By Frederick G Floss UUPActing President

Following six months of intense negotiations, UUP has reached a tentative agreement with the state on a new four-year contract. I thank our hard-working team of negotiators who have spent countless hours in these critical discussions. You will be seeing them soon as we visit your chapter to brief you on the contract early this semester.

I’m pleased to tell you the tentative agreement includes a competitive salary package and several benefit improvements. Specifically, salary increases are included in each year of the contract retroactive to July 2, 2007. Service awards are included for full-time and part-time members. When the Negotiations Team visited you at the chapters before we finalized our proposals, many of you told us that tuition assistance for dependents was important to you. We heard you, and I’m pleased to tell you we negotiated a new joint labor/management program that will provide tuition assistance for dependents who attend any of SUNY’s state-operated campuses.

Details on the tentative agreement are included in an eight-page newsletter we mailed to every UUP bargaining unit member in January, called “2007-2011 Tentative Contract Agreement Frequently Asked Questions.” These FAQs are also posted on the UUP Web site. By early February, you will receive a mailing from UUP containing the full text of the contract, with highlights of the many changes and enhancements in the contract. We mail this to every bargaining unit member, so they would have full information about the agreement, and so that UUP members can cast an educated ballot on the agreement. Please be on the alert for these mailings; they are being sent to your address of record.

When you receive the FAQ newsletter, you will see our Negotiations Team held the line on health insurance premiums. We were also able to maintain the co-pays for generic and second-tier drugs to the same level as in the last contract — an amazing feat in light of the ever-increasing costs of prescription drugs. These are just a few examples of what is new in this tentative agreement, and I am looking forward to discussing these with you when the Team and I come to your campus.

In addition to reviewing and ratifying our contract, UUP members must now turn their attention toward the annual state budget process.

We’ve already begun the battle. In December and early January, UUP broadcast a television ad in the Albany area promoting our academic and professional faculty as “engines of growth” for the state’s economy. The timing of the ad was designed to influence the state’s budget. And guess what? It appears that is just what happened. The governor announced in his Jan. 8 State of the State address that he supports adding 2,000 full-time faculty to SUNY and CUNY.

Although it is certainly encouraging that the state’s highest elected official is publicly supporting additional higher education faculty, we cannot afford to be complacent. The state is facing an estimated $4 billion budget deficit. That means we must be proactive and vigorously advocate for a better SUNY budget and our other legislative priorities. We can expect organizations backed by big-business interests to be working hard to force state lawmakers to cut the state budget and essential services.

I have also started to push our legislative agenda by meeting with several state leaders. However, UUP needs your help, too. We need your continued activism throughout this legislative season, beginning with our Legislative Luncheon Tuesday, Feb. 12 in The Well of the Legislative Office Building in Albany. If you would like to participate and help us advocate for our issues, please let us know. Feel free to call me or call your chapter president to volunteer.

If you’re unable to join us Feb. 12, you will still have many other opportunities to spread the UUP message. We meet with legislators each Tuesday through the end of the session.

Together, we can again stop any proposed cuts to the SUNY budget and any delays on finding state funds to pay for the added full-time faculty that SUNY sorely needs.

Let’s continue to show our elected leaders why UUP is the union that makes SUNY work, and how SUNY can help “jump start” the state’s economy.

By Frederick G. Floss, UUP Acting President ffloss@uupmail.org

First, let me wish you all the very best New Year and I hope you enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. It is this time of year that we come together as families and communities to help one another. The New Year very often also brings with it many changes.

For me, the New Year has brought new responsibilities. On Nov. 30, I accepted the Executive Board’s appointment as acting president of UUP. I am honored and humbled by the faith which the Executive Board has put in me with this appointment. After having Bill Scheuerman as president for the last 14 years, I realize it may take a little while to get used to seeing someone else taking the lead on behalf of all of you.

Let me review the next steps in the process for this transition, to give you a better understanding of what will be happening at UUP.

A special election for UUP president will occur during the Winter Delegate Assembly in February, to fill the unexpired term that ends May 31, 2009. The election procedures will be the same as those used during regular elections for officers during a Spring Delegate Assembly. Additional elections may be necessary to fill other open positions depending on the outcome of the election for president.

Elections for both statewide vice presidents, the treasurer and a number of Executive Board seats will be held during the Spring Delegate Assembly.

As the election process works itself out, a number of other issues important to our members and SUNY are in play.

Gov. Spitzer’s Commission on Higher Education has delivered its preliminary report. UUP issued a strong response to the governor and the commission, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of their recommendations. The preliminary report is important because it will influence the governor’s Executive Budget proposal. UUP responded to the recommendations immediately to make sure the governor knows our concerns before he finalizes his Executive Budget proposal.

