In the Mail: Your 2013 PSC/CUNY COPE Brochure
This November, PSC members overwhelmingly supported the candidate we endorsed for Mayor, Bill de Blasio, and helped to elect the most progressive City Council candidates in many years. Soon we’ll have a mayor and council who understand the importance of investing in CUNY. But if we’re going to turn progressive goals into reality, we have to continue the fight, and we have to carry it to Albany. That’s why we’re asking you to please open the letter you received in the mail from the PSC’s Political Action Committee, PSC/CUNY COPE. Voluntary contributions to PSC/CUNY COPE are separate from your union dues. They support advocacy related to PSC legislative priorities and help elect candidates who are pro-CUNY and pro-labor. Click here to learn more and to download a copy of the 2013 PSC/CUNY COPE Brochure.
Health Plan Change Period through Nov. 30
For faculty and staff on the active CUNY payroll, the annual period for making changes in your choice of health insurance ends November 30. See your HR office for the necessary forms. Full-timers can find more details online here (as well as a source for printable forms). Part-timers who currently have health insurance coverage though the PSC-CUNY Welfare Fund can find more details (and printable forms) here. (CUNY retirees covered through the City health plan can make changes in even-numbered years; therefore there is no transfer period this year for CUNY retirees.)
Tentative Contract Settlement for Research Foundation Central Office Workers
After a hard-fought, ten-month campaign, the PSC has succeeded in negotiating a tentative contract settlement for central office workers of the CUNY Research Foundation. The five-year agreement, if it is ratified by the members, will provide a $750 signing bonus and a 15.4% cumulative salary increase. Details of the tentative settlement are posted here on the PSC website. The agreement is subject to the approval of the Delegate Assembly, which will consider it this Thursday, and of the Board of the Research Foundation. If the agreement is approved by the DA, a ratification vote will be held among RF central office workers.
Take Back CUNY: A Strategic Dialogue—Fri., Nov 15
Join students, faculty, staff and members of the community in a strategic dialogue to resist militarization, repression and labor exploitation at CUNY. Organized by the PSC International Committee and Free University-NYC, the event will take place Friday, November 15, 4-7 pm, at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 5th Avenue at 34th Street, Room C201/C202 (basement level). Click here to download a flier.
In the News: Bill de Blasio and the PSC
PSC President Barbara Bowen and Treasurer Michael Fabricant are both quoted in this Christian Science Monitor piece: “Unions love New York’s new Mayor Bill de Blasio. But can he deliver?” The article, written by Christian Science Monitor staff writer and long-time Hunter College adjunct professor Harry Bruinius, examines the challenges de Blasio will face in negotiating contracts with the City’s unions. Bowen, Fabricant and other labor leaders don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to negotiate retroactive raises when Mayor Bloomberg has spent the City’s labor reserve, according to the article, but they have high hopes for a new era of “constructive dialogue between the city’s labor movement and the mayor’s office.”
Solidarity, Community, and the Struggle for our Public Schools—Tues., Nov 19
Karen Lewis, the Chicago Teachers Union president who led a high-profile strike in early 2012, will be the keynote speaker at an event at Brooklyn College next week. Sponsored by the Wolfe Institute, the Brooklyn College PSC Chapter and other groups, Solidarity, Community, and the Struggle for our Public Schools, will be Tuesday, November 19, 4:00 PM in the Penthouse of the Brooklyn College Student Center (Campus Road and East 27th Street). Barbara Bowen, president of the PSC, and Liza Featherstone, the current Belle Zeller Professor at Brooklyn College, will also speak. Reception to follow. Click here to download a flier.
