Tell your Reps in D.C. to Reject the Budget Reconciliation Bill

“We need to elect public education defenders, not defunders!” was the message PSC President James Davis delivered this Sunday at the Working Families Party’s Rank the Slate rally. Registered Democrats should watch the video of his speech here, then make a plan to vote tomorrow in the primary election, if you haven’t already. (Please plan to stay hydrated and safe in the heat!). If you have already voted, please check in with family, colleagues and friends and urge them to rank the full slate of five PSC candidates for mayor and to not rank Andrew Cuomo.

As Governor, Cuomo instituted  Tier 6 pensions, which forced PSC members and other state employees to work longer and pay more into the pension system to retire. He vetoed legislation to protect CUNY and SUNY funding three times, refused to fund public-sector union contracts, and tried to cut a half billion dollars from CUNY’s state funding. To protect CUNY in this election, rank 5 candidates and do not rank Cuomo.

All of the union’s endorsements for the primary are posted here on the union website. If you’d like to help Get Out The Vote with fellow PSC members, sign up here.

Contact PSC Contract Enforcement if you were non-reappointed or have not received your letter.

June 21 was this year’s deadline for colleges to notify adjuncts about whether they will be reappointed. If you are an adjunct who was non-reappointed or who did not receive a letter on or by June 21, please contact the adjunct grievance counselor assigned to your campus as soon as possible. Grievances relating to appointment/non-reappointment must be filed within 30 working days (excluding weekends and legal holidays) of the scheduled date of notification. The 30-working-day timeline ends this year on Monday, August 4.

The PSC will welcome immigration attorney Cianna Freeman-Tolbert to conduct a webinar on June 25, at 4:30 PM, to give an overview of emergent questions in immigration law. This is an event only for dues-paying PSC members. Please click on this link to register to attend the webinar if you:

• have questions about your F-1, H1-B or J-1 visa;
• are concerned about traveling abroad this summer;
• are engaged in free speech activity and not sure how it might affect your immigration status; or
• want to learn more about the rights of immigrants.

Cianna Freeman-Tolbert focuses her practice on all aspects of immigration law, including family-based, employment-based, nonimmigrant, and immigrant visa processing, as well as immigration litigation. Click here for her full bio.

In response to the emergency conditions in federal immigration court, the PSC is organizing shifts of members to support immigrants who are at risk of detention by ICE when they leave downtown Manhattan courthouses. The next Courthouse support shift will be Tuesday, July 2 from 7:30-10:00 AM. To participate, PSC members must also attend a mandatory online training and orientation. The next training will be held Tuesday, July 1 at 6:30 PM — register here for the Zoom training. If you have already participated in one of the court house support trainings held in June, you can sign up here for the July 2nd courthouse support shift.

A message from PSC President James Davis

Mayor Adams has announced that the City is abandoning its plan to force retirees into a Medicare Advantage plan.

Congratulations to PSC retirees who led our union’s campaign against this ill-conceived proposal! It has been a long four years—almost to the day—since Mayor de Blasio first introduced the program. The PSC has been clear and consistent in advocating against Medicare Advantage.

While this is a major victory, the recent decision by New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, leaves the door open for a future mayor to again attempt to impose a Medicare Advantage plan as the only premium-free option for Medicare-eligible retirees. We and our allies remain vigilant and opposed to any such move.

Our fight for quality benefits continues. The City and the Municipal Labor Committee recently announced agreement on a new insurance provider (Emblem/United Health) for the Comprehensive Benefit Plan, currently GHI (Emblem)/Blue Cross (Anthem). The new contract has yet to be negotiated in detail. The unions expect to have more information in the coming weeks. According to their press release, the plan will save $1 billion annually without reducing employee benefits. That’s a hard promise to deliver, and we won’t know the full impact until we see the details.

Dues-paying PSC members are invited to attend an in-person forum on ethical investing of the union’s funds on Monday, June 30th at 6:30 PM in the Union Hall (25 Broadway, 15th Floor). The PSC has a fiduciary responsibility to invest member dues wisely. This forum is an opportunity to discuss the opportunities and obstacles of investments that advance social and environmental justice. RSVP here to attend.

The cross-campus chapter of College Laboratory Technicians will gather in-person and online this Friday, June 27th from 12:00-3:00 PM to celebrate CLT Unity Day and recognize their essential work. The chapter will come together to socialize, build relationships, and congratulate those on the way to retirement. Several CLTs, nominated by their colleagues, will receive the chapter’s Unsung Hear awards. Please join the PSC principal officers, the CLT chapter executive committee, and your fellow rank-and-file CLTs to celebrate CLT Unity Day.

Register here on this Zoom form to let us know if you will attend in-person or participate online. The in-person portion of the event will be held in the PSC Union Hall, 15th floor, 25 Broadway. You must RSVP via this Zoom form and indicate that you plan to attend in-person to be included on the entry list for building security.

Over 1,800 researchers and allies from CUNY and SUNY have signed this letter to New York’s Congressional Delegation written by the PSC’s Defend Research Working Group. This is the last week to add your name. The letter demands that our representatives in Washington insist that appropriated funds be disbursed as intended and resist severe cuts that will prevent future therapies and other innovations. Please add your name and share this sign-on link.

Sign up here to tell us you will stand with the PSC as we release the open letter to Congress next Monday, June 30th at 12:30 PM outside the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan.

Over the last several weeks, members of the Defend Research Funding Working Group have written and pitched op-eds about the defunding of research to ten local newspapers. The pieces were submitted in coordination with the McClintock letters, a national researchers communications project organized by graduate students (NY Times). Three have been published so far and the others are pending:

• Op-ed | How Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is bad for Queens, QNS.com, June 17, Jenna Tipaldo
• Opinion: One reckless budget cut. Thousands of students at risk, Queens Eagle, June 16, Reem Jafar
• Federal cuts are impacting curiosity-driven science in the U.S., threatening our world standing (opinion), Staten Island Advance, June 14, Cathy Savage-Dunn

Please read and share these op-ed with your colleagues, neighbors and elected officials.