No contract for five years. No raises for six.
No more excuses!
A new level of resistance starts now.
The faculty and staff at CUNY are tired of excuses. Yes, Chancellor Milliken was new last year. And yes, until this summer contracts for other public employees in New York City were still being settled.
But now the PSC, the union of CUNY faculty and staff, is practically the only union of public employees in New York State without a contract and without a raise since 2009.
Why:
Because Chancellor Milliken has failed to deliver a contract and has failed to counter effectively the austerity campaign against CUNY.
Milliken accepts a $670,000 salary from CUNY—but has not put one penny on the table for CUNY faculty and staff. We have still been offered no raise and no back-pay. Academic departments at CUNY are finding it harder and harder to recruit and keep the faculty they want. No more excuses, Chancellor Milliken!
In spite of lobbying by union members and legislators, State funding for our contract has not been authorized. And the consistent under-funding of CUNY has led to a 31% increase in CUNY senior college student tuition since 2011. The funds from higher tuition have been used to cover basic operating costs, not new programs—as promised. No more excuses, Governor Cuomo!
Austerity hits CUNY particularly hard because of who our students are: More than half of CUNY undergraduates have family incomes of less than $30,000 a year. Three-quarters are Black, Latino or Asian.
The failure to produce a contract after five years endangers the quality of education. The effect is that CUNY students, faculty and staff are under attack.
The attack is unjust and immoral.
A new level of resistance starts now.
The PSC, the faculty and staff union at CUNY, is fighting back. We have justice on our side and we can win.
We refuse to stand by while the quality of education for CUNY students is put at risk. We refuse to accept the failure to provide decent raises and back-pay.
We are all in this fight together—and there is a lot at stake.
Here is the plan for the fall:
September: PSC union meeting on your campus:
Click here for the PSC calendar.
October 1: Wake-up Call for Chancellor Milliken—demonstration at Milliken’s expensive Manhattan apartment on the morning of the first CUNY Board meeting of the year.
October 19-30: Teach-In, Teach-Out, Teach CUNY on CUNY campuses—two weeks of local actions and activist curriculum.
November 4: Disruptive Mass Action
November 19: Mass Meeting of PSC
Throughout the Fall Semester: Free union training sessions on non-violent disruptive protest—learn tactics for street protest, picket lines, civil disobedience and more.
