Lehman College

Executive Committee of Lehman Chapter

• Chapter Chair: David Manier (Psychology), [email protected]
• Vice Chair: Mary Phillips (Africana Studies), [email protected]
• Secretary: Ruth Wangerin (Anthropology), [email protected]
• Treasurer: Brian Morgan (Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences)
• Grievance Counselor: Ruby Phillips (Psychology), [email protected]
• Officer-at-Large: Diane Auslander (History)
• Officer-at-Large: David Hyman (English)
• Officer-at-Large: Sarah Ohmer (Latin American and Latino Studies)
• Officer-at-Large: Ruby Phillips (Psychology)
• Delegate: Ayanna Alexander-Street (Biology)
• Delegate: Diane Auslander (History)
• Delegate: Eleanor Campbell (Nursing)
• Delegate: Stuart Chen-Hayes (CLLSE)
• Delegate: Robert Farrell (Library)
• Delegate: Dana Fenton (Sociology)
• Delegate: Ruth Wangerin (Anthropology)
• Alternate Delegate: Maria Fernandez (Africana Studies and Women’s Studies)
• Alternate Delegate: Sheila Hankin (Nursing)
• Alternate Delegate: Humberto Lizardi (Psychology)
• Alternate Delegate: Mary Phillips (Africana Studies)
• Alternate Delegate: Luis Vega (Biology)
• Welfare Fund Rep: Brian Morgan (Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences)
• Welfare Fund Rep (Acting): Dana Fenton (Sociology)
• CLT Liaison: Brian Morgan (Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences)
• HEO Liaison: Takiyah Ali (Graduate Studies)
• CLT Chapter Delegate: Sharif Elhakem (Chemistry)
• HEO Chapter Delegate: Karlene Johnson (Bursar)
• HEO Chapter Delegate: Conard Mark Miller (Social Work)
• Adjunct Liaison: Ramon Belliard (Health Sciences)

Cross-Campus CLT Chapter

• Click here to access the webpage of the College Laboratory Technicians chapter.

Cross-Campus HEO Chapter

• Click here and then scroll down and click on the link for the Higher Education Officers chapter.

Spring Semester 2023 Chapter Meetings

Second Fridays, 11 am

Save these dates in your calendar now — the second Friday of each month at 11 a.m., on Zoom:

• February 10, Friday, 11 a.m. 
• March 10, Friday, 11 a.m. 
• April 14, Friday, 11 a.m. 
• May 12, Friday, 11 a.m. 

Register HERE 

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Contract Campaign Kick-off

Feb. 27, 7:30 a.m.

CUNY Central, 205 East 42 Street

RSVP Here

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Spring semester Chapter Executive Committee meetings — second Thursday of the month, Feb-May, 11am:

• Feb 9, Thur, 11am
• March 9, Thur, 11am
• April 13, Thur, 11am
• May 11, Thur, 11am

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Help Lehman Students in Need 

Started Giving Tuesday, Continues Every Day

https://secure.qgiv.com/for/lehmancollege/restriction/Lehman+College+Food+Bank

PSC members may wish to direct our contributions by using the drop-down menu and choosing “Lehman College Emergency Micro-Grants,” or “Lehman College Food Bank.”

To read the entire PSC-CUNY Bargaining Agenda, as amended and adopted by the Delegate Assembly, click here: https://psc-cuny.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PSC-Bargaining-Agenda-Approved-Feb-2-2023.pdf

The Preamble only is quoted below:

RAISES | JUSTICE | COMMUNITY
A Fair Contract for a People’s CUNY

The next PSC-CUNY contract will be historic as it is the first to register the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on our lives and work. The union will continue to address the areas of need that preexisted the pandemic and build on the advances of previous negotiations. But this contract must also address needs that the pandemic exacerbated or exposed, for PSC members and for our students.

