In a year when New York University has eliminated more than 150 union positions, as well as many "front-line" management jobs, it's just not right that top NYU administrators should pull in whopping pay increases.
That inequity galvanized the Union of Clerical, Administrative & Technical Staff (UCATS) leadership team to protest those raises and pay packages by distributing informational leaflets as students arrived on campus with their parents for the fall semester.
Tops on the list of the UCATS complaints: NYU President John Sexton's 2009 compensation of $1.37 million, an increase of more than 8 percent from the previous year.
"This is a local getting important information about the financial condition of the employer out to the public, when the employer is getting out a very different story, and an incorrect story at that," said Stephen Rechner, the UCATS president and a NYSUT Board member.
UCATS members received a 3 percent raise this year, preparatory to negotiating a new contract next October. Front-line managers and faculty received 1.5 percent raises — hard-won increases that pale next to the over-the-top packages for top NYU officers.