| January 6, 2006
Dear Colleagues,
Many of you receive unsolicited
email messages from “The Patriot Returns.”
The latest patriot-spam, Vol. 28,
No 1, begins by getting the year wrong. Sharad Karkhanis
reports the new year as 2005. Using his own distorted logic,
one might suppose Karkhanis is trying to trick us into thinking
the year has not changed. Of course, drawing such a conclusion
would be ridiculous, just as his conclusions about the PSC
leadership and “basic facts” concerning PSC membership are
ridiculous.
After I corrected the
misinformation about PSC membership numbers circulated by
Karkhanis in one of his patriot-spam missives (Vol 27, # 2),
Karkhanis has again resorted to his usual infantile and
ridiculing style of argumentation in his latest communication.
In the process, he demonstrates yet again that he doesn’t
understand what he is talking about.
In my December 20, 2005 response
to Karkhanis’ questioning of PSC leadership’s use of membership
numbers, I pointed out that, in 2005, those the PSC represented
(faculty, professional staff and retirees) fluctuated from a
near low of 17,897 (before the start of the fall semester) to a
near high of 22,090 (in December). CUNY’s Office of Faculty and
Staff Relations puts the number of active instructional staff at
21,611 in Fall 2004 (Report available on the CUNY website).
Approximately 700 of these are excluded from the PSC bargaining
unit. Given that membership numbers are always a snapshot of a
changing field and given the above range, I said 20,000 seemed
like a “fair characterization” of those represented by the PSC.
I stand by that conclusion.
Karkhanis tries to save face, in
usual fashion, by attempting to discredit me. First, he is
dishonest when he deliberately misquoted me, claiming I said the
“‘accurate’ total...is 22,090.” In fact, I said the 22,090
number was a “snapshot.” Having misquoted me, Karkhanis then
tries to cast doubt on the 22,090 number by saying I was “citing
a non-public database.” The database I cited was the PSC
membership database that is derived from New York City and New
York State payroll tapes and processed for the PSC by New York
State United Teachers. Payroll data is public information and
Karkhanis is free to do a Freedom of Information Request of the
City and State if he wants to check to see if NYSUT has
accurately processed and reported PSC bargaining unit
membership.
Next, Karkhanis displays his
profound ignorance of CUNY’s workforce when he asks, “Now, for
anyone who believes that the PSC membership has increased by a
total of 4,193(!) in the last few months, we have a
bridge in Brooklyn we’d like to sell you.” (emphasis in the
original) There are now approximately 7,500 teaching adjuncts
who are hired on a semester basis, an additional 1,000 to 1,500
Continuing Education Teachers hired as hourly employees on a
part-time basis, and approximately 1,100 non-teaching adjuncts
hired part-time. In fact, anyone who has a rudimentary
understanding of how the University operates would expect to
find large increases in teaching and non-teaching adjuncts from
pre- to mid-semester.
Apparently, Karkhanis is prepared
to say anything in his long-time attempt to discredit PSC
leadership. All he does, though, is to show himself to be
unprofessional and unconcerned about the real issues confronting
CUNY and the PSC.
Karkhanis claims to speak
knowledgeably about the University as he disagrees with the PSC
leadership. He is free to disagree with PSC leadership, but he
does no service to the union or to the university community by
disseminating misinformation, engaging in dishonest
characterizations, broadcasting baseless rumors, and engaging in
ad hominem attacks.
Please keep this in mind if you
choose to open and read the next patriot-spam.
Steve London
PSC First Vice President
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