Pandemic-era inflation has eroded the real value of our salaries, many of which were made uncompetitive by years of underinvestment in the university. For too many, work at CUNY before the pandemic was insecure and precarious; these conditions are even more clearly unacceptable today. To enhance the quality of education at CUNY, the next contract must fairly compensate and support CUNY’s workforce, expand full-time hiring and combat contingency, ensure academic integrity across modalities, and foster a safe and sustainable learning environment. To respond to enrollment declines, facilities degradation, and the attrition of faculty and staff, CUNY must rebuild itself as the university where New Yorkers want to study and academic professionals want to work. Only by organizing together, with our many titles and ranks united by this vision for CUNY and our next contract, can we make these goals a reality. Recent contract struggles in higher education, including our own, have lifted the sights of faculty and staff across the country and inspire us to build on one another’s gains.

From the onset of the pandemic, PSC members have responded consistently to the challenges.

• Health and safety have been of paramount concern to employees returning to classrooms, labs, and offices. Hundreds of union members have pressed this struggle forward. Contract negotiations are an opportunity for the university to commit to reporting on key metrics to ensure that our campus communities stay healthy and flourish. Here we must amplify the union’s budget campaign for new resources to overcome chronic disinvestment in CUNY facilities.
• Budgetary uncertainty accompanying the pandemic made CUNY workers on contingent appointments more  vulnerable. Thousands were initially non-reappointed, and although many eventually got their jobs back, the insecurity of at-will appointments persists. The contract must increase access to full-time appointments and improve job security for those in part-time positions.
• When work went remote almost overnight, our members reinvented how they did their jobs. Under duress, faculty learned to teach online and developed courses for online or hybrid delivery. This work went largely uncompensated, and the contract must address the expectation – and the desire – to serve our students in multiple modalities, while ensuring the conditions necessary for students to succeed and thrive.
• Professional staff and library faculty transitioned to working remotely and continued to meet the needs of students and colleagues. The contract must evolve to reflect the fact that much of our work can be performed partially remotely while continuing to serve our students.
• The pandemic revealed the extent to which institutional racism undermines the safety and success of many New Yorkers and prevents all of us from prospering. A faculty that more closely reflects the communities we serve will better support our students and strengthen our academic programs. Only 38% of CUNY full-time faculty identify as Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander, Indigenous American, or multi-racial, while nearly 80% of students identify as such. Collective bargaining is an arena for the union to secure management’s commitment to diversifying the faculty. Our campuses must be healthy, safe, bias-free spaces in which every student and worker can thrive.

Adjunct employees contend with many adverse effects of contingency: insufficient wages, uncertain employment, barriers to career advancement, lack of access to benefits. The PSC negotiated major raises for teaching adjuncts in the last contract. As a result, it is more expensive for CUNY to rely on adjunct labor, and this has led to full-time hires – more than 500 lines this year alone. The next contract must build upon those achievements to meet the needs of all contingent employees, for whom the impact of contingency goes well beyond wages. Critically, we will continue to move the university toward full-time appointments, thousands more of which are needed to reverse the impact of decades of disinvestment. New full-time appointments must include professorial hires; the research that professors perform is vital to the classroom and the public good. Fostering research and scholarship has been a long-standing aim of the PSC, and the union will seek to enhance support in these areas.

Our history as “The People’s University” has made CUNY widely renowned for offering access and academic quality to New Yorkers from all walks of life. Decades of neglect and disinvestment have threatened to undermine that legacy and compromise the quality of the education CUNY offers. The talented members of the PSC can no longer do more with less; for our own benefit and the benefit of our students and their families, our contract negotiations will prioritize raises, justice, and community.

.  .  .  .

Read the entire Bargaining Agenda here.

Attend the Contract Campaign Kick-off!

Feb. 27, 7:30 a.m. CUNY Central, 205 East 42 Street

https://psc-cuny.org/calendar/monday-morning-rally/

Attend a Bargaining Session!

Sign up to attend a bargaining session.

