Labor Briefs
December 2011 By Clarion Staff Cleaners ready to strike Thousands of New York City office cleaners and commercial building workers voted December 1 to authorize their bargaining committee to call a strike if necessary. Failure to reach a new contract by January 1 could trigger a strike of 22,000 office…
Safety Net Bulletin #1
This is the first of periodic bulletins sent by the Safety Net Working Group of the Professional Staff Congress. Huge cuts to social programs for the 99% and tax cuts for the 1% -- that in a nutshell is the Wall Street agenda. Whether it is draconian cuts to the…
This Week in the PSC (10.24.11): Tuesday Night: A Call to Action: Defend the Social Safety Net
Tuesday Night: A Call to Action: Defend the Social Safety Net As the “Super Committee” meets in Washington, preparing to recommend $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions—including potential cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and pensions—the PSC is developing a labor response. Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and…
Defending the Social Safety Net: A Call to Action
Preserving And Extending Benefits for all Generations By the PSC Social Safety Net Working Group, April 2012 [NOTE: In this web version, information about Social Security has been updated per the 2013 Trustees’ report.] Click here for a PDF of this brochure. Print copies are available at the PSC.As workers,…
This Week in the PSC (10.17.11): Keep the Pressure on For Adjunct Health Insurance
Keep the Pressure on For Adjunct Health Insurance The PSC’s all-out campaign to push CUNY to solve the adjunct health insurance crisis is showing results, but there is much more to do. To start, we need many more signatures on the petition. If you haven’t signed, please do so right…
Austerity Targets State Workers
August 2011 By Clarion Staff Republican governors in several midwestern states began 2011 by attacking public employee unions. Now the assault has reached the northeast, where Democrats have joined Republicans in blaming public-sector workers for a fiscal crisis they did not create. Collective bargaining rights have been undercut in New…
This Week in the PSC (8.8.11): In solidarity with Verizon workers
In solidarity with Verizon workers—sign the petition 45,000 CWA and IBEW members are now on strike to stop Verizon’s attempt to gut their contract. Despite record profits, Verizon is demanding concessions that would let them outsource more jobs, slash sick days and holidays, eliminate benefits for injured workers, and cut…
This Week in the PSC (7.19.11): Board of Trustees Hearing Alert
Board of Trustees Hearing Alert At the end of the legislative session in June, the state legislature authorized CUNY and SUNY to increase senior college tuition by up to $300 per year for the next five years. In November 2010, the CUNY Trustees approved a senior college tuition hike of…
Inside the Wisconsin Uprising: Teaching assistants help spark a new movement in labor
April 2011 By John Tarleton MADISON, Wisconsin – When Governor Scott Walker submitted a bill to the Wisconsin State Legislature on February 11, he said it was a “budget repair bill,” urgently needed to close a midyear budget deficit. The bill also stripped almost all collective bargaining rights from 175,000…
Viewpoint: Researchers of the World, Unite!
February 2011 By Barbara Bowen, PSC President I cannot remember being as frustrated as I am now about the persistence of a lie. In the space of less than two years, the political right, the finance industry and the class whose interests they serve have succeeded in shifting the blame…
