SLU union meeting 05.06.24Update from colleagues on arrest and police presence at the CCNY encampment: Traumatizing experience. A SLU colleague was issued a summons for protesting at CCNY. However, approximately 30 students, staff, and faculty arrested at the CCNY encampment got felony charges. They were charged with burglary. Note: Columbia University students got misdemeanor charges. Shocked at the level of violence and brutality meted out against students. A SLU student got a police-inflicted concussion. How can SLU support students (including providing emotional support, assignment extension, and more)? Chancellor’s statement on the events: Frustrating Maddening Key Issues Raised: Process for identifying all SLU students arrested at the encampment/protests. Address the ongoing criminalization of students, faculty, and staff. Process and plan for supporting SLU students arrested or injured at protests. Address NYPD’s use of force on CUNY campuses. Address the suppression/repression of free speech on CUNY campuses. Create space for the SLU community to gather and discuss the moment we are in. Concretize a student support action plan (assignment extensions, and more) Grade boycott (at other universities). Proposed Demands and Next Steps Strategize SLU’s response to campus encampment and CUNY’s response (free speech suppression, NYPD on campus, criminalization of students, staff, and faculty). Actions: Draft letter on offering care and support to the SLU community. Draft letter on unfolding events at CCNY and across CUNY campuses from SLU as a social justice school. Remember the real demands. Identify opportunities to co-create with the student unions on ways to collaborate with labor unions. Plan a SLU community assembly scheduled for next week (5/17 more information will be shared with this group) Develop strategy/response for SLU’s commencement planning (if needed) Letter to Chancellor regarding Hochul’s antisemitism lawyers on CUNY campuses. Overall Possible Demands Demand CUNY drop all protest encampment-related charges. Endorse the five demands developed by student organizers. Amnesty for all students and faculty arrested at the CUNY/CCNY protests. Cops off campus. Other Possible PSC/SLU Actions and Next Steps Schedule a follow up meeting of SLU/PSC (mindful of commencement walk through schedule to avoid scheduling conflicts). Community Assembly (tentatively scheduled for 5/17 in the evening). Discussion/Report Back from the AGC meeting on May 1st SLU Leadership: Speak to SLU’s advisory board about aligning SLU’s investments to its social justice values. Open to a discussion with faculty and staff after speaking to the advisory board and lawyers (he knows) about the issue. Outreach to the Labor Advisory Board regarding labor’s interests and investment in the issue. Unique opportunity to engage the Labor Advisory Board. Raise the issue of free speech and the right to protest with SLU trustees. Seek out opportunities to organize and engage with other CUNY presidents. What can we do as a college? Draft and issue a SLU statement on student care and provide an analysis of the overall situation at CUNY re: the 5 Demands, free speech repression and use of police force at CCNY and other CUNY campuses. Outreach to the student union and retrieve letter that was drafted post AGC meeting; identify ways to co-create with the student union; and capitalize on this teaching moment on ways to act in solidarity with labor unions. Support and amplify students’ demands: Cops Off Campus and Free Speech! Stand in solidarity with UAW at NYU and Columbia. CUNY? Broader SLU concerns: What are our requests to SLU’s advisory board? Will there be a student speaker at commencement? What if there is not a student speaker? The report from colleagues is that there will be an alum speaker. Actions at SLU’s commencement and contingency planning. What is the public library’s protocol/plan if there is disruption? SLU-wide assembly planning committee to frame the issue and plan the assembly. Identify and discuss any safety precautions for SLU because of the encampment/protests. A reminder to name the problem and connect this moment to a history of traumatization. Align with CUNY students on the free speech vs. justice argument. CUNY-wide Community Concerns: Use of NYPD’s Strategic Response Group on campus. Deployment of NYPD on CUNY students. Militarization of CUNY campuses (we should pushback). Infiltration that is taking place on CUNY campuses. Examining the role of police as agents of a fascist state. Better understand commencement contingency planning based on CUNY Law School action last year. Antisemitism Lawyers on Campus: Do not speak to lawyers without union representation. Have these Hochul lawyers visited SLU yet? No obligation to speak to antisemitism lawyers if they come to SLU. Volunteer to write to the chancellor (?). Other Issues to Consider: Ways to incorporate SUNY into the conversation. Agree on a timeline for getting the advisory board to issue a solidarity statement. Follow up with student leaders to obtain a statement developed by SLU’s student union. Discussion on whether to endorse the five demands. Two colleagues voiced opposition. Suggestions: bring as many people together as possible and keep the conversation as broad as possible. Create space for dialogue on ending the repression and militarization of CUNY. Use the community assembly space to focus on the root cause of the problem and the real demands. Timeline: Next PSC/SLU meeting for the week of 5/13. Community Assembly planning committee met on 5/8. The tentative date for SLU’s community assembly is 5/17. Release statements to SLU community. Statement of Care (ASAP) SLU Solidarity Statement (ASAP) Other (?) Information shared at the PSC/SLU meeting on 5/6: Monday, May 6th: CUNY-wide worker’s assembly Reflect on and analyze the (heated) conjuncture and then move to discuss, deliberate, and democratically decide how to best: Respond to the recent repression of our students and colleagues by the NYPD and CUNY administration, Plan for the upcoming (Thursday, May 9th) emergency Delegate Assembly and Continue to stand in solidarity with our courageous students and with the Palestinian people. RSVP to the zoom here: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYpd-yuqD0qG9QmOddmTcDpwEYAUhsipuEH CCNY President’s Statement on Encampment: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/presidentsoffice/blog/presidents-statement-encampment Statement of Solidarity that the encampment put out: https://bit.ly/cgsestatement Action letter designed for faculty & staff to pressure the Chancellor & CCNY President to get all charges dropped for encampment arrestees: https://actionnetwork.org/letters […] “SLU union meeting 05.06.24”