PSC Lehman chapter meeting

March 10, 2023, 11 am, on Zoom

Minutes

Attendance: 38

Facilitator (Guardian) and meditation leader: Diane Auslander

Minutes-taker: Ruth Wangerin

I. Chapter chair’s report: David Manier

Report on Labor-Management meeting of March 6. Key issue: need to have union, faculty and staff voice in the Vacancy Review Board (VRB), currently 100% management. The union position is that we reject these budget cuts.

Introduction of Ramon Belliard, the new adjunct liaison, who urged people serving in adjunct titles to contact him with any issues. [email protected], 971.504.0861.

II. Contract fight: Ruth Wangerin

Two fronts – convince government officials to increase funding, build union power vis a vis management.

Link to memo from Hector Batista announcing hiring freeze and calling for budget cuts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U5dgZ1Kp-uIoSbgtAo-pldb9t8AJPDwo4nZ1Ygpebis/edit?usp=sharing

III. May Day Protest March and Teach-in: Stuart Chen-Hayes

IV. Anti-racism campaign on campus: Luis Vega

Summary of various plans and initiatives  so far. Importance of centering students. Awareness. Push for mandated CUNY anti-racism training. Curriculum. “Illusion of Inclusion” conference. Building union chapter anti-racism team for Lehman campus community.

V. Breakout groups:

1. Campus action. Building for May 1 and other campus actions. Forming Campus Action Team. Facilitator: Stuart Chen-Hayes.
2. Anti-racism. Facilitators: Luis Vega, Takiyah Ali.
3. Response to threat of lay-offs among adjunct titles due to cut-backs. Facilitators: Ruth Wangerin, David Hyman.

VI. Reports back and discussion

Campus Action Team formed (Sarah Kotzin, Dana Fenton, Renee Bell, Stuart Chen-Hayes, Brian Morgan (treasurer)) and still recruiting. Will meet Tuesdays at 2pm. Zoom link: https://lehman-cuny-edu.zoom.us/j/89099025205?pwd=dVNjeFNQZjdNVlNEc3JWcSsvRVdxdz09

Anti-racism group emphasized importance of improved reporting, including how to loop in the union. Also changes to curriculum. English Dept. Chair David Hyman reviewed how English curriculum was remodeled with inclusion in mind. “Your curriculum shows your values.”

Cut-backs group. Dept chairs have many options and a lot of power. They need guidance on resisting and managing cut-backs so as to save jobs and recall workers in the most ethical order. Concern about threat of closing entire departments. Plans to close EEGS were in the works before Batista memo.

Google doc with notes from breakout groups. 

Interesting discussion in the chat throughout meeting. Highlights, regarding proposed budget cuts: “Chop from the Top!” was a much-liked comment. Related: the scandalous salary increases for top CUNY administrators. Great enthusiasm and helpful information were shared in the chat; chapter secretary has those notes if anyone needs them.

Robert Farrell shared a petition for department chairs to push back against CUNY central.

VII. Adjournment at 12:45 pm.

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PSC Lehman Executive Committee

March 9, 2023 11am (Zoom)

Minutes

Guardian/Facilitator: Diane Auslander

Minutes: Ruth Wangerin

Attendance: David Manier, Takiyah Ali, Karlene Johnson, Diane Auslander, Dana Fenton, Ruth Wangerin, Luis Vega, Stuart Chen-Hayes, Ramon Belliard

1. Chapter meeting planning
2. Event on campus for May 1
3. Labor-management meeting report
4. How can we make progress against racism on campus?
5. David M needs to inform Kathleen Offenholley, chair of PSC Elections Committee, that we have a vacancy for Welfare Fund Rep and will elect a new rep in the April EC meeting

