PSC Delegate Assembly 11/21/24 - Notes + Proposed Resolution for 12/19/24

From the President’s report:

 Current events/election

In the wake of Trump election, the PSC plans to serve as an incubator and facilitator of struggle to protect the most vulnerable communities--including many of our students and their communities--in combination with other organizations on and off campus.

The PSC plans to provide a forum to discuss and enact the protection of free speech on campuses through new Title VI policy guidelines. The union also aims to address the chilling of speech that is taking place as a result of new federal guidelines and current political context.

The PSC will fight to protect and advance rights of Organized labor via the NLRB, federal law, and even the NYS Taylor Law (which provides some protections to unions eve as it prevents striking).

President Davis noted that we need a “resurgent Left” that is beholden to principles, not a political party—but does not play purity politics, but rather builds sustainable coalitions. That believes in collective action. That knows that society, and our economy, do not have to be a zero-sum games. The PSC can lead in the effort to build this new formation.

Contract update:

Pickets have been successful--CUNY is feeling the heat: they know we are not shrinking. CUNY is finally getting very serious at the table—now they are much more prepared and engaged than they have been in the past due the pressure we’ve put on them.

CUNY offers: 4 years, across the board raises and retroactive: 3% in 2023, 3% in 2024, 3.25% in 2025, and 3.5% in 2026, and some cash. But one-time, lump sum payments are insufficient—we need recurring funds for raises.

There is real resistance on CUNY’s part to some of our most important issues. Two examples: 1) Looks like CUNY will agree to extend remote work agreement, but it’s not what we set out for: we want a provision IN the contract, an entitlement, and they are refusing to put it in the contract. 2) Adjunct multi-year appointment (Provision E)—CUNY proposes a 2-year (not the current 3-year) contract after 12 consecutive semesters teaching two classes. Not good enough for us!

CUNY is nervous about the Governor’s budget in February—they want the PSC contract in there. Is it possible to get it funded if the contract is not in the Governor’s budget? Yes, but it’s more difficult politically. CUNY wants to nail down the contract before January. This gives us leverage!

We have urgency, too—38 bargaining sessions is enough. But we won’t leave the table until we have a strong contract.

PSC wants a 5-year contract, not 4. There will be funds in addition to across the board increases, but there’s struggle over that.

PSC latest proposal for adjuncts: $8K per 3-credit course. CUNY proposes $6,350 for a 3-credit course, which would simply mean the general wage increase and no other equity increase. This is unacceptable to the bargaining team. See formal union contract updates here:

https://psc-cuny.org/issues/contract-apeoplescuny/

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Upcoming at the December 19, DA: PSC and NYCERS Israeli Investments Divestment Resolution [click on link to see the text of the resolution]

Please note that this resolution has been proposed but has not yet passed and can be amended.

 

Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 26, 2024 at 1:15 AM

    The proposed Israeli investments divestment resolution is another attempt from those who are anti-semitic to attack Israel. These proposals only criticize Israel. No other country, even those with very low levels of human rights and civil liberties are censured.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousDecember 5, 2024 at 4:23 PM

    These false accusations of anti-semitism endanger us all.

    International law experts, including UN officials, describe the Israeli war on Gaza as a genocide, I don't want PSC funds to be any part of this horrific violence. And I would support other efforts to divest PSC funds from bankrolling war crimes! The whatabout-ism is a tired trope. Let's not fund human rights violations anywhere!


    From United Nation’s Human Rights Council, Anatomy of a Genocide: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967 (March 25, 2024), p. 24.


    “93. The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group. This report finds that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups’ members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part. Genocidal acts were approved and given effect following statements of genocidal intent issued by senior military and government officials.



    “94. Israel has sought to conceal its eliminationist conduct of hostilities sanctioning the commission of international crimes as IHL-abiding. Distorting IHL customary rules, including distinction, proportionality and precautions, Israel has de facto treated an entire protected group and its life-sustaining infrastructure as ‘terrorist’ or ‘terrorist-supporting’, thus transforming everything and everyone into either a target or collateral damage, hence killable or destroyable. In this way, no Palestinian in Gaza is safe by definition. This has had devastating, intentional effects, costing the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians, destroying the fabric of life in Gaza and causing irreparable harm to its entire population.



    “95. Israel’s genocide on the Palestinians in Gaza is an escalatory stage of a long-standing settler colonial process of erasure. For over seven decades this process has suffocated the Palestinian people as a group – demographically, culturally, economically and politically – seeking to displace it and expropriate and control its land and resources. The ongoing Nakba must be stopped and remedied once and for all. This is an imperative owed to the victims of this highly preventable tragedy, and to future generations in that land.



    ReplyDelete

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