Strike at Nassau Community College delayed for inaugural

The new president of Nassau Community College was scheduled to be inaugurated Friday as temporary labor peace was expected on the East Garden City campus.

A threatened strike Friday by part-time teachers will be put off temporarily, in part because of the bad weather, but also to allow for a pleasant inaugural of Donald Astrab as fifth president, the Adjunct Faculty Association said.

"I was already considering postponing the strike because of the weather," union president Charles Loiacono said, adding he did not want to put Astrab "in the position of crossing a picket line. He's too good a person to do that to."

Loiacono said that historically the union has had a firm no-contract, no-work posture, but said he would ask his members to waive that provision.

At a meeting Wednesday night, the school formally offered a new five-year contract with a wage freeze in the first two years and annual raises of 1 percent in the final three years, Loiacono and college labor lawyer John Gross confirmed.

Loiacono said he would submit that offer to members at a meeting scheduled for last evening. He is seeking pay parity with full-time teachers, which would amount to annual raises of about 10 percent over five years.

The part-time teachers are paid a sliding scale based on education level and the number of credit hours they teach. Someone with a master's degree and 30 additional credits, for example, would be paid $5,250 for teaching a three-credit course for one semester, according to Gross.

The union said in a letter to its 3,000 members last month that they should be prepared for a long strike, and that it would be effective. The college said any job action would violate the state Taylor Law and result in penalties.