University Employees Reach Contract Agreement

Contract negotiations between the union employees and management of Yeshiva University came to a close Wednesday afternoon, October 21, as the union membership voted resoundingly to accept the contract offer placed on the table by the University. The vote that took place at approximately 3PM in Belfer Hall ended negotiations that started in mid-September and averted any threat of a work stoppage or strike.

The union members agreed on a new collective bargaining agreement that raises their base pay by a total of ten percent over the lifetime of the agreement. The contract also includes provisions regarding many of the employees' benefits including vacation time, sick leave, and pensions.

The employees are represented by Local 1199 of the National Health and Human Service Employees Union, and have been working in good faith without a contract since the first of October. According to Berta Silva, the union representative assigned to YU, there are approximately 400 members divided between the Uptown, Midtown and Cardozo campuses who are now looking forward to a three percent wage increase effective immediately.

The thirty-seven month contract includes a three percent raise retroactively to October 1, 1998, an additional three percent raise on October 1, 1999, a two percent raise on October 1, 2000, and a final two percent raise on October 1, 2001. The contract is set to expire on October 31, 2001.

The Union voted to accept the school's "final offer" tendered in what came to be the definitive negotiation meeting on October 19, 1998. The offer was an improvement upon the previous standing offer, a thirty-six-month contract including a three percent raise on October 1, 1998, a $1800 bonus at the end of the contract's second year, and a $600 raise at the end of the third year. This offer was ultimately rejected by the union members, who desired percentage raises in base pay, rather than bonuses.

Negotiations

The bargaining began on September 17, with the first formal negotiation between the university's team of selected administrators, and the union representatives, delegates and approximately 75 employees who chose to attend. The YU team was led by Labor Counsel Gerald Bodner, YU's lead negotiator for the past 23 years. A graduate of Cornell's School of Labor and Industrial Relations and New York University's School of Law, Bodner was the focal point of employee demands and the diplomatic mouthpiece of the University.

YU fronted an impressive display of administrative firepower that included Chief of Security Donald Sommers; Director Of Public Relations David Rosen; Director of Finance Bernard Pittinsky; Director of Human Resources Phil Ress; Director of Enrollment Management John Fisher; Director of MIS and Academic Computing Arthur Meyers; Director of Supporting Services Jefferey Rosengarten; Human Resources Manager Michael Sperling, Assistant Director of Finance Harvey Spolansky; acting Vice President for Academic Affairs Sheldon Gelman; Yeshiva College Dean Norman Adler; Dean of RIETS Rabbi Zevulun Charlop; Director of Business Affairs for Cardozo Law School Matthew Levine; Assistant Director of Food Services Jacob Leiberman; and Douglas Rodgers from Facilities. Across the table from the University front sat union delegates such as painter/plasterer Rodney Hart; librarian Bernice Katz, and the Colon brothers, Freddy and Herman, of plant engineering.

The only apparent University official missing from the negotiation process was Jefferey Socol, Assistant Director of Facilities Management. One union member hypothesized that Socol was not present, "because they [YU Administration] were smart enough to hide him."

The negotiations were a drawn out and detailed process, with every facet of the contract language scrutinized repeatedly. Both sides of the table handed out propaganda in an attempt to prove the need or lack of need for appropriate raises. YU circulated a memo that purported to compare "benchmark" jobs of comparable positions at other universities in the New York Metropolitan area, with the memo concluding, "YU's rates within its 'industry' are entirely competitive and in some instances are higher than that paid elsewhere."

This did not satisfy the employees, who demanded parity with salaries at AECOM, which are in most cases significantly higher than those on the uptown campus. For example, according to the delegate's numbers, a painter of the same classification at AECOM earns nine thousand dollars more than his counterpart at the Main Campus.

The University countered by stating that AECOM is a hospital, not a university, and therefore its employees are paid accordingly at a higher wage scale.

The negotiations continued over the duration of the holiday break. As students returned to campus they were greeted by the sight of employees wearing "Contract Now!" stickers and daily demonstrations outside Belfer Hall during their lunch hours.

The decisive bargaining session was held on Monday, October 19. At the closed door meeting, both management and labor acknowledged that it was the eleventh hour, and either an agreement would be reached or a "job action"(most likely a strike) would be imminent.

The talks stretched out past three in the morning. Various workers even brought their children, who sat with their parents for the duration of the night. Dinner for the workers was purchased by a group of students, who wished to express their support for the employees and their families. Over fifty union members discussed and argued in the twelfth floor cafeteria in Belfer Hall, as union officials and delegates formed a committee and met with the University's representatives. YU's final offer was announced at close to four AM and was finally accepted in a vote by the union membership on Wednesday at three PM.