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PSC Lehman chapter meeting

Feb 10, 2023, 11 am, on Zoom

Minutes

Attendance: 36

Facilitator (Guardian): Diane Auslander

Meditation leader: Takiyah Ali

Minutes-taker: Ruth Wangerin

1. Reports:

• Takiyah Ali  – HEO issues
• Stuart Chen-Hayes – The bargaining process and how to influence the bargaining agenda
• Ruth Wangerin – Demands in the bargaining agenda especially relevant for adjunct titles
• David Manier – Demands in the bargaining agenda especially relevant for full-time faculty titles; Chancellor’s memo threatening hiring freeze and cut-backs
• Brian Morgan – CLTs and the bargaining process
• Jorge Guzman – Come to Feb. 27 rally; sign the petition to CUNY to begin bargaining

2. Discussion

3. Breakout rooms — bargaining and contract concerns — and reports back

• why aren’t there more specific demands and specific numbers in the bargaining agenda?
• it would have been better if chapter could have met to discuss this before DA adopted it
• understaffing and underfunding
• low pay for CLTs and other needs for CLTs
• threats of hiring freeze and cutbacks
• adjunct rates too low to attract clinical supervising nurses
• open bargaining
• address HEO and CLT understaffing
• bargain for the common good (e.g. menstrual products in ALL bathrooms)
• bargaining agenda language on racism is minimal, not strong enough, and contradicts itself
• Austerity/cut backs (fears of cancelled classes, jumbo classes, and problems with SEEK, LEH, and other programs
• poor handling of three-year appointments in some departments
• Bullying
• Not enough for lecturers and program directors
• Need more diversity in hiring
• Need transparency re: funding
• Strengthening the Bargaining Agenda (striking adjuncts, activism re: budget in Albany etc)
• More for CLTs (not just salaries)
• lack of follow-up from campus climate survey (https://lehman.edu/media/Lehman-College-Website/resources/documents/campus-climate/Lehman-Final-Report—Grayscale.pdf ; https://lehman.edu/media/Lehman-College-Website/resources/documents/campus-climate/Assessment-of-Climate-for-Learning—Secured,-Grayscale.pdf ; https://lehman.edu/media/Lehman-College-Website/resources/documents/campus-climate/Lehman-Executive-Summary–Grayscale.pdf )

Note: Members express many great ideas during chapter meetings and in breakout groups; those who don’t attend are missing a lot

4. Announcements

• Jeannette Graulau – PSC International Committee was sponsoring a forum on the evening of Feb. 10 with the Cuban ambassador to discuss the sanctions.
• Ruth Wangerin has door posters for contract campaign and invites members to stop by Davis 111 between 12-1pm on Mondays or Wednesdays to pick some up

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PSC Lehman Executive Committee

Feb 9, 2023 11am (Zoom)

Minutes

Guardian/Facilitator: Diane Auslander

Minutes: Ruth Wangerin

Attendance: David Manier, Brian Morgan, Takiyah Ali, Diane Auslander, Dana Fenton, Ruth Wangerin, Luis Vega, Stuart Chen-Hayes

1. Chapter meeting planning
2. Campus topics – climate survey, harassment policy, progress against racism in departments and on campus
3. Bargaining agenda and contract process — importance of knowing what the needs and wants of members on Lehman campus are, whether or not these are included in the bargaining agenda
4. Next EC will be chaired by an EC member who missed this meeting
5. Get-togethers on campus between EC/chapter meetings
6. Vacancy on EC for Welfare Fund rep – does not have to be faculty

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PSC Lehman chapter meeting

Dec. 2, 2022, 1:30-3:30pm, on Zoom

Minutes

Attendance: 31 (varied over time, with 22 near end of meeting)

Facilitator: Diane Auslander

Meditation leader: Brian Morgan

Minutes-taker: Ruth Wangerin

1. Reports:

    Ruth Wangerin – 

• Organizing adjunct titles, 
• Recruitment of union department reps 
• Recruitment of adjunct reps in departments who would serve as department reps for union and also represent the department’s adjunct faculty in departmental faculty meetings
• Pop-up tabling during Union Week, Tues-Wed Dec 6-7
• Coffee hour during Union Week, Wed Dec 7, 12:30-2, Music Building, Underground Lounge

