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Legislature committees approve and recommend execution of SUNY Orange faculty contract
Summary
Joint Personnel & Compensation and Labor Relations committees approved a negotiated five-year contract between Orange County Community College and its Faculty Association, including multi-year salary increases and changes to adjunct sick‑time and class caps; the committees voted to forward the contract for execution.
Committee members in a joint Personnel & Compensation and Labor Relations session on March 17 approved a proposed contract between Orange County Community College and the Faculty Association and recommended executing the agreement.
County and college representatives briefed committee members that the parties negotiated a five‑year agreement with annual salary increases of 4%, 4%, 3%, 3% and 4% (averaging an annual wage increase of roughly 3.6% over the contract term). The county representative said approximately 85% of the college budget is salaries and benefits, and the parties weighed multiple benchmarks in negotiation, including comparators such as the CSEA contract.
Key negotiated changes include a higher adjunct health insurance buyout for eligible employees raised to $2,400 annually, an increase in the total accumulated sick‑leave days counted for retirees (an increase of 10 days in each category), and a change in class caps for distance education from 20 to 25 students. The parties also updated contract language governing retrenchment (layoff) procedures. Presenters said the monetary aspects of the deal were resolved relatively quickly, and that the more time-consuming negotiations covered contract language and operational details.
Professor Tony Cruz, president of the Faculty Association, and Russell Hammonds, the union’s lead negotiator, attended and described the process as collaborative. County representatives said they met more than a dozen times during negotiations and considered member concerns; the college’s negotiators said they would now present the agreement to faculty membership as required by their internal procedures.
The joint committees voted to approve the contract and recommended execution. Committee members congratulated negotiators and asked that the college and union continue communication around implementation details.
