Immigrant Solidarity Working Group | Higher Education Action Day in Albany

The PSC officers met with management this week and pressed for timely payment of members’ bonuses and back pay and implementation of raises. The process involves the state and city comptrollers and CUNY payroll. We will provide dates as soon as we know them, with as much notice as possible. The work of forming the labor management committees established in the new contract has begun, and we look forward to continuing discussions on key issues of concern to our members.

Click here for more information about our newly ratified contract, including salary schedules, title-specific summaries and frequently asked questions.

Showing up in-person in Albany is one of the most impactful actions you can take to fight for the university system that we, and our students, deserve. We will be lobbying alongside coalition partners from across New York State, including union siblings at SUNY (UUP and CWA/GSEU), student organizations (CUNY Rising Alliance, CUNY USS, and SUNY SA), and community partners including NYPIRG and Young Invincibles. Our demands will include funding to hire new faculty and staff, updated campus facilities, free tuition for all public higher education students, and more!

Participants will receive transportation to and from Albany and lunch. Buses will depart from several city locations (location TBD) around 6am and return in the evening.

To join us for Higher Education Action Day, click here and fill out the form to register. You do not need any lobbying or political experience, and it is sure to be a fun, meaningful, and productive trip! We hope to see you there.

Many CUNY students and PSC members are immigrants or refugees. The union is committed to ensuring that every student is safe in their classroom, and that all our colleagues and community members are protected from threats based on their immigration status. We are making resources available for members and students as we navigate a quickly-shifting landscape on this issue, and expanding our Immigrant Solidarity Working Group to stay responsive to threats. Click here to see resources, including a statement for use in syllabi and a downloadable poster to hang in your workspace, as well as a webform to sign up to join the working group.

The Queens College administration is attempting to implement a new policy on public demonstrations that is arbitrarily and needlessly restrictive, and infringes on our constitutional rights to free speech as students, faculty, staff, and as citizens. The PSC chapter at Queens College is fighting back with an online teach-in held earlier today, a letter campaign and a rally on campus Monday afternoon. All are welcome to attend the rally Monday, 12:00PM at the main entrance of Kiely Hall (facing Kissena Blvd).

You can help right now by signing and sharing this e-letter demanding that Queens College President Frank Wu immediately withdraw the “Interim Queens College Guidance Regarding Time, Place, and Manner Regulations for Demonstrations on Campus.”

SEND RIGHT TO PROTEST LETTER

The PSC-CUNY is proud to stand in solidarity with our NYSUT union siblings at the Association Representing Teaching Staff at Manhattan School of Music (ARTS-MSM), who have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike as they face management intransigence in their fight for a fair contract.

The local intends to strike for one week beginning this Saturday, 2/1 and will be maintaining a picket line from 8 AM to 6 PM outside the MSM’s Morningside Heights building. (Download a flier.) They are asking PSC members and other NYSUT colleagues to join them on the picket line in front of the College (corner of Claremont Ave & 122 St) this Saturday, February 1 anytime between 8am and 6pm. Fill out this webform to let them know you will be there.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) was a bipartisan promise. Repealing it would require an act of Congress. But make no mistake, the incoming Trump administration is hostile to public higher education and will need to be held accountable for fulfilling its obligations to public employees under federal law. And federal student loan borrowers will need to be vigilant to protect and document their eligibility for PSLF. Our national affiliate, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), is hosting a series of online student debt clinics about the steps student loan borrowers seeking PSLF should take during the Trump presidency. All clinics are at 7 p.m. EST, and the next clinics are scheduled for Monday, February 10 and Tuesday, February 25, with more to be added in the future. Members can sign up at https://go.aft.org/DebtClinicWebinar. More information from the AFT about the PSLF program is available here.