    David Manier

• College climate survey, question of follow-up. Highlight of relevance for the union: 1 in 5 faculty/staff respondents said they’d experienced bullying. Unsatisfactory response of College management to the issue during in General Faculty meeting. 
• Union Week https://psc-cuny.org/about-us/lehman-college/#unionweek
  • Wear Red for Ed on Monday, Dec. 5. 
  • How to attend Board of Trustees public hearing Monday, Dec 5 CUNY Board of Trustees Budget Hearing – PSC CUNY (psc-cuny.org) and how to submit testimony online: https://www.dropbox.com/request/ptBFbhcFoQCD337TlbCA
  • Attend press conference and rally at Hostos on Thursday Dec. 8: https://psc-cuny.org/calendar/psc-and-uup-joint-press-conference/
• Lehman holiday party, Dec. 16. Union members encouraged to attend and show our presence at this event.

2. Breakout groups by title, 30 minutes.

3. Reports back from breakout groups.

1. CLT group: Brian Morgan reported. The discussed a variety of issues, including contract demands.
2. HEO group: (Secretary neglected to note the name of the HEO who reported for that group.) They discussed a number of chronic problems that HEOs face.
3. Full-time faculty group: Robert Farrell reported. His written notes are appended to these minutes. He shared the following resolution about the Lecturer title series in the chat: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQdzgGO7XNXbkhdP93LIT0U77OFdW8uqBVmqA8eByT_TFrfHGwunx812NLEVB_68swh77yBJGjYZGg-/pub
4. Part-time faculty group: Luis Vega reported. Discussed the importance of focusing on bullying as an issue and discussed several approaches in addition to contract language, such as an education campaign during February, anti-bullying month, and efforts to empower employees who are targets of bullying. It is helpful to see bullying in the broad sense as a structural problem produced by the internal hierarchies in the workplace and the external power differential between labor and management and between labor and capital

4. Motion (Ruth Wangerin): Call for a show of hands in support of the following statement: We support the right of the railroad workers, and all workers, to paid sick days. Discussion included comments on resolution earlier drafted in the chat by Stuart Chen-Hayes but not formally introduced into the meeting. Discussion focused on a) whether a carefully written resolution would be more helpful and how and when that could be drafted and voted on, including by what body, and b) how the 22 persons present in the chapter meeting at that time could show support for the railroad workers immediately. Several members commented on need to support railroad workers in present time. No one spoke against the principle of the right of workers to paid sick time or against the notion of supporting the railroad workers. Decision: Participants raised physical and/or zoom hands. There was a general sense that the motion carried but it was not possible to get an exact count of hands raised for a variety of reasons.

5. Adjournment at approximately 3:30pm.

Appendix:

Discussion topics in the full-time faculty breakout group at 12/2/22 chapter meeting (submitted by Robert Farrell):

• Lecturers – promotions – currently Lecturers don’t have enough ranks; Lecturer/Senior Lecturers; “Teaching Professors” — though this may be problematic language given that everyone does a ton of teaching; having doctoral lecturers and non-doctoral advance
• Creation of more tenure track positions
• Program coordinators – not compensated well enough
• Remote work for Library Faculty – 70/30 remote work
• Library faculty – annual leave still not equitable; 8 weeks vs. 12
• Equity for other constituencies – staffing; how budgets are spent; administrative bloat and not enough staff
• Perhaps adopt what’s at the graduate center – executive officers receive a differential
• 7500K annual for mental health benefits
• Open bargaining
• Free tuition, free metro card, housing allowances for staff and faculty; more student housing; free washers and dryers
• Anti-Bullying language in contract
• Long serving adjuncts be given Lecturer positions
• What is the consequence of ECP having professorial title

Gripes

• Survey results should be shared
• Campus communication is not great right now — important information not being shared; provost’s report not helpful; senior administration is not being transparent or communicative
• EEGS – where’s the shared governance and discussion of this program’s future
• Labor/Management
• Fundraising – what’s going on there