Another major priority for our members is our contract negotiations. The pace of our talks picked up in December, and as The Voice went to press, our Negotiations Team reached a tentative four-year contract agreement with the state that includes a competitive salary package and other significant gains (see related story, page 13). However, our work doesn’t stop. The Team and I will visit every chapter in the state to ensure all UUP members have an opportunity to discuss the tentative agreement and to answer any questions you may have. When a new contract is ratified by UUP members, we will work to both implement and enforce the agreement.

Last, but certainly not least, we are gearing up for our annual legislative advocacy activities. The Executive Board approved UUP’s 2008 Legislative Agenda, details of which are presented later in the magazine.

This year, the union’s legislative and budget priorities are ambitious. They call for the protection of our SUNY hospitals from privatization; a substantial increase in the ranks of our full-time academic and professional faculty; and protections for our part-time faculty.

The New Year brings both many challenges and opportunities. Working in solidarity, we will achieve our goals for members. I hope 2008 is a year of accomplishment for all of us.

Again, best wishes.

I leave UUP to assume the presidency of the National Labor College with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I’m excited about the role I’ll play in helping to revitalize the American labor movement. The National Labor College is a key institution in providing organized labor with the tools it needs for the 21st century. I look forward to this challenge.

On the other, working with the UUP these last 20 years has meant more to me than I can ever say. I was proud to serve as chief negotiator, then vice president, and I’ve loved every minute of my presidency at UUP.

I met so many kind and dedicated people, and I don’t have to tell you all the things we’ve accomplished together over the years. You’ve read about them in The Voice. Today, UUP is known nationally and internationally as the most effective higher education union on the planet. I thank you all for the many contributions you made for UUP and SUNY. You’ll always be in my heart.

It’s been a wonderful experience, but the time has come to move on and to pass the torch to the next generation. With that in mind, I’ll give the rest of this space to the always insightful Lizzy. I’m sure you all remember Lizzy!

Thanks again.

Bill

Hi! I’m nine now but, as you know, I’ve worked with Bill since I was in diapers. During that time, I learned a whole lot about unions. Now that Bill is leaving, I want to tell some of the things I’ve learned.

First, as Bill always says, unions are all about collective action. Collective action works. I learned about collective action is school. Wagon trains and barn raisings are collective actions that helped build America. But that happened a long time ago. Unions taught me that helping each other is still part of the American experience. Just look at the many victories UUP’s collective actions have achieved over the years. Your union saved tenure, protected the hospitals, negotiated good contracts, got pension equity and also got some real good budgets for SUNY. The days of barn raisings and wagon trains are over, but the union marches on.

Second, I learned that unions operate on the belief that “a rising tide lifts all ships.” Unions made the middle class and it’s no coincidence that the income gap between the richest Americans and everybody else just keeps getting bigger the more union numbers shrink. Fortunately, SUNY employees have UUP. UUP lifts its members, then its members lift their communities, their communities lift their regions and the state. And when UUP does well, SUNY does well, and all the students who go to SUNY benefit. Bill can give you numbers. I don’t know the numbers so I’ll just say this instead: I hope to be one of those students pretty soon. Thanks for thinking of me, UUP.

Third, I also learned that unions are special organizations. They’re created and funded by the membership and they’re recognized and protected by law. That’s why unions are only beholden to the membership. This means they can become whatever the members want them to be. The union is the clay and its members are the potters. It’s up to us to shape that clay and make it work for all of us. That requires work and responsibility, which leads me to my last lesson.

Finally, unions exist — first and foremost — to serve their members. The members are the reason unions exist and leaders should never forget that fact! That’s why union leaders have a sacred obligation to aggressively represent the members’ interests. If the leaders don’t do that, the members should choose other leaders. But union members also have a sacred obligation as citizens of the union. They need to tell leaders what they want and if members don’t always agree on exactly what it is they want, they need to step up to talk about it in an open forum. It’s not always easy to do this, but that’s the price of democracy. And, as I learned, without democracy there is no real union.

I’ll close here. Just remember, don’t mourn, organize! I’ll miss you all.

Solidarity forever.

Lizzy

The mission of the State University of New York is to provide high-quality, affordable, accessible higher education for all of New York’s citizens. Through the years, SUNY did a pretty good job in recruiting a diverse student body.

To cite one example, when faculty and administrators at SUNY’s College of Agriculture and Technology at Morrisville confronted declining enrollment numbers a few years ago, they decided to recruit more students from urban centers across New York state in order to maintain enrollment. The result is that now nearly 40 percent of Morrisville’s students are people of color, and the campus has attracted attention because of its proactive recruitment policies. And this year, SUNY has launched a systematic plan to recruit and engage historically underrepresented students and faculty on all campuses.

