July 27, 2023

Nothing that a union does for its members is more important than negotiating a great contract, and UUP members at the Stony Brook and Stony Brook HSC chapters underscored that maxim July 24-25 by turning out some 600 strong to learn about UUP’s tentative contract with the state.

At Stony Brook University July 24, members filled a ballroom to standing-room-only capacity for a presentation by UUP President Fred Kowal. At Stony Brook HSC July 25, members, some of them in scrubs and surgical caps, packed a large lecture hall at lunchtime to get details on the tentative agreement from Chief Negotiator Bret Benjamin. UUP also held an early morning session at Stony Brook HSC to accommodate members working overnight shifts.

And more than 200 members at both campuses logged on to follow the presentations virtually. Members at the three sessions listened intently, took notes, asked detailed questions—and applauded as some of the best parts of the deal were explained.

Kowal noted their strong interest.

“It shows your commitment to our union,” he told his audience July 24. “We want our members—all of us—to be clear about what the contract provides so you can be an informed voter.”

A rich contract for all

The Stony Brook presentations were part of a statewide tour of UUP chapters made in recent weeks by Kowal, Benjamin, Counsel to the President Elizabeth Hough and members of the UUP Negotiations Team, to ensure that members understand the tentative deal before they vote on it. An electronic ratification vote is scheduled between Aug. 10 and Aug. 24.

The tentative contract is rich in financial gains to help UUP’s lowest-paid members throughout the state, as well as working parents and the hospital faculty and staff who risked their lives during the coronavirus pandemic. In short, the tentative contract offers benefits that UUP has been trying to achieve for years. It includes paid parental leave, a lump sum $3,000 bonus for all members (pro-rated for part-time employees); living-wage increases for the lowest-paid members; across-the-board on-base salary increases, retention awards on base for full-time members, targeted money for hospital workers and significant increases in per-course payments for contingent faculty.

Kowal called the total of financial gains for members throughout the union “transformative increases.”

For detailed information about the tentative contract, go to UUP’s Members Only portal on the UUP website, HERE. Only UUP members may enter the portal and vote on the contract.

Members appreciate new agreement

At both presentations, members praised UUP’s effort on their behalf, often in spontaneous comments from the audience.

“I want to thank you for this,” one member called out to Kowal. “This is a really great contract. I’ve been here a long time and seen a lot of contracts.”

“I’ve been with SUNY for 25 years,” another member told Kowal. “This is the best contract I’ve ever seen.”

Added a third member, “I’m proud of this union.”

At Stony Brook HSC, Benjamin led the presentation, with Hough contributing details to members’ questions. Before the session, Stony Brook University Hospital workers talked about how their lives and careers were upended by the pandemic in 2020. As parts of the hospital closed during the state emergency, members who worked in departments that normally would never have required them to work in acute care were reassigned to the emergency department, surrounded by critically ill and dying patients.

The Negotiations Team, which includes members from the hospitals, carried that into talks with the state. Medical residents and fellows at SUNY’s three public teaching hospitals are getting pay raises. UUP-represented employees at the hospitals will see beneficial changes in the way the state handles holiday work and increases in on-call pay. UUP fended off the state’s desire to eliminate permanency for all direct patient care workers. And UUP-represented employees at Stony Brook HSC and Downstate Health Sciences University will receive location stipends that recognize the high cost of living in the New York City metro area.

For new parents, a huge help

Members at the two Stony Brook chapters expressed their appreciation for a new Paid Parental Leave program in the tentative contract as they grasped what some of the proposed gains will mean for them.

“We get those 12 weeks with pay? Wow!,” one woman said as Benjamin explained the Paid Parental Leave benefit. Under Paid Parental Leave, members can take 12 weeks of leave at full pay for birth, adoption or foster placement, taken anytime within the first seven months that the child is in the home.

It gets better: If the contract is ratified, UUP members will be able to use Paid Family Leave (with partial pay for up to 12 weeks through a benefit gained in the last contract) and then take up to 12 weeks of fully paid Parental Leave, for a potential 24 weeks of leave with partial or full pay. And if both parents work for SUNY as UUP-represented employees, they can string their respective leaves together end-to-end for a potential 48 weeks of parental leave.

“This seems like a spectacular job you’ve done,” one member said on his way out the door at the end of the HSC presentation. “I just want to give you credit.”

Benjamin urged those who attended to help spread the word.

“Sometimes, you go into bargaining and change a few things, and that’s good,” he told members. “This time, we changed a lot of things. Send your colleagues an email. Tell them to vote for the contract.”

For more information on the contract, click HERE to go to UUP’s Members Only portal.