Letter to President BrumbergMay 7, 2024 Dear Interim President Brumberg, As you know, on April 25th, CUNY students, workers and community members established the CUNY Gaza Solidarity Encampment at City College, in order to call for Five Demands: • Divest! Immediately divest from ALL companies complicit in the imperialist-zionist genocide, including weapons, tech and surveillance, and construction companies. Commit to full financial transparency regarding CUNY’s institutional investments. • Boycott! Ban all academic trips to the Zionist state, encompassing birthright, Fulbright, and perspective trips. Cancel all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions, including events, activities, agreements, and research collaborations. • Solidarity! Release a statement affirming the right of the Palestinian people to national liberation and the right of return. Protect CUNY students and workers who are attacked for speaking out against the genocide in Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinian liberation. Reinstate professors who have been fired for showing solidarity with Palestine. • Demilitarize! Demilitarize CUNY, Demilitarize Harlem! Get IOF and NYPD officers off all CUNY campuses, and end all collaboration, trainings and recruitment by imperialist institutions, including the CIA, Homeland Security and ROTC. Remove all symbols of US imperialism from our campuses: Rename the Colin Powell School of Global and Civic Leadership at CCNY and reinstate The Guillermo Morales and Assata Shakur Community and Student Center! • A People’s CUNY! We demand a fully-funded, free CUNY that is not beholden to zionist and imperialist private donors! Restore CUNY’s tuition-free status, protect the union, and adopt a fair contract for staff and faculty. On April 30th, CCNY management called the NYPD onto campus in response to the peaceful Encampment. The result was a militarized crackdown that terrorized and brutalized CGSE protesters, supporters and onlookers, and included the use of pepper spray and batons on students, workers and community members. The NYPD—including the Strategic Response Group, which the ACLU has declared one of the NYPD’s “most dangerous” units—wrought fear and violence on campus. At their hands, people exercising their First Amendment rights inside and outside the Encampment suffered broken bones, chemical burns, and other injuries. Close to 200 people were arrested; some, in violation of the law, were held without charges for over 36 hours. Now several CUNY community members are facing felony charges, whose gravity cannot be understated. It is essential that, as Interim President of the Graduate Center, you demonstrate support for any GC and CUNY community member who has suffered police brutality or legal repression. The PSC-GC Executive Committee asks you to: • Commit to academic amnesty for any GC-based organizer of the Encampment or protester arrested; no GC student should be penalized academically in their degree work at the GC. • Work to ensure that no GC students arrested or involved in organizing the Encampment will be retaliated against in their Graduate Assistant, Adjunct or other work duties across CUNY. • Identify financial resources at the GC that can be made available to those from the CGSE in need of legal support or compensation for belongings that were lost during the police raid. • Call on CUNY administration to refuse to participate in the prosecution of those arrested on April 30th. The night of April 30th saw an unprecedented assault on CUNY and on City College’s wider Harlem community. PSC leadership has already condemned the use of police force at the university and urged for the dropping of charges. It is essential that CUNY leadership on local campuses join this call and demonstrate concrete support for our students and workers, especially as they are being demonized by distorted “outside agitator” narratives. As CUNY students—both graduate and undergraduate—risk retaliation to mobilize around their Five Demands, and to call for CUNY to end its financial and academic ties to Israel and the industrial military complex, this is a moment where decisiveness from CUNY leadership is greatly needed. Signed, PSC-GC Executive Committee co-signed by PSC- […] “Letter to President Brumberg”

Taylor Law event 03.07.24 More than 100 people attended our The Taylor Law: The risks and rewards of striking in New York State event with Labor Historian Joshua Freeman. It was a hybrid event held at the School of Labor and Urban Studies. The video of the event can be found on our YouTube channel. Due to technical difficulties, you can’t see Josh until about 10 minutes into the video, but you can hear him and there are […] “Taylor Law event 03.07.24”

