Union-wide Zoom Forum on Proposed New Health Plan | NYers Against ICE Protest

In last week’s newsletter, President James Davis updated members on the proposed replacement for the current comprehensive health benefits plan, Emblem GHI, which enrolls roughly ¾ of the city’s active employees and pre-65 retirees and their dependents – including many PSC members. Read the full message here, which includes a link to a chart comparing the proposed new plan and the current plan and important details about premiums (there are none), networks and copays, maximum in-network out-of-pocket costs, and more.

PSC representatives are examining the proposed plan, including the contract with Emblem and United Healthcare, and have scheduled an opportunity to present a fuller assessment and allow union members to ask questions.

Click here to register for the Union-wide Zoom Forum on Proposed New Health Plan Wednesday, September 17th at 5:00 PM.

PSC members are campaigning to elect Zohran Mamdani and other CUNY champions across New York, and we support taxes on corporations and the ultra-wealthy to build an excellent university system and strong public services. Sign up here to get on our PSC volunteer list for phone banks, canvassing, voter registration, events in Albany and NYC, and more!

You can register here for a Zohran for Mayor phone bank next Wednesday, September 17th from 6-8 PM. The phone bank is being organized by the NYC Central Labor Council and will be held at the PSC Office (25 Broadway, 15th floor). 

RSVP Here.

Make a plan now to join the PSC, other unions, and a host of community groups to protest ICE’s abuses in the courtrooms and in our communities, resist the deployment of federal troops in our city, and demand state legislation to protect immigrants. The protest will begin at Foley Square at 6:00 PM Thursday, September 25th. Washington D.C. and L.A. had no advance warning. We do. This should be massive so click here to tell us we can count on you to be there.

Things are getting no better in NYC’s federal immigration courthouses. PSC members who have gone through a union training are going to the courthouses Thursday and Friday mornings at 7:30 AM sharp in Thomas Paine Park, at the northern end of Foley Square. We do not confront or interfere with law enforcement, but by bearing witness and distributing valuable information, we are able to support those who attend routine hearings and show opposition to the atrocities occurring in U.S. courtrooms. If you’ve participated in the PSC’s court support training, you are welcome to join any Thursday or Friday morning. We need you there if it’s possible for you.

The PSC is committed to upholding academic freedom and the First Amendment rights of faculty and staff and will resist CUNY administrators’ appeasement of authoritarian demands from Washington. At Brooklyn College, the union is defending members facing repression, including four adjuncts who were summarily fired in apparent retaliation for their pro-Palestine speech. We have rallied, organized in the press, filed grievances, launched a letter campaign, and won the support of Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, even as Brooklyn College has expanded their repression to include investigations targeting full-time faculty and union leaders. Read more about the campaign here and click here to send an e-letter demanding that management reinstate the fired four.

PSC members who were not at the Against Oligarchy event led by Senator Bernie Sanders and Assemblymember now leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani last Saturday at Brooklyn College should watch the above video. In it, Zohran Mamdai dons President Davis’s PSC cap, asks PSC CUNY members to stand, and makes a full-throated defense of faculty who have been fired and investigated for speaking out in support of Palestinian human rights. He defended PSC members earlier in the program as well, during his opening remarks. Full video of the event is posted here. The statement in the above clip is at the 57:42 timestamp coming right after a student question about repression. The New York Times included our campaign to defend the Fired Four in their coverage of the event.

Our allies at Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union issued a powerful letter to CUNY administrators in solidarity with the Fired Four, calling their dismissal “a grave violation of academic freedom and a dangerous encroachment on faculty governance”. The academic unions chapters called on CUNY leadership to immediately reinstate the four adjuncts who were fired for their pro-Palestine activism, and encouraged other faculty unions and academic associations to stand together in the face of these attacks. Read the full statement here.

PSC members marched with 95,000 of our union brothers and sisters this past Saturday, calling for labor rights, immigrant justice, and a city that works for working people. See some of our favorite PSC photos on Instagram.

Fall Campus Sustainable Future TowBuilding on the great success of last year’s series of Decarbonize CUNY town halls, the PSC’s Environmental Justice Working Group is once again partnering with NYPIRG and other student and community partners, including the PSC’s Legislative Committee, for a powerful series of community conversations on building a sustainable future in NYC. This year’s events will center around the question of what’s at stake in the upcoming city elections, and feature large-scale voter registration drives. The series will be an opportunity for faculty and student activists on campuses across CUNY to come together and strategize on ways to elect a friend of CUNY to Gracie Mansion, while developing a bold vision for the Mamdani mayoralty, including climate and CUNY priorities. Last year’s town halls helped win $50 million from the state government for decarbonization efforts on our campuses, and moved the New York Power Authority to commit to a major expansion in their public renewables projects. Join in your campus’s event th

Upcoming town halls include:

• 9/29 at 12:15pm: Queens College
• 9/30 at 10:30am: LaGuardia Community College
• 10/8 at 2pm: Borough of Manhattan Community College
• 10/9 at 12:30pm: City College of New York
• 10/22 at 12pm: Queensborough Community College
• 10/22 at 5pm: Brooklyn College

And more events to be confirmed soon! Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available.

As the President escalates his authoritarian power grab, the NO KINGS non-violent movement continues to gain strength. America has No Kings and the power belongs to the people. But we need to keep standing together to defend our rights and freedoms. Millions of us took to the streets in June; millions more will be out on Saturday, October 18.

PSC members are organizing to defend academic freedom, immigrants, LGBTQ+ communities, bodily autonomy, academic research, the social safety net, and the students and communities we serve. We’re building the power we need to protect each other and our neighbors. Mass mobilizations like No Kings are when we come together as a union and as part of a national movement to say this country does not belong to rulers, or billionaires.

Save the date now and make a plan to march with the PSC in the No Kings October Mobilization. Fill out the form at this link to tell us you’ll be there with the PSC.