UNITED FOR EQUALITY

PSC RF-CUNY Central Office Issue 4 March 14, 2013

Contract Negotiations Update

At the negotiations on March 12, 2013,the federal mediator observed bargaining for the first time and shuttled back and forth between the caucuses. Management continuously said they were not willing to move further on most of the existing outstanding items. In fact, management hasn’t moved on wages for several months. Management spent most of the negotiation session pontificating on dress code and “process” without talking about wages and other economic issues. Each time the union brought up wages and economics, management started talking about dress code.

The union acknowledged management’s movement to allow the use of two weeks of sick leave for paid parental leave and countered with four weeks. Although management has made movement on a few issues—the opportunity to use up to five days of sick leave for family members, flex time language and a thirty year longevity increment—they have dug in their heels on wages, health insurance and drastic cuts to benefits and compensation for new hires.

Management continuously says that it is “inappropriate” to bring up managers’ salaries at the union bargaining table. Look at senior management’s salaries, and see why management doesn’t want to talk about top managers’ salaries when they are only offering union memberssalary increases of 1.5% in 2013 (with no retroactivity), 1.5% in 2014 and 1.75% in 2015. On health insurance, they are demanding 21% premium sharing for three years in the EPO and any other default plan offered in the future; for the PPO and POS plan, their proposal is 21% in 2013, 22% in 2014 and 23% in 2015. These premium increases would eat up most of the salary increase for many of our members, particularly those at the lower end of the pay scale with family coverage.

Name / Title / 2009 Reportable compen-sation / 2010 Reportable compensation / % increase
Rothbard, Richard / President / $215,140 / $254,880 / 18%
Steele, Jerry Ford / Chief Operating Officer / $185,619 / $204,253 / 10%
McGrath, Catherine / Chief Legal Officer / $174,981 / $188,693 / 8%
Kalaydijian, Edward / Chief Financial Officer / $174,465 / $188,525 / 8%
Olszewski, Jacek / Chief Information Officer / $169,110 / $183,355 / 8%

* Data is from Part VII of the Form 990s for 2009 and 2010.

The next negotiation session is on March 27, 2013, 4pm at the RF. We hope you can participate even if it’s only for 30 minutes or when you get off work. Please sign up with your Department Representative.