Member Benefits: Catastrophe Major Medical Plan to Offer Limited-Time Open Enrollment
The Catastrophe Major Medical Plan, sponsored by the Member Benefits program of our statewide affiliate NYSUT, will offer an open enrollment from September 8, 2023 to October 13, 2023 — with an effective date of January 1, 2024. This rare opportunity is open only to dues-paying union members. (Not a member? Join the PSC here!) The CMM Plan offers supplemental coverage for you and your eligible family members. Once the out-of-pocket deductible has been satisfied, this Plan provides benefits for eligible expenses that your basic plan does not fully cover, including prescription drugs. This coverage is not long-term care or nursing home insurance. But it does include limited nursing/convalescent home benefits, home health care benefits up to 25 hours per week, a $1000 critical illness benefit, and more. Click here for the announcement, explainer video and enrollment information.
Rally to Celebrate the 58th Anniversary of Medicare
Friday, July 28, 12PM
We’re joining the party to celebrate the anniversary of Medicare and push back against Medicare privatization! Grab your favorite PSC t-shirt, hat or button and meet us THIS FRIDAY AT 12 NOON in front of the offices of Senators Gillibrand and Schumer (780 3rd Ave., between 48th and 49th St.). Click here to let us know you’ll be there.
Medicare has been the rock-solid guarantee of healthcare for seniors and people with disabilities. But for-profit insurance companies have used privatized Medicare Advantage plans to line their pockets with BILLIONS of dollars by preventing patients from getting the quality healthcare they need. The PSC, CROC—the Cross-Union Retiree Organizing Committee—and others have been in a bruising campaign to oppose the City’s plan to shift retiree healthcare from traditional Medicare to a Medicare Advantage plan. Join the party Friday to celebrate what we’re fighting for and to tell Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to reclaim Medicare from corporate greed.
RSVP: MEDICARE’S ANNIVERSARY
Support Full-time Hiring at the Brooklyn College Women’s Center
NYC Council Member and Brooklyn College alum Shahana Hanif is adding the force of her office and her considerable organizing experience to the campaign to stop planned cuts to the Brooklyn College Women’s Center. You can support the Center by signing this petition.
The Brooklyn College Women’s Center was about to fill two vacant full-time staff positions this spring when CUNY Central imposed a hiring freeze. Now even after the local Vacancy Review Board supported the hires and the freeze has been lifted, Brooklyn College President Michelle Anderson refuses to release the funds! The cuts represent a 40% reduction in staff, according to the petition, and would result in a reduction of 80% in the number of events and programming, a 40% or more reduction in the Center’s hours of operation, and the closure of successful leadership programs.
To learn more about the history of what we’re fighting to preserve, you can read the 1976 proposal for the creation of a Brooklyn College Women’s Center, oral histories and much more in the Brooklyn College Feminist Trailblazers of the 1970s collection of the CUNY Digital History Archive.
SIGN PETITION
Walk the Picket Line With SAG-AFTRA
Thursday, July 27, 10:30 AM -12:00 PM, 888 Broadway
Click here to tell us you’ll join PSC members this Thursday, July 27 from 10:30 AM -12:00 PM as we picket in solidarity with striking actors and writers. Wear your PSC hat/shirt/button and meet us outside Netflix HQ, 888 Broadway near Union Square.
Actors, performers, and other media professionals represented by SAG-AFTRA have been striking for ten days against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The actors are joining the writers represented by the Writers Guild of America (WGA), who have been striking against the AMPTP since early May. Fair wages, protection of workers’ rights and compensation in a changing industry and better healthcare are among the critical issues for both unions. PSC members face analogous challenges in our contract campaign as we fight the erosion in the value of our pay, the gigification of academia, and the heedless, top-down shift toward online education. Their struggle is our struggle! Join us this Thursday. And if you can’t make Thursday, or you want to join the SAG-AFTRA or WGA lines at other locations on other days, check out this #OnStrikeSummer resources page from the Central Labor Council (pickets for striking musicians from Local 802 are linked there, too.)
Apply to be a Campus Liaison with the CUNY Rising Alliance
Supported by the AFT’s Powerful Partnership Institute, the CUNY Rising Alliance’s (CRA) Campus Liaison Program is expanding CUNY Rising’s capacity to educate, organize and mobilize campus communities to fight for the New Deal for CUNY and secure funding and investment from the state and city. CRA is currently accepting applications for the Fall 2023 Campus Liaison Program. Last year students, faculty and staff earned stipends for their organizing work at 14 CUNY schools. This year the plan is to support more organizing on more campuses. The deadline to apply is August 1, 2023 and applications will be considered on a rolling basis. PSC members are encouraged to apply and to spread the word to their activist students. Click here for more information and to apply.
Belle Zeller Scholarship Trust Fund
2023 Friends of CUNY & Salute Our Scholars Event
Save the Date: September 12
Tickets will soon be available for the annual Friends of CUNY & Salute Our Scholars event to benefit the Belle Zeller Scholarship Trust Fund. The Fund was established by the PSC in 1979 and honors the PSC’s founding president, Belle Zeller, Professor Emerita of Political Science at Brooklyn College, where she taught for more than 40 years. Click here to learn more about the event and here to donate to support the scholarship.
Published: July 25, 2023
