August 2005
Dear UCE Member,
Welcome back! The officers and I are happy to report that we have reached a tentative contract agreement with the college. The agreement will be finalized after ratification by our membership, the FIT Board of Trustees and the City of New York.
On September 15 from 1-2pm in the Alcove (A Building 8^th floor) we will be holding a general membership meeting to review the details of the settlement. As many of you know, the working conditions that we have enjoyed were under attack for virtually every group of employees. We are happy to report that we were able to retain our existing work week, teaching load, vacation, free, sick, and optional days for our members.
The financial settlement dictated by the New York City Office of Labor Relations followed the pattern set by DC 37. We will receive a one time thousand dollar bonus (pro-rated for all part time employees) for the first year of our contract and a three per cent raise for the second year which will be retroactive. In addition we have negotiated a new longevity step to be added to every staff and classroom assistant salary schedule.
Adjunct faculty will also have a longevity step added to their schedules. We expect to expedite the ratification process so that we may receive our retroactive payments and our new salaries by mid to late November. We will be mailing to each member complete details of the agreement and we will also have this information available at the general membership meeting.
The contract that we have just settled expired in June 2005. Under the New York State Taylor Law this expired contract will remain in effect until we have a successor agreement. In the next few months we will be meeting with all of you to prepare our proposals for our next round of bargaining which we hope to begin before the end of the Fall semester.
While reaching an agreement on our contract is certainly welcomed news, we must also remember that three of our members are awaiting tenure hearings. The college chose to suspend these individuals without pay and it has been nearly three months since this action was taken. While the administration had a legal right to do this, under the FIT Tenure Law, we regret that the college chose to leave our colleagues without salary prior to any board decision on their tenure charges. We continue to keep close watch on these cases, maintain contact with our affected members, and want to assure the membership that due process is being followed according to the NYS statute on tenure. In addition, our state affiliate, NYSUT, has provided counsel to those individuals who did not wish to provide their own lawyers.
The Officers and I would like to thank our members for your patience and support during these negotiations. You are terrific! Despite all the adversity we have faced you all continued to go above and beyond your responsibilities to make FIT a great place to learn and to work. We also want to remind everyone that our struggles are not over. This semester brings changes in nearly every administrative position in the college. We all need to remember that we are the constant, loyal workforce that continues to build this college into a premiere institution.
We look forward to seeing all of you at the general membership meeting. Stay strong.
In solidarity,
Juliette J. Romano
President
	Spencer Schein	Philip Milio
	Executive Vice President	Second Vice President for Faculty
	Janice Johnson Mitchell	Chenise Marine
	Treasurer	Second Vice President for Staff
	Linda Tain	Isolina Perez
	Vice President for Contract Management & Grievances	Membership Director
	Roberta Elins	Judy Wood
	Vice President for Faculty	Assistant Treasurer
	Maria Zervos	Ellen Goldstein Lynch
	Vice President for Staff	Assistant Secretary
	Rena Sussman-Silverman
	Vice President for Adjunct Affairs