Mobilizing for the Strike Authorization Vote
At the PSC’s Delegate Assembly on October 15, President Bowen announced on behalf of the Executive Council that the PSC plans to hold a strike authorization vote. (Read her message to members.) A strike authorization vote—even though it is not a vote to strike—is a significant escalation of the union’s contract campaign. There will be several months of preparation before the vote is taken. Chapter meetings (listed in the union calendar) will offer an opportunity for members to discuss and plan for the vote, as will the union’s mass meeting on the evening of November 19 at the Great Hall at Cooper Union. Let us know here, if you want to be part of preparing for the vote.
How Will You #TeachCUNY?
The BMCC chapter’s faculty-student teach-in will be Wed., Oct. 21 at 2 PM. The BMCC event is called CUNY Funding, Student Tuition and the PSC Contract: Let’s Connect the Dots. Chapters at LaGuardia Community College and John Jay College have teach-ins scheduled for Tues., Oct. 27, and other chapters are launching their Teach CUNY efforts at chapter meetings. Faculty members are also finding pedagogically appropriate ways to make CUNY funding and the contract part of classroom learning. Click here for a sample curriculum, a Power Point presentation and other resources. Contact your chapter chair and visit the PSC calendar to learn about events being planned for your campus.
Help Get 100,000 Students to Urge the Governor to Sign the MOE Bill
The PSC is working closely with the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) and United University Professions (UUP) to collect 100,000 postcards signed by CUNY and SUNY students in support of the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) bill (S281a/A5370a). The MOE bill, passed by the Legislature last June and to be forwarded to the governor to sign by the end of November, would require the State to allocate public funding to cover CUNY’s annual mandatory cost increases, including contractual raises. Our goal is to get 40,000 cards signed by CUNY students. Contact your chapter chair to get involved in the campaign, and make sure any signed cards that you collect get returned to your chapter leaders. The coalition will deliver the postcards to the governor’s office at a public event in late November, so we need to keep track of every one of them.
Campus Equity Week, Oct. 26-30
Campus Equity Week is a week of education and activism coordinated nationally by the New Faculty Majority that draws attention to the working conditions of faculty working on temporary low paid contracts. Thirteen thousand adjunct and contingent faculty are employed by CUNY and represented by the PSC. They teach more than half the courses at CUNY, but earn low salaries and have no job security. Contact Sam Lewis ([email protected]) to get involved locally, and follow the national campaign on Twitter and Facebook.
