back from the NEA conference with the same renewed commitment to work for a stronger, more activated UUP.

“My experience lived up to the conference theme: Unite. Inspire. Lead,” she said. “It was a time to ‘Unite’ with sisters and brothers from colleges and universities all over the country, by understanding our common problems and aligning our goals and strategies. … I was ‘Inspired’ by the dedication and innovations of embattled leaders in states like Florida, where the law allows workers to entirely opt out of unions (and) the conference renewed my commitment to help ‘Lead’ our union through the challenging months ahead, as we seek to build 100 percent membership and activism.”

Watch for the online issue of The Echo later this month for more conference coverage, including remarks from AFT President Randi Weingarten and NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia.

Colleagues,

Late yesterday (or, more accurately, early today….more or less) the Governor and Legislature reached agreement on a budget for the next fiscal year. Once again, for our members and university, it’s a mixed bag. We’ve achieved some successes, but also not gotten nearly enough of what we need. Adding all new money in the budget, close to $60 million has been added to the SUNY budget, not including capital funding.

First and foremost, the legislature refused to pass another round of SUNY 2020, instead freezing tuition for one year. As you know, we opposed another round of tuition increases without a strong commitment to Maintenance of Effort language and funding. There is no maintenance of effort language in the budget, something that we will take up the fight on again in next year’s budget — something the Governor referenced in his press conference.

Second, regarding spending, the budget contains $18 million in general funding which is NOT linked to a performance based funding mechanism. We were able to beat that back. However, the process for spending the funds will be determined by the trustees, opening the door to the use of such a mechanism. We will fight that possibility, and argue for its use to address long standing needs of the university such as adjunct salaries and additional full time faculty and staff.  Also in the area of funding, the budget once again significantly increases funding for EOP and EOC, with $5.3 million going to the former and $5 million to the latter. Additionally, $2 million has been added for the ATTAIN labs. Finally, we have $10 million going to Green Energy Programs at the Tech Campuses — an idea which started with UUP late last year.

Third, we were able to convince the legislature to reinstate the $18 million that had been cut in the governor’s budget for the SUNY hospital subsidy. Also, we fought off another attempt to create a private equity intrusion into SUNY Downstate. Both of these victories, however, are just the first part of a battle that will continue for the foreseeable future to defend our hospitals. Storm clouds are gathering.

Fourth, we were also able to protect our retirees. Proposals to raise the costs for medicare recipients and to penalize those retiring with less than 30 years of state service were both defeated by the legislature. Once again, these dangerous proposals could not stand the pressure brought to bear by a strong coalition of groups.

Finally, there are other areas of the budget agreement that we are still studying to ascertain their impacts on us. A prime example is the family leave provisions. We will keep you posted on further elements of the budget agreement as they are examined.

I want to personally thank all of you who took part in our advocacy efforts going back to last December when we rolled out our proposals. The work we all did has paid off, though much remains to be done. We are finalizing schedules for in-district advocacy and we will keep you informed. We also have a packed post-budget agenda for advocacy, including the various proposals pertaining to teacher education and the health sciences centers.

Once again, let’s focus on organizing our members — getting them signed up and even more importantly, getting them actively engaged! The more of us there are, the more power we can exert.

In solidarity,
Fred