Contract Rally Sept. 29th

Dear Colleague: 

We have waited long enough for the CUNY Board of Trustees to put an economic offer on the table. It is time for us to demonstrate to the Board and the University administration that we need a good contract now.  The quality of education at CUNY—as well as our own economic stability—is at stake.  

On Monday, September 29, the union will organize a mass demonstration to deliver a simple message to the Board of Trustees and Chancellor Milliken: CUNY Needs a Raise!  If a good contract is important to you, then you should be there. Click here to confirm that you will join us. This time, we need everyone.  

We will assemble at 3:30 on Monday, September 29, at Baruch College, where the CUNY Board meets. After a spirited demonstration and picket outside the meeting, we will take our demand inside, to the college presidents, CUNY administration and trustees. We will call on the trustees and Chairperson Benno Schmidt to take responsibility for the university with which they are entrusted and get an economic offer on the table. The faculty and staff work our hearts out for CUNY: we deserve fair compensation.  

The union will need a mass presence to create momentum for a good economic offer. A handful of activists will not be enough. I am asking you to make the demonstration a priority: make time in your schedule, reorganize your day, do what you have to do to be there on Monday, September 29, from 3:30 to 5:30. (If you can’t come for the whole time, come for as much time as you can. If you need to ask for annual leave to attend during work hours, please ask now.) 

September 29:  3:30pm - 5:30pm
Baruch College Vertical Campus
55 Lexington Avenue (corner of 24th Street), NYC 

The union leadership has met with Chancellor Milliken about the need for an economic offer, and we believe he is working seriously to resolve the issue. But time is critical: after four years of rising costs, and with other union contracts in the city being settled, PSC members feel the urgency of settling now. A strong presence on September 29, five weeks before the gubernatorial election, will also help to send a public message about the importance of CUNY to the state as a whole.    

The PSC bargaining team continues to hold negotiating sessions with CUNY management and to make progress in discussions. Without an economic offer, however, we cannot move to a settlement. The bargaining team presents our demands forcefully, with extensive research, comparable contracts, salary comparisons, testimony from individual members and more. But our real power is you, the union members. And sometimes we need to make that power visible.  

That’s why we need every member to make September 29^th a priority. I hope to see you there.

In solidarity,

Barbara Bowen
President, PSC/CUNY