Chapter Rally Nov 15, 2023 150 PSC members – grad workers, staff, and faculty from the Grad Center and the professional schools showed up to fight for living wages and fair working conditions – and to express our anger at working under an expired contract. Students, faculty, staff unite! One struggle, one fight! Check out the speech made by Olivia […] “Chapter Rally Nov 15, 2023”

Hungry and Hot at the ASRC The Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) Graduate Center campus at CUNY, located adjacent to City College in Harlem, is supposed to be a state-of-the-art building, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in investments. It was part of the highest value project ever undertaken by the construction and financing authority DASNY. Its Clean Room and labs are extremely well resourced, with cutting-edge equipment for nanoscience and other research. However, labor conditions at the ASRC do not match these state-of-the-art research conditions. Workers at the ASRC oftentimes work long hours making affordable access to food imperative to their ability to continue to do science. However many workers we have spoken to have described their struggles to do something as simple as get lunch.  Unacceptable Food Options on Campus Students, faculty and staff at the ASRC can get snacks, cold sandwiches and preparable food like ramen by going to the Café on the bottom floor. They can do this when the cafe is properly stocked, but PSC has found that there are no options besides frozen meals available most days.  Nutritious hot meals are not readily available, and the coffee bar in the cafe has been broken for weeks, since March. Basic utensils like forks and spoons are frequently nowhere to be found. The PSC has spoken to many STEM workers who say they have simply skipped meals during the day because of the lack of food on campus. Some bring food from home and microwave it in its building’s kitchenettes, two of which have been converted to dual use kitchenettes and office spaces graduate students or the ASRC’s Sensor Center for Advanced Technology (CAT) Program office.  Putting the Onus on Workers to Find Food ASRC workers are told that, during lunch break they may walk nearly 20 minutes round-trip to similarly understocked cafes located across CCNY’s campus, or to “Farmer’s Fridge” vending machines which we found to be nearly completely out-of-stock upon our visit.  For hot food, ASRC workers are told to make use of CCNY’s cafeteria, located in the North Academic Center (NAC) a similar 20 minute round trip walk away from the ASRC.  At the time of our visit at only 11:30 am, stock at the cafeteria was reduced to exactly 6 pieces of chicken, some rice, and a handful of meatballs, some pasta, and other sides taking up only a portion of the relatively large serving area – an unreasonably small amount of food for a cafeteria claiming to serve not only the ASRC community, but the 10,000+ undergraduates in attendance at CCNY.  The small cafeteria was staffed by exactly one individual serving food and one person to ring us up. Still, this author found the cafeteria to be quite steeply priced at $11.95 for one piece of chicken, some yellow rice, and 4 broccoli florets on this occasion.  Off campus, the dining situation isn’t much better. The closest options to the ASRC are down a steep hill (which in itself poses issues around accessibility), at two delis. The first deli on two occasions has given this author food poisoning, and the second, seemingly aware of its position as the only real quick dining option anywhere near the ASRC, charges exorbitant prices for basic sandwiches ($11.50 for cold cut turkey with cheese on a roll).  More affordable dining options available to students include generally unhealthy options such as pizza and the on-campus halal truck – each a similar distance from the ASRC to the NAC. Healthier dining options do exist off-campus a bit further away, but charge somewhere in the $15 range for a lunch.  For these reasons and others, many faculty and staff at the ASRC opt to get their lunch delivered to them rather than go outside for lunch. This of course is not an economically sound option for students at the ASRC whose stipends are currently over $20k below a livable wage in New York City. Ideally, ASRC student workers should be able to grab a quick, affordable, healthy lunch so they can get back to actually doing the work that keeps the CUNY ASRC running.  In one of the most expensive buildings in CUNY’s system, why is management not advocating for adequate hot food options on campus or even ensuring consistently stocked, healthy prepared meals? Excessively Hot Temperatures at the ASRC Furthermore, workers at the ASRC were recently in the building without central cooling while temperatures in April reached 90 degrees. The ASRC is covered by a glass wrap, and workers were unable to lower blinds in their individual offices or open windows. While management provided fans and updates on temperatures, most workers, confused about a temperature-based remote work policy, remained at the campus to work in these unsafe and unreasonable temperatures. The cooling system is now up and running again, but because of the system’s logistics and timing, there is no way to guarantee the building will not reach similarly high temperatures again in the fall.  At a recent Labor-Management meeting, President Robin Garrell refused to negotiate with the PSC around a policy that would allow workers to be sent home when temperature limits were exceeded. She said it was a supervisor’s prerogative regarding whether workers can leave campus. This is an unacceptable state of conditions for workers and students, who are being treated as if their physical needs are irrelevant to the work they perform for CUNY. The PSC stands against such conditions, and urges any at the ASRC with questions or need for assistance to approach the union in person or via email (psccunygc@gmail.com). Want to get these posts delivered directly to your inbox? Subscribe to our site […] “Hungry and Hot at the ASRC”

*SLU workers met prior to the Labor Management meeting to discuss concerns and met again to make a plan for the LM meeting. All SLU workers are invited to participate in these meetings and take on different roles, […]