Stony Brook RA Union

Dear Research Assistants!
Now that RA Union contract with the Research Foundation has been ratified and you are drawing the benefits from it – I hope you all got your 2% salary increase this fall and a part of your university fees waived and  more – it is time to pay the dues (this year the dues are 1.5% of your salary). Every individual RA must authorize the Research Foundation to deduct the dues from their paycheck. And in case you wander if you have to do this then the answer is yes, you are obligated by the National Labor Act to pay union dues.

You can download the form here RA Union card and when  you finish filling it out, please send it to:

Betul Pamuk

Acting Business Agent

Department of Physics and Astronomy
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3800

Let’s make sure this is the first of many contracts to come.

All members of the RA Union Bargaining Committee have now officially signed the contract!

We are mailing the signed contract to the Research Foundation.  We look forward to building our organization and implementing the contract!

We are launching a campaign to mobilize RAs to “Like” our new Facebook community page.  Click on the image below to “Like” us on Facebook.

This new Facebook page is a tool to help us communicate with you, the membership, about issues that affect you.  When we post updates on this Facebook page, they will appear on your Facebook news feed and keep you in the loop.

Once you “Like” us on Facebook, ask your friends to “Like” us, too, by clicking on the icons below.

(posted 4/7/11)

Our first contract has been ratified with 78% of voters voting “yes.”  However, this is only the beginning.  We are very excited to enter into the next phase of developing out union.

Next steps with building the union:

As we solidify our organization into an even stronger force to advance our interests, we need your participation now more than ever.  Please get involved and informed by 1.) coming to our meetings and events, 2.) “Liking” us on facebook by clicking here, 3.) reading the emails we send you, and 4.) regularly checking this website.

We need to elect a Business Agent and a Chief Steward.  These are paid leadership positions.  We also need to elect Division Coordinators for all the departments that don’t have them (BME, AMS, Psychology, SoMAS, Neurobiology).  If you are interested in hearing more about any of these positions, email us at raunion@sbraunion.org.

Next steps with implementing the contract:

We will contact the Research Foundation to let them know we’ve ratified the contract.  Copies of the contract will be printed for review, and then the Research Foundation and the RAs on the RA Union Bargaining Committee have to sign it.  After that, we will figure out a date to implement the contract.  We’ll probably be implementing it in another month or two.  We’ll keep you posted.

Click here to “Like” us on facebook

Click the buttons below to spread this information.

At our last bargaining session, the Research Foundation gave us its final offer for a first union contract.  We wanted to win more, but this is a solid improvement to the status quo.  We recommend that our members vote “yes” for this 3 year contract because:

1.)  There is a guaranteed two percent raise in the first year (unless you have received a raise since last June) and there’s a chance we can get more in the third year.

2.)  The President of the Union, George Bloom, has agreed to phase in the union dues.  The first year we would contribute 1.5% in dues, the second year 1.75%, and the third year and subsequent years dues would be 2%.  Because the union represents all of us, and all of us benefit from that representation, all of us are required to contribute to the cost.

3.)  We won huge improvements to the dental insurance.  Insurance used to only cover up to $500, but now it will cover up to $1,000.  It used to not cover things like root canals, but now it will cover 75% of them.  We also won improvements to the vision plan.  We now have access to better frames and lenses.  These improvements have already gone into effect, and by voting “yes,” we will have resources to defend these improvements.

4.)  By voting yes, we will solidify our organization and thereby see more improvements in the future.

Click here to download the contract

Over the last few of months, the RA Union has built up a base of RA leaders by organizing elections for “Division Coordinators” (DCs).  A Division Coordinator is a democratically elected union representative of RAs in a department.  Our goal is to have a DC for every department at Stony Brook that has RAs, and 2 DCs for departments with more than 50 RAs.  If you are an RA from an unrepresented department, and are interested in hearing more about the position, please contact us at raunion@sbraunion.org.  To find your department’s DC, or for more information, please visit the new page on this website called “Division Coordinators.”

SUNY sprinkles extras

By JAMES M. ODATO Capitol Bureau
Published: 12:44 a.m., Monday, November 1, 2010

ALBANY — The State University of New York is paying a total of $120,000 a year in housing allowances for two New York City officials, former television journalist Garrick Utley and Mitch Leventhal, a top aide who was recruited last year by Chancellor Nancy Zimpher from her former employer.

Leventhal was hired at the University of Cincinnati during Zimpher’s tenure as president there to be vice provost for international affairs. He was paid $132,130 in Ohio. As Zimper’s vice chancellor for global affairs he is now paid $180,000 by SUNY plus $4,500 a month ($54,000 a year) for housing.

Click here to view full article on timesunion.org

Click here to download it

SUNY perks get a trim

By JAMES M. ODATO Capitol Bureau
Published: 12:46 a.m., Saturday, September 25, 2010

ALBANY — Citing a rock ‘n’ roll ballad, the State University of New York’s chancellor on Friday said she is forfeiting her $90,000 housing allowance to pay for three $30,000 raises she arranged for three top lieutenants.

“As the Rolling Stones said: You can’t always get what you want,” Nancy Zimpher told a Senate panel that called her to explain compensation and expenses that some lawmakers had said were out of step with layoffs, cutbacks and a general fiscal austerity sweeping state government.

Click here for full story

Stony Brook RAs protest SUNY board