5-27 email

To George Sanchez, chair of the CSI chapter of the PSC,

We, the undersigned members of the CSI chapter of the PSC call for, under Article IX, section 7 of the PSC constitution, for a special meeting of our chapter. The purpose of the meeting is to debate and vote on the resolution attached below. It is crucial that we develop an effective response to the attacks that the CUNY administration and the Governor of New York are carrying out against our members, other CUNY workers, our students and the mission of our hallowed institution. An injury to one is an injury to all. This meeting should be scheduled for this week. Jay Arena, Chris Santiago, Ganesh Trichur, Jean Halley, Maryann Feola, Elizabeth Kane, Ozelm Goner, Alexander Zevin, Ismael Garcia-Colon, Ananya Mukherjea, Jeff Bussolini, Ilgin Erdem, Saadia Toor

No Layoffs, No Non-Reappointments, No Pay Cuts—We Unite with our Students and All Workers to Demand Free Public services, Jobs, and Equal Rights for All: Proposed Resolution for the CSI Chapter of the Professional Staff Congress

TO: CSI President William Fritz, CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, and Governor Andrew Cuomo

WHEREAS the COVID-19 crisis has caused unprecedented physical, emotional, and economic hardship for the students, faculty, and staff of the university, many of whose families have been thrown into chaos due to layoffs, illness, or both, and

WHEREAS adjunct faculty, who teach a majority of classes at CUNY, have faced decades of unstable work, low wages and hyper-exploitation that have left many financially unprepared for this crisis, and

WHEREAS the wellbeing of the faculty and staff are inextricably linked to the wellbeing of the students who attend the university, and

WHEREAS, the federal government has since March, 2020 given away trillions of dollars in public money to bankrupt banks and corporations, while draconian cuts are imposed on education and other public services, and

WHEREAS, America's billionaires, the largest recipients of this public money, saw their wealth increase by $434 billion during the course of the global pandemic, and

WHEREAS, New York State has 122 billionaires with a total wealth of over $525 billion; the wealth of those in New York with over $2 Million in net worth is over $1 Trillion.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the members of the College of Staten Island Chapter of the PSC that we join other workers in demanding that the State of New York TAKE BACK New York’s share of the trillions given to the rich by immediately imposing a graduated tax averaging 5% per annum on the wealth of all those with more than $2 million in net worth, and

RESOLVED that the members of the College of Staten Island Chapter of the PSC join with other workers to demand that these new taxes be used to finance a massive direct-government employment public works and services to guarantee free, quality education through university, health care, housing, mass transportation and clean energy—FOR ALL who live here, including all immigrants and the formerly incarcerated and,

RESOLVED, that as immediate measures to prepare for such an expansion of public education, we demand that the college and university place an immediate and indefinite moratorium on all layoffs, furloughs, pay-cuts, and non-reappointments, and

RESOLVED that we demand Equal Pay, Rights and Working Conditions for Equal Work—full time faculty, adjuncts, graduate students and staff. This means ending all two-tier and multi-tier schemes. No Pay Below $20 an hour. Adequate staffing in all areas and

RESOLVED that we demand compensation for hours spent transitioning to remote labor. We own all materials we produce for online work.

RESOLVED that we demand no unsafe work. All CSI and CUNY workers will stay home with full pay until it’s safe to return. At minimum, this would be at the time new cases are brought down to near zero and there is a national plan of testing and tracing. In person teaching would then be restored.

RESOLVED, that we recognize that, since our basic demands can only be funded by TAKING BACK the money given to the rich, and that this demand can only be won by a mass mobilization of all workers, therefore the only way workers and students at CUNY can win is by making our fight the fight of the entire working class and,

RESOLVED, members of the College of Staten Island Chapter of the PSC will back up these demands by forming democratically-run strike committees at each campus, selected at popular assemblies, to prepare for a strike to win these demands

RESOLVED, members of the College of Staten Island Chapter of the PSC, call on other PSC chapters and the Delegate Assembly, to debate and vote on these demands, and back up these demands by forming democratically-run strike committees at each campus, selected at popular assemblies, to prepare for a strike to win these demands and prepare for a mass strike to win them.

RESOLVED, members of the College of Staten Island Chapter of the PSC, call on other public sector unions across New York State, to debate and vote on these demands, and back up these demands by forming democratically-run strike committees at each campus, selected at popular assemblies, to prepare for a strike to win these demands and prepare for a mass strike to win them.

RESOLVED that the PSC will call for a democratically-run state-wide popular assembly with students and workers to debate and vote on these demands, and prepare for a mass strike to win them.