First elected in 2000, the New Caucus slates have consistently won the lead officer positions and the 27-member Executive Council. HEO and CLT cross-campus leadership and most campus-based chapter Executive Committees have prevailed in elections as New Caucus (or New Caucus supported) slates.
In the face of two economic crises (post-911 and the Depression of 2008-09), New Caucus leaders mobilized membership and built strategic alliances to fight against austerity politics, and in so doing accomplished the following:
December 2017 – February 2023
We won salary increases totaling 10.41% retroactive to October 2018 for all titles except teaching adjuncts, who received wage increases averaging 45% over the duration of the contract. For CUNY’s lowest-paid instructors, Adjunct Lecturers, we won a minimum wage per-course increase of 71%. Equity raises were also secured for CLT’s, Lecturers, Assistant to HEO’s, and CLIP and CUNY Start instructors.
We won intellectual property protections for faculty engaged in stipended work, and the first provisions for faculty engaged in online education at CUNY, including classroom observation protocols.
We won two PSC seats on CUNY’s educational technology committee, and commitments to launch a joint campaign against bullying and to develop a paid family leave program for which all faculty and staff are eligible.
For Graduate Employees, we won full tuition remission for years 6 and 7, and for HEOs eligible for the salary differential negotiated in the previous contract we dedicated half a million dollars to facilitate the provision’s implementation.
We negotiated a 100% increase in CUNY funding for faculty travel and per-capita Welfare Fund contribution increases of $35 per full-timer and $25 per part-timer.
We won $3,000/year Research Foundation accounts for every academic Department Chair at CUNY.
October 2010 – November 2017
In the latest bargaining period, we won salary increases totaling 10.41% for all titles beginning April 2017, fully retroactive to April 2012. We won State and City agreement on funding for adjunct health insurance, in effect since 2014. We negotiated an increase in funding for the Welfare Fund which allowed for enhanced vision, hearing and dental benefits. We have a commitment from CUNY to reduce the teaching load for full-time faculty by three hours, before the end of the next negotiation round. We’ve won three-year appointments for adjuncts with consistent teaching in a single department, and gained accrued sick days for adjuncts on multiyear appointments.
For HEOs, we have won changes in the reclassification guidelines and opportunities for HEOs on the top salary step, in all but the highest title, to apply for an additional $2,500 in base salary.
We eliminated the one-year waiting period for graduate employees to qualify for adjunct health insurance. We won a major gain in annual leave equity for full-time faculty librarians, and annualized salaries, health insurance, and accrued sick leave for CLIP and CUNY Start instructors.
We started pilot programs to seek to expedite grievance and discipline procedures. We refused any concessions to CUNY management demands for unlimited annual appointments of non-tenure-track full-time faculty. And we won agreements to start pilot programs for a limited number of new positions with higher overscale salaries and new full-time positions for current adjuncts.
September 2007 – October 2010
We stood firm against demands for concessions on basic issues such as salary steps, department chairs, and performance pay, while winning salary increases of 10.5% for all titles by October 2009. We won agreement to additional increases on the top step, so that in a little over a year, full-time top step title compensation will increase by 13.8%, and by 16.7% for top-step adjunct titles. We won the establishment of a paid parental leave fund, a sick leave bank, and 3 days’ leave for care of an ill family member. We improved adjunct eligibility for several contract provisions.
Lecturer steps increased an additional $1,000 in the third year; CLTs and Assistants to HEOs become eligible for a pay differential for their Master’s or Ph.D. Members have been given the right by CUNY to use the college’s email system for union communications. A limited number of Clinical Professors, a new title, are created.
Outside the agreement other accords were reached which created 100 new full-time positions for experienced adjuncts, gave doctoral employees health insurance, and agreed to continue negotiations through the Municipal Labor Committee to transfer adjuncts from the Welfare Fund to the New York City health care plan.
November 2002 – September 2007
In our previous contract negotiations, we won salary increases which averaged 9.5%, along with a 20% increase in CUNY’s annual contributions to the Welfare Fund. We won sabbaticals compensated at 80% pay, and 24 hours’ reassigned time for future untenured faculty. We won professional development grants for adjuncts, and increased professional development grants for HEOs and CLTs. We won a hundred new, full-time positions for experienced CUNY adjuncts, along with improvements in professional leaves for library faculty, in annual leave for counseling faculty, and in paid sick days for non-teaching adjuncts and adjunct CLTs. At City Tech, we won a reduction in the teaching load to 24 hours. We won a three-day change in the academic calendar. All this while we made no concessions to management on their demands for concessions on department chairs, on starting salaries, on grievance protections, and on job security for HEOs.
2000 – 2002
We won above-inflation wage increases for all titles and equity adjustments for the lowest-paid full-time titles. We also won improved office/professional hours for thousands of adjuncts, more research time for new junior faculty, established a professional development fund for HEOs and CLTs, new workload committees for HEOs, and made improvements to the promotion procedures committee for all CLTs.
We won a reduction of the teaching load toward equity at City Tech and College of Staten Island. Adjuncts won one-year appointments, we won matching funds for PhD students from CUNY to help support the free tuition benefit, and full pay was given to summer department chairs. There was a general regulation of overscale pay. Retirees were granted permanent library privileges, which facilitates their research, which often continues whether or not they are still teaching at CUNY.
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