Hands Off Our Democracy! Protest this Saturday | CUNY Needs a $144.6M City Budget Increase

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Government agents have disappeared and detained another immigrant student, this time for the “crime” of co authoring a student newspaper editorial. President Trump is attempting through yet another illegal executive order to eliminate collective bargaining rights for federal workers. Elon Musk has ordered the Social Security Administration to eliminate thousands of jobs and close hundreds of field offices. Higher education and academic freedom are under attack. The Far Right majorities in Congress are racing toward slashing our social safety net and services to pay for a massive tax giveaway for billionaires. The outrages are piling up, and we cannot rely on the courts alone to change this country’s direction. We need masses of people in the streets to compel legislators to act boldly, to uphold the rule of law and add force to judges’ rulings, to change what is politically possible.

New Yorkers will take the streets again Saturday, April 5th as part of a national Hands Off! Day of Action. More than 800 demonstrations are scheduled in cities big and small throughout the US. It’s shaping up to be the largest mobilization since Trump and Musk took power. In NYC, the plan is to gather at Bryant Park at 1 PM and march on 5th Ave to Madison Square Park.

RSVP: HANDS OFF, APRIL 5

The PSC’s Sexuality and Gender Working Group urges all PSC members to join them at the Trans Day of Visibility Rally TODAY, Monday, March 31 at 6:30pm in Madison Square Park. Click here to let the working group know you’ll be there. Meet in Madison Square Park at the flagpole near the entrance at 24th St. and 5th Ave (map).

Beginning on Day 1 of the new Trump administration, the MAGA movement has been assaulting LGBTQ+ communities, dismantling rights, undermining freedom, and attempting to reverse decades of progress. Our union is committed to protecting trans people and all who are now subject to discrimination, persecution and state violence.

On Wednesdays PSC members call our elected officials to demand the investments we need at CUNY and the government and services all New Yorkers deserve. This week, on Wednesday, April 2, we’ll be calling our City Council members to urge their support for the PSC’s city budget platform–a $144.6 million program of investment. Watch your email, the union website and the PSC’s social media for the call to action with a sample script. You can call anytime during the day or join us of a 12:30 check-in on Zoom to review the script and make the calls collectively.

Zoom Briefing and Check-in

This week’s optional 12:30pm 30-minute check-in on What We Want Wednesday will feature a short briefing on the city budget campaign from our coalition partners at The People’s Plan. Register here for the 12:30 Wednesday Zoom to hear the briefing, review the script, and make your calls.

Monday, April 28th, 6:30 PM
Register Here For the Zoom.

Mark your calendars for the next mass Zoom meeting for PSC members on Monday, April 28th at 6:30 PM. There will be updates on contract implementation, reports from the working groups on the union’s resistance to attacks coming out of Washington, and more. Click here to register.

Send this Letter from the NYSUT Member Action Center.

Many adjunct faculty in New York are being denied the unemployment benefits they need during breaks between semesters. This happens when they are left without income or access to unemployment benefits due to a deeply flawed rule that keeps educators from receiving unemployment benefits in the intercession if they have “reasonable assurance” of work the following session.

The Senate and Assembly have included provisions in their one-house budget proposals that would require employers to do a better job of notifying their workers of the reasonable assurance standard, ensure that their offers are genuine, prohibit unreasonable contingencies for return to work, and specify that pay and other terms and conditions of employment are comparable to the previous position. Send a letter urging Albany to enact the provisions in the final budget to strengthen the reasonable assurance standard and increase adjuncts’ access to unemployment insurance.

SEND LETTER