Why is this important? First, historically underrepresented students constitute a large and growing pool of potential SUNY applicants. Higher education analysts project that the population of Hispanic and other underrepresented students eligible to participate in public higher education will increase sharply over the next decade. By the year 2015, census and other data suggests that the majority of New York high school graduates will be from groups that have been historically underrepresented in SUNY.

Second, these demographic shifts, coupled with the need for an increasingly competitive workforce in New York, present public higher education policymakers with a challenge: to reduce educational inequities faced by underrepresented students while simultaneously maintaining the highest educational standards.

New York’s situation is not unique in regard to filling the higher education needs of Hispanics and others from historically underrepresented groups. As a recent report from the Pew Hispanic Center entitled “Recent Changes in the Entry of Hispanic and White Youth Into College” reminds us, a significant achievement gap exists nationwide for Hispanic students in mathematics, reading skills and science in comparison with their Anglo counterparts. On a more fundamental level, data presented in the report also shows a significant and growing gap between the rate of Hispanics and Anglo enrollment in four-year degree-granting institutions. In New York, the enrollment gap grew by 6 percentage points from 1996 to 2001 (from 9 to 15 percentage points). In 2001, there was a Hispanic enrollment gap in four-year degree-granting institutions in California (16 percent), Arizona (24 percent), New Jersey (11 percent), Florida (14 percent) and Texas (17 percent).

Fortunately, there are many people in the SUNY community dedicated to solving this problem. Last year, UUP joined then-SUNY Chancellor John Ryan, and legislative leaders such as Assembly Majority Leader Ron Canestrari and Assemblyman Peter Rivera, chair of the Assembly’s Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force, in formulating a systemwide diversity initiative at SUNY. Those discussions bore fruit: Last spring, SUNY created and funded the Office for Diversity and Educational Equity, under the leadership of Vice Provost Pedro Caban.

The goal of our diversity initiative was to restore the Empire State to its role as a national leader in seeking creative solutions to the needs of low-income, first-generation college students and English language learners. The new Office for Diversity and Educational Equity holds great promise to meet those students’ needs. We also anticipate that the high dropout rates for historically underrepresented, economically disadvantaged New Yorkers will also require an expanded outreach to adult learners in our information-based economy. Now that the diversity office is in place, the University is well positioned to nurture a more diverse group of SUNY faculty and students, who in turn will become the core of a highly qualified workforce that will ensure that New York state can successfully compete in an increasingly complex global economy.

Score another victory for UUP! Score two! And we’re going for three! 

I want you to know your union works hard for you every day. And we get results. Just look at what we’ve accomplished over the last few months.

First, Gov. Spitzer’s budget for SUNY included the legislative add-ons from the previous years. With additional legislative add-ons, SUNY received an increase of about $160 million for the current fiscal year. This is certainly a major step in the right direction. We thank legislative leaders and the governor for their commitment to UUP and SUNY.

Second, UUP played the instrumental role in getting pension equity for our members. The Legislature passed the ORP pension equity bill and, better yet, the governor signed the bill into law. This means that thousands of UUPers will receive a raise in take-home pay of 3 percent over the next three years. It took several years, but UUPers now have pension equity! This was an amazing victory. Most states and private companies are attacking employee pensions. In the recent New York gubernatorial campaign, one candidate even proposed doing away with pensions for public employees. We were swimming against the current of popular ideology on this issue, but miraculously we won. Our thanks go to legislative leaders in both houses and to the governor.

Third, the Berger Commission tried to remove Upstate Medical University (UMU) from SUNY. To prevent this, UUP filed a lawsuit and supplemented our legal work with a series of meetings with leaders in the governor’s office. The plan to privatize UMU was one of the toughest challenges UUP faced during my tenure as president. I have to admit, for a while things looked grim, but our legal case and our ability to work with the governor’s people eventually worked. UMU and Crouse Hospital in Syracuse reached an affiliation agreement and it appears that UMU is safe again. This was another major victory for UUP and SUNY.

And we have even more reason to be optimistic about SUNY’s future. As part of his commitment to make New York’s system of higher education the best in the country, the governor created a Commission on Higher Education.

In his Executive Order establishing the commission, Gov. Spitzer asks the right questions, ranging from how well our elementary and secondary systems prepare students for college to how well our public universities are prepared to educate them.

I have the privilege of serving on the commission as the sole representative of the higher education labor movement. I view my job as keeping the commission focused on the issues important to SUNY and CUNY. When we talk about academic quality, for instance, I’m trying to move the discussion to include faculty/student ratios. We all know that faculty/student ratios are a problem at SUNY. Here are the numbers: the ratio of full-time faculty to students is about 22-1. When you compare this to the state-run statutory

colleges at Cornell — where the ratio is about 6-1 — you see the issue more clearly. Sadly, CUNY’s full-time faculty to student ratio is even worse. The good news is that the commission is providing a forum to discuss the faculty shortage at SUNY and to make the argument for more full-time positions.

