Employee parking policies spur tensions at Stony Brook University

When Katherine Markarian first started working at Stony Brook University Hospital 40 years ago, she parked in a free gravel pit a quick walk from campus. But that lot doesn't exist anymore, and the current free option is too far from the hospital, she said.

That leaves her with the choice of using a paid parking lot that's closer or applying to park in one of the university's crowded garages. She's decided instead to bike three miles to work to avoid the cost and the hassle — when weather permits.

When it's bad, the instructional support tech and Setauket resident said she drives and leaves her car in the free lot about 15 minutes across campus.

“When the parking fees got too much for me, I stopped paying,” said Markarian, 66.

She is one of many unionized employees at the university, including faculty, hospital and hotel staff, who argue that having to pay their employer to park is unfair. Hospital employees, many of whom are clinical or support staff, are particularly miffed at their options — three garages undergoing renovations at the same time and far-flung parking lots that make it more challenging for them to get from their cars to their jobs on time.  

The university maintains that its parking fees, less than $20 monthly,  have not gone up in many years and that while the employer has proposed more than doubling the rate, nothing has been set in stone.

But when new parking policies were enacted last month requiring all workers to re-register their vehicles in a new management system, three major unions representing Stony Brook workers were incensed and organized a rally on April 9 to voice their concerns. The new policy also stipulates that employees who miss payments lose their parking spot after eight days and have to wait for a new one, in contrast to the previous policy, which employees said was more lenient. 

“Every day, staff and faculty, patients and visitors face the stress of navigating an overpriced and poorly communicated parking system,” said Bruce Kube, United University Professions Stony Brook chapter president during a speech at the rally. UUP represents faculty and staff throughout the SUNY system.

The rally was held outside the parking garage adjacent to the hospital, which is currently under heavy construction, as are the other two garages near the administration building and the health sciences center. 

Amy Lee Pacholk, a nurse at the hospital and a local leader with the Public Employees Federation, which represents technology, science and professional workers in New York, also spoke during the rally. She argued that the years of tension and controversy around parking boils down to a fundamental issue.

“The truth is, we shouldn’t have to pay to park,” Pacholk said.

Parking is a labor issue

Parking has been a major point of contention between the unions and the university since 2018, when Stony Brook proposed a price hike that would see monthly parking fees go up to $50 per person in response to an $11 million projected deficit by 2027. 

Stony Brook has not implemented the price hike, and officials said in a statement that “while those negotiations remain ongoing, the campus continues essential work on parking facilities and maintaining normal operations.” The university paused its plans for a price hike after outcry from unions. 

While parking "might seem like small potatoes," in the grand scheme of labor relations, it should be seen under the umbrella of work conditions that employers negotiate with unions said John August, an expert on health care and labor who serves as the director of Healthcare and Partner Programs at Cornell University's Scheinman Institute for Conflict Resolution. 

"But it's not uncommon that an employer doesn't do that, because they feel it's just an operational change," August said.

The new parking system at Stony Brook, which went into effect on April 1, requires all employees to pay a $16.24 monthly parking fee. If employees don’t pay within eight days of the due date, they lose parking privileges and are placed on a waiting list to receive a new place to park. They can also lose their parking privileges if they fail to register for the new system.

Stony Brook officials said in a statement that the changes were necessary because the old parking system was outdated and needed to be replaced.  But the new system was the straw that broke the camel’s back for the unions, according to Pacholk. However, university officials said in an email to Newsday that negotiations remain ongoing. 

Lawrence Zacarese, Stony Brook's vice president for the Enterprise Risk Management department and chief security officer, said that the university first met with each union on campus in 2023 to introduce the new parking plan, provide a financial overview and emphasized that rates hadn't gone up in more than three decades. Pacholk disputes his version of events and contends that the unions were never given the opportunity to negotiate the change in terms.

Juanita James-Allen, a licensed practical nurse and the president of Civil Service Employees Association 614, which represents state workers in various industries, including health care, said she is concerned about the more stringent policy  impacting patient care if employees lose their garage parking privileges due to missed payments or because they fail to register for the new system.

“Many [workers] have patient care, we cannot be locked out of the garage,” James-Allen said. “This is about respect. It’s about our workforce and recognition of hard work.”  

The unions also highlight what they say is another big issue with parking at Stony Brook: parking for employees is based on date of hire, with newer employees being given spots far from the hospital, sometimes in a paid lot on the opposite side of the campus. Walking to the hospital from there would take more than 30 minutes, and while a shuttle is available, employees said it sometimes runs late.

Many hospital campuses have shuttle services to get workers to and from their jobs, but there typically aren't policies in place to protect the worker consequences with their employer if the shuttle is late or hits traffic, August said. 

Carmen Marino, a custodial supervisor with 17 years of experience working at the hospital, said she often meets her staff with a sign-in sheet when they park on the lot across campus so they won’t be considered tardy by the time the shuttle drops them off.  

While the unions and employer don't seem to see eye-to-eye about how the conflict has played out so far, the tension around parking could hurt morale at the hospital — in an industry where worker morale has suffered in recent years, August said. 

“The labor-management relationship in health care is about as fraught as I’ve ever seen it since the pandemic,” said August, who said the rising cost of living and employee burnout since 2020 have affected employees mentally and emotionally.

As of Wednesday evening, Pacholk said the unions had not received a response to their complaints about the new parking system at Stony Brook.