This Week in the PSC will be on hiatus for the next two weeks. Mid-July through August, the email newsletter will be issued every other week.
PSC Endorses Bill de Blasio for Mayor
The union has endorsed Bill de Blasio in the Democratic primary for Mayor of New York City because of his progressive record, his strategic vision for CUNY and his focus on ending economic inequality. Click here for NY Times coverage of the endorsement. The Delegate Assembly voted to issue the endorsement for de Blasio last Thursday (June 20) on the recommendation of the union’s Executive Council.
“We support Bill de Blasio because he stands for an alternative to the politics of austerity that have dominated New York for too long,” said Pres. Barbara Bowen in a statement released to the media. “De Blasio understands the strategic importance of CUNY and has a vision of its place in a city where opportunity is not limited to the richest 1%. New York must not continue to be the most unequal city in the country. We believe that de Blasio can win and can be part of making the change this city needs.”
PSC’s Delegate Assembly also voted to issue endorsements for four other candidates for citywide and borough offices. The candidates are Letitia James for public advocate, Scott Stringer for comptroller, Robert Jackson for Manhattan borough president and Eric Adams for Brooklyn borough president. Forty City Council candidates have also received the union’s support so far. Read more about the mayoral endorsement and PSC endorsements for other citywide and borough offices here, and download a list of endorsed City Council candidates here.
Union Calls on Board of Trustees to Rescind Pathways
PSC Pres. Barbara Bowen sent this letter to CUNY Board of Trustees Chair Benno Schmidt on Fri., June 21. The letter calls on Chairman Schmidt to respect the full-time faculty’s 92% vote of No Confidence in Pathways and rescind the resolution that established the program. “A curriculum that has so dramatically failed to win the confidence of those responsible for executing it cannot be in the best interest of the University,” she says in the letter. The overwhelming result of the No Confidence vote demands that “Pathways be removed from its position as CUNY’s general education curriculum and replaced by a curriculum or curricula formulated by elected faculty bodies,” according to Pres. Bowen. Members of the CUNY Board of Trustees received a similar letter, which was copied to Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and Interim Chancellor William Kelly.
Are You Eligible for Expanded 9/11 Resources Under the Zadroga Act?
With 100 days to go before the application deadline for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH) launched a campaign yesterday to spread the word about the Fund and about the WTC Health Program.
The WTC Health Program, which offers free monitoring and treatment for covered conditions to those who may have been exposed to toxins at Ground Zero, can still take new applicants. Tens of thousands of people are eligible for free medical exams and treatment for 9/11 injuries and medication under the WTC Health Program created by the Zadroga Act, including those who lived and worked in Lower Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn in the year following September 11, 2001 and those who were only in the dust cloud for a short time. Even twelve years later, many of are not aware that is available.
While the Health Program can still take new applicants, the clock is ticking for injured 9/11 Survivors and Responders to register claims with the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (“VCF”) for economic losses due to their 9/11 injuries. Most injured Responders and Survivors must complete online registration by October 3rd, 2013. Apply for the WTC Health Program and the VCF at this link on the NYCOSH website.
2013 Summer Hours
The PSC office will be closed next Thursday for the 4th of July and next Friday because the union’s summer hours also begin next week. The office will be closed on Fridays from July through August 16. The emergency contact email address ([email protected]) will be posted on the PSC website and will be checked on Fridays when the office is closed. We will open five days a week beginning August 19.