The commission will deal with myriad other important issues, including capital needs, governance issues, financial aid and tuition. A few words on the tuition and financial aid issues are in order.

UUP does not take a position on tuition. Nevertheless, it is crystal clear that SUNY needs a predictable and consistent source of funding. The policy in place now of keeping tuition flat for years and then introducing large tuition hikes is harmful to students and the University. Yet, before we buy into any so-called rational tuition policy linking tuition to some consumer index, we need to make sure the state will not offset any tuition hikes by cutting state assistance. In the past, this practice has led students to pay more and get less.

Financial aid has the potential to create major issues for the state’s public universities. Historically, there is an inverse relationship between increases in TAP and aid to the public universities. In other words, the privates get the lion’s share of TAP increases, and SUNY and CUNY tend to pay for them by losing state aid.

In any case, we’re coming off a great summer for SUNY. With the support of the leaders of both houses and the governor, we hope to do even better in the future.

I thank you all for your good work in our mutual quest.

Another Labor Day has come and gone and it is apparent that unions are losing their grip on the holiday. Sure, you’ll find an occasional parade or picnic celebrating organized labor’s glorious history, but Labor Day 2007 looked a little different from those of just two or three decades ago. The number of parades and picnics has dwindled, as has the number of celebrants. That’s because the labor movement has taken it on the chin. Unions are no longer needed, the conventional wisdom goes, and labor’s demise is just reward for its interference with the marketplace. In this view, it’s not a bad thing that only about 7 percent of private sector workers are in unions.

There are many reasons for the decline of organized labor. The near monopolistic practices of organized heavy industries, such as steel and auto, to name two of the most obvious, made foreign imports more attractive than American-made goods. Follow-the-leader pricing, planned scarcity and the unwillingness of the corporate sector to disrupt controlled markets by updating production facilities contributed to the decline of heavy industry in the U.S. The last few decades, hundreds of thousands of union workers in heavy industry lost their jobs to foreign producers that rely on modern technology, just-in-time production practices, and the “subsidy” of national health insurance. Worse, the intractability of U.S. corporations is only likely to exacerbate the problem. Consider, for example, gas prices at $3 a gallon, but American car makers are still betting their future on the sale of SUV-style crossovers and bragging about cars that get 28 miles per gallon. Is it any wonder that Toyota is outstripping General Motors in the American market?

The other side of the monopolistic practices of American corporations is globalization, a phenomenon that has just about finished the job of killing manufacturing in the United States, and with it hundreds of thousands of good union jobs.

Justified on the premise that market forces are most efficient, globalization is ultimately about cheap exploited labor. Should you ever go into your local anti-union Wal-Mart – hopefully you won’t do that – you might think about the conditions under which the goods you buy were produced. Chances are they were made by a young person overseas, perhaps even a child, who works long hours under unsafe and unsanitary conditions for less than a subsistence wage. Think about the working conditions of many Wal-Mart workers right here in your own home town — minimum wage, no benefits, working off the clock. Then, there’s the issue of Wal-Mart’s forcing local shops out of business and taking your local dollars back to corporate headquarters, leaving behind a trail of abandoned and boarded up shops on Main Street.

The attack on labor works in large part because unions are losing the war of ideas. The neo-conservative emphasis on the sanctity of the market as the driving force behind U.S. economic policy has become the conventional wisdom of our time. But no one asks what the market looks like. The free market is supposed to consist of thousands and thousands of enterprises with easy access to the market as conditions dictate. That’s why it’s absurd to talk about the corporate sector in terms of a free market.

Not long ago there were only seven large oil companies. With additional mergers, the industry is now down to the five sisters of oil! Market theory holds that competition will reduce costs and lower prices. But this all assumes a competitive marketplace. In the old days, people like Teddy Roosevelt used government’s power to break up monopolies. Not any more. Corporate monopolies — protected by the myth of the marketplace — lead the race to the bottom by breaking unions; imposing low wages; eroding job security, health benefits and pensions; and by battling any government effort to make them provide health and safety protections to the labor force.

So now that the Labor Day celebrations are over, what do we do?

It’s time for labor to take the offensive in the war of ideas by exposing the reality behind the ideology of the marketplace in our corporate-dominated society. Organized labor has think tanks across the country; thousands of local unions have newspapers, magazines, Web sites and other means of communicating with members. It’s essential for labor to coordinate the diverse activities of these dispersed media so that we speak with a single clear voice. But that’s not enough. We need to discuss and debate alternatives to the marketplace. The labor movement must provide a national forum to discuss progressive ideas, and to analyze alternatives to the neo-conservative marketplace rhetoric accepted by both political parties. If we don’t act soon, Labor Day will simply become an annual wake for labor’s glorious past.