Dear PSC members,
We would like to address two critical health and safety issues our members currently face - the end of the mask mandate, and our ongoing negotiations regarding the vaccination mandate. It’s a long letter, and we appreciate your forbearance–just as we appreciate the efforts everyone reading this has been making to keep all of us safer during the ever-shifting COVID crisis.
MASK MANDATE
Many of our members learned that CUNY lifted its mask mandate only as they came in this week, as the Chancellor shared this news in an email late Friday, timed as if to escape notice or reaction. As we wrote last Thursday, the PSC strongly believes that this is a premature move on CUNY’s part, once again made out of political expediency, rather than public health. We know that Mayor Adams is lifting mask mandates, and the CDC has relaxed its guidance on masking in areas that are not high risk, according to its revised metrics. While so many of us are also tired of wearing masks, CUNY should have waited to see how the widespread relaxation of vaccination standards and mask wearing bears out in our city before ending the mask mandate. Crucially, the administration should have meaningfully consulted with its faculty and staff - through the union, our chapters, and the campus reopening committees - before ending a critical precondition for faculty, staff and students returning to the campuses this semester.
We are writing to urge various steps we see as essential for the ongoing maintenance of a healthier working and learning environment at CUNY. Read more on the steps being urged.
VACCINE MANDATE NEGOTIATIONS
The vaccine mandate for faculty and professional staff goes into effect April 1, and the PSC continues to negotiate its implementation with CUNY management. Our guiding principles are to protect jobs and due process for our members and to protect public health and the safety of the campus community. CUNY’s decision to impose the mandate selectively (only for PSC-represented employees and those on the executive compensation plan) undercuts the public health rationale and provides critical context for our negotiations. Read more on the vaccine negotiations.