Vote Yes on “7k or Strike!” Thursday April 26th at the Graduate Center

All hands on deck! The Graduate Center chapter of PSC-CUNY is voting on a resolution to strike unless adjuncts win a $7k per course minimum wage in the next PSC-CUNY contract. If we don’t get it, shut it down! Now is our chance to take a real stand against austerity, while there’s still anything left to defend. 7k or Strike!

This important vote will be held Thursday, April 26, 12:30-2pm in room 5414 and is open to all GC chapter members. We need as many people as possible to come out in support of a strike if adjuncts don’t get 7k.

For decades the standard of living for most of CUNY’s workers has been ground down, while the lowest tier of its educational workforce – adjunct faculty – has become larger and more impoverished. Previous PSC-CUNY contracts have only exacerbated this race to the bottom by widening the gap between adjuncts and full-time faculty. In the process the PSC has promoted poverty wages for CUNY adjuncts, reinforced their second-class status in the CUNY community, and devalued not just the labor of all CUNY workers, but also the education our students receive.

The PSC’s business unionist strategy – politely lobbying Democrats, cajoling management behind closed doors, and mobilizing its membership like set pieces, from the top down – has proven an abysmal failure. The PSC was the first to endorse Bill de Blasio for re-election and got absolutely nothing in return. The PSC regularly wastes time, money, and petroleum making lobbying trips to Albany, and has absolutely nothing to show for it. In the face of the controlled demolition of the CUNY system by the forces of austerity, the PSC goes behind closed doors to politely beg for table scraps, and comes away empty handed every time.

Meanwhile, teachers in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and Arizona are leading by example.  The public sector teachers’ movement is rising because it doesn’t play by the rules that the PSC follows – rules that rig the game against public education. Strikes are illegal in every state where these teachers are organizing. But the teachers who are leading the national movement against austerity know that there’s no such thing as an illegal strike – only a failed one.

Public education workers are on the move. It’s time for CUNY to follow.

7k or Strike!