The Adjunct/Worker/Student Committee in Favor of a Strike at CUNY will be
holding a meeting this Wednesday, December 16th, at 4:00 p.m. The meeting will
be held in Room 305B of the Thomas Hunter building at Hunter College.
The announcement below explains the standpoint and objectives on the basis of
which the committee was formed last week. While this is a very busy time for
CUNY adjuncts, students and workers, it is important that we meet before the
end of this semester to discuss next steps; the plan is to keep it relatively
brief given everyone's jam-packed schedules..
Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow (Wednesday) at 4:00 p.m.!
********************
On December 9, a meeting of CUNY adjuncts and students voted to establish
the Adjunct/Worker/Student Committee in Favor of a Strike at CUNY. The meeting
was titled “Adjunct Poverty: How CUNY Runs On It; What It Means for Students;
What the Union Contract Struggle Is and Where It’s Going.” It was organized by
CUNY Contingents Unite at Hunter College in cooperation with the
Internationalist Club. Participants at the meeting stressed that poverty
pay and no job security for adjuncts are part of the growing inequality at the
City University of New York, whose administration and Board of Trustees oppose
the most basic interests of us all. With the union contract fight heating up,
while students face rising tuition and growing attacks on their right to
education, there is an urgent need for those who work and study at CUNY to
unite in struggle. Themes of the discussion included why adjuncts in
particular should vote “yes” on the strike authorization vote announced by the
Professional Staff Congress, and how this is connected to the fight for the
union to really take on CUNY’s infamous two-tier labor system. Speakers
emphasized the importance not only of voting for the union’s strike
authorization, but that a strike actually be prepared. This poses the need for
a massive upheaval of students together with those on the bottom of the labor
system, as well as bringing in the power of key sectors beyond the university
for effective resistance against New York State’s anti-worker Taylor Law, which
Democrats and Republicans from Albany to City Hall wield as a weapon against
labor's right to strike. On the basis of the discussion, the meeting voted
to establish the Adjunct/Worker/Student Committee in Favor of a Strike at CUNY.
Neither a substitute for the union nor bound by existing structures, it is a
means for adjuncts to work with students, other contingent employees and campus
workers in pursuit of these objectives. The meeting passed the following
resolution: Whereas, Five years have gone without a new union
contract, the situation of CUNY’s “contingent majority” is increasingly
intolerable, and a head-on fight against the two-tier labor system is long
overdue; and Whereas, The PSC members among us today stress how
crucial it is – especially for adjuncts – to vote “yes” on the strike
authorization vote the union has announced it will call; and
Whereas, Students have innumerable reasons to fight the growing inequality,
tuition, and increasing obstacles to getting an education at CUNY; and
Whereas, An effective fight against CUNY management must bring together all
sectors at the bottom of the labor system, large numbers of students, together
with “full-time” faculty as well as our sisters and brothers in DC 37, UNITE
HERE and other unions at CUNY and key sectors of labor and the oppressed
throughout the city; therefore Be it resolved, that we establish the
ADJUNCT/WORKER/STUDENT COMMITTEE IN FAVOR OF A STRIKE AT CUNY.* * * * *
If you would like to be part of this committee, or to get more
information, write cunycontingents@xxxxxxxxx, or call Sándor at (917) 520-5368.