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PSC Lehman Executive Committee

Dec 1, 2022 3pm (Zoom)

Minutes

Facilitator: Diane Auslander

Meditation: David Manier

Minutes: Ruth Wangerin

Attendance: David Manier, Brian Morgan, Humberto Lizardi, Takiyah Ali, Diane Auslander, Dana Fenton, Ruth Wangerin

1. Chapter meeting planning
2. Discussion of COACHE survey or Rankin survey on campus climate. What is the follow-up plan? Notable finding: 22% of faculty/staff said bullying was a problem they had experienced. Bullying was not a widespread complaint among students who took the survey, 
3. Union Week. 
   1. Decision was made to distribute t-shirts and sweatshirts in advance of press conference at Hostos. 
   2. Decision to hold a coffee hour on Wed 12:30-2:00pm in Music and distribute swag. Default location is Underground Lounge unless David M. discovers that Faculty Dining Room is available.
   3. Ruth and Diane announced that pop-up tabling had been arranged for Tues and Wed, involving Jorge Guzman bringing materials, Luis Vega, Mariposa Fernandez, Ruth and Diane. David agreed to contact Jorge to make sure he brought large quantities of t-shirts and sweatshirts.

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Adjunct Successes in NYC: NYU, New School, Fordham

Forum sponsored by CAP Platform Committee and PSC Lehman chapter, Nov. 18, 2022

Read more about the strike at The New School: https://linktr.ee/UAW7902

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8ThIsaLv4mb3Pv_t-4bBSmtegXk_0wYdYWo_nuDGJg/edit

Attend a Bargaining Session!

Sign up to attend a bargaining session.

https://psc-cuny.org/rights/

Leaflet – Adjunct Faculty and Adjunct CLTs Did You Know

ADJUNCT FACULTY AND ADJUNCT CLTS – DID YOU KNOW?

1. Raises. CUNY top executives received double-digit raises, retroactive to December ’21 – $90k raise each for the COO (27% raise, plus a car) and the general counsel (30%).
2. Pension system. You can join the pension system as soon as you’re hired. Don’t wait.
3. One-year appointment. You’re entitled to a one-year appointment after teaching 6 semesters in a row (excluding summers).
4. Health insurance. After teaching at least one class 2 semesters in a row at CUNY, you’re eligible for health insurance in the 3rd semester if you’re teaching at least 6 contact hours.

OUR UNION, THE PSC, IS HOW WE FIGHT
TOGETHER FOR OUR RIGHTS!

• NOTES
  1. https://nypost.com/2022/11/12/two-cuny-honchos-get-fat-90000-raises-as-enrollment-shrinks/ If CUNY officials can afford to award themselves huge raises “to retain talent,” then CUNY faculty and staff surely deserve huge wages as well.2. CUNY adjuncts and other part-timers are eligible to join the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) Qualified Pension Plan and Tax-Deferred Annuity programs from their first semester at CUNY. It doesn’t matter how many classes you’re teaching or hours you’re working. After 5 years you’ll be vested. https://psc-cuny.org/?s=join+pension 3. When you have taught 6 consecutive semesters (excluding summers) in the same department at the same college, you are entitled to a 1-year appointment and must receive written notification by May 15 for the following academic year. https://2022.psc-cuny.org/sites/default/files/New%20Teaching%20Adjuncts–FAQs%208-18.pdf
  Most departments at Lehman do not know about this one-year appointment and don’t issue the letter unless asked. In some cases, the one-year letter may qualify a person to receive unemployment insurance during the summer. https://psc-cuny.org/benefits/frequently-asked-questions-about-unemployment-insurance-adjuncts/4. Adjuncts become eligible for (individual) health insurance when they have taught at least 1 class in the previous 2 consecutive semesters and are teaching 6 or more hours in the current semester (excluding summers). See Human Resources to sign up. If Adjuncts continue to teach at least 6 hours per semester, health insurance will be retained year-round. https://psc-cuny.org/benefits/part-timer-health-benefits/

  If you think your rights are not being honored, or if you have questions
  • Reach out to one of the PSC Lehman chapter officers, listed here: https://psc-cuny.org/about-us/lehman-college/#psclehman
  and/or
  • Call the PSC main office at 212-354-1252 and ask for the Adjunct Grievance Counselor or Adjunct Advocate.

