PSC Fights for Full Funding of CUNY
The Governor’s budget proposal holds state spending for CUNY essentially flat, but PSC members and officers are lobbying aggressively for increased funding for CUNY. The Legislature and the Governor must finalize the State budget by the end of March. Dozens of PSC members were in Albany for last week’s statewide Higher Education Action Day, which brought 500 college students, faculty and staff together to demand increased funding for CUNY and SUNY. PSC members were in the state capital again Tuesday as part of the NYSUT Committee of 100 lobby day. Photos and coverage of the Higher Education Action Day are posted here on the NYSUT website. Search the hashtag #BringTheMoney on Twitter or Facebook for much more content.
Get the PSC’s Budget Advocacy Materials
PSC is using this booklet to explain to lawmakers how New York must invest in full-time faculty, adjuncts and advisors to fulfill the promise of CUNY. The union’s budget demands are described here on one page. This handout, called “The Facts about CUNY Adjuncts,” is helping to inform legislators about why an increase in adjunct pay to $7,000 per course is essential to student success.
Urge Your Legislators to Invest in CUNY
You can have a voice in the budget campaign by sending this letter urging support for the PSC’s budget demands.
Stronger by 1,300!
Last Monday, the Supreme Court heard a case meant to limit unions’ power to stand together for a better life. The PSC has been preparing for an anti-union Janus ruling for more than a year. We rose to the challenge last week with a CUNY-wide organizing blitz that led more than 1,300 of our CUNY colleagues to sign the new, stronger union membership card. At the first bargaining session for the next contract, on March 14, the PSC bargaining team will make it clear that we represent a powerful membership. Increase the union’s power as we start contract negotiations; click here and sign the new card, designed to keep our union strong after the Janus ruling. There is still time to be counted before the negotiations begin.
Standing Together for All Working People
Two days before the Janus hearing, PSC members rallied in Foley Square with thousands of union members from across the state. It was a show of unity, demonstrating New York unions’ continued commitment to fight for a better life for all working people. PSC members at the rally were shown in photos that appeared in the Daily News and international press. Here’s a great slideshow of the event. PSC members also traveled to Washington D.C. to join pro-union demonstrators on the steps of the Supreme Court as the Janus case was heard. Click here for photos.
Tell Albany: Wall St Must Pay Its Share
Join the PSC and Allies at a Press Conference and Demonstration —Fri., Mar. 9, 1 PM
The PSC is helping to organize a demonstration and press conference calling for partial restoration of the state’s Stock Transfer Tax this Friday, March 9, at 1 PM outside the New York Stock Exchange at the intersection of Broad and Wall Streets. Email Fran Clark at [email protected], if you can join us.
The event is part of a statewide campaign for more progressive taxation coordinated by the Strong Economy for All Coalition. Restoring part of the Stock Transfer Tax is a way to ensure that the brokers and large banks that benefit most from the new federal tax law pay their fair share in New York. New York currently rebates $14 billion a year in Stock Transfer Taxes to brokers. A mere 0.5% transfer tax on stock buybacks would raise $2 billion a year. A negligible tax on high-dollar and high-frequency trades would mean $5.5 billion per year for affordable housing, healthcare and investment in CUNY and New York’s schools. Here’s a Facebook event. Please share it and invite friends.
Solidarity
The PSC stands in solidarity with the brave teachers of West Virginia and with our colleagues of the University and College Union currently on strike in the UK to defend their pension. Click here for a statement congratulating the West Virginia teachers on their victory and here for a statement supporting our academic colleagues across the pond.