  Join the Union!

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Vision for Equity and Job Protection for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel

Drafted by the Platform Committee of CAP (the Committee for Adjuncts and Part-timers), the Vision for Equity is an aspirational work-in-progress intended to form the foundation from which contract demands are shaped. The Platform Committee has been meeting with members of the PSC Bargaining Team to explain the vision and persuade them to make it the union’s vision as well.

The PSC Environmental Health & Safety Committee (aka H&S Watchdogs)

The PSC Environmental Health and Safety (PSC EHS) Committee, a committee of the Executive Council, serves our members by helping to identify health, safety and environmental issues that could cause problems in our working environment. The Watchdogs work with members and with local chapters to investigate and motivate management to fulfill their legal obligation to provide an environment free of occupational hazards. (Several Lehman PSC members have been active in the Watchdogs committee throughout the pandemic.)

Check the Watchdogs webpage to learn of regular updates meetings and trainings available to union members. The team is also seeking contract language to strengthen our rights regarding health & safety.

https://psc-cuny.org/about-us/environmental-health-and-safety/

Upcoming trainings

Wed. Dec. 7, 6:00-8:00 pm: MOLD AND WORKERS’ HEALTH with Ed Olmsted

Register at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcof-qqqjIvEtyZEwl1NKA5rCRuL3fJkdjK

Wednesday, December 7th , 10am – 1pm, NYCOSH forum: Health and Safety issues faced by the Aging Workforce.

This Forum will be presented by Diane Stein from the United Steelworkers Tony Mazzocchi Center and Lisa Baum from the New York State Nurses Association. Please register by December 5th via the Zoom link: https://tinyurl.com/agingworkers

Past Recordings

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2022, 6:30 PM | Long COVID and Workers’ Compensation (Webinar)

Excellent presentation by a lawyer expert in Workers’ Comp about how filing immediately if you get covid at work will protect your rights in the future. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHoFI5MswA8

Draft Health and Safety Standards for Lehman College, Nov. 2022

Prepared by H&S Subcommittee of PSC Lehman Executive Committee (Stuart Chen-Hayes, Robert Farrell, Ruth Wangerin)

1. Avoid crowding at Lehman through the winter tripledemic (RSV, covid, flu). Departmental and office efforts to maintain spacing must be respected by management. No increases in class maximums and no increases in the percentage of time staff need to be in their offices. In fact, reopen the possibility of 60-40. Announce the remote work policy before the holidays so people can plan.
2. HVAC systems and ventilation systems operating continuously, regardless of the room temperature indicated by thermostats, to maximize fresh outside air.
3. Windows must be openable in all buildings that depend on roof vents and open windows. If they can’t keep the HVAC on at all times, then windows in all buildings should be openable. Staff and faculty must be notified about the windows, including with signage.
4. HEPA air-scrubbing units should be properly placed and maintained, including changes of filters. Staff and faculty should be notified about proper usage of these units and how to determine if the filter needs to be replaced.
5. More signage and communication encouraging vaccination, masking and staying home when sick, emphasizing that these are ways to protect our college community.
6. Vaccination campaigns for flu and covid, bringing the vaccines to the students and staff or at least encouraging vaccination and facilitating access to vaccination.
7. Availability of KN95 and KF94 masks on every floor of every building where a member of our union is working. These should be available to students, too. Better protection than surgical masks is needed because the employer has ended universal masking.
8. A statement from the president against bullying, which is a health & safety issue.
9. Revisit other issues such as mold and crumbling ceilings or rodents.