MAY DISPATCH
In this issue:
Call for solidarity with Chipotle workers
Why Roe v Wade is a labor issue
Latest updates on Palestine solidarity at CUNY
Rank and filer testimony from the Amazon United rally
UFT Elections
Mercy College adjuncts almost striking
Open bargaining and cooptation
RAFA at the Labor Notes conference in Chicago
Call for Solidarity with Chipotle Workers!
Following the historic wave of organizing spearheaded by Amazon and Starbucks workers, Chipotle workers in NYC are also trying to form a union. The plan to win a union at Chipotle relies on rallies, actions, and militancy. Winning the first fast food union in the country would be historic, but it hinges on good turnout from workers and allies in the labor movement. All supporters are encouraged to join two actions:
- Wed., May 18, noon, outside the Chipotle at 464 Park Ave. South, between 31st and 32nd in Manhattan
- Wed., May 25, noon, in Bryant Park
Especially if you'll be at the GC, SLU, or Guttman those days, show your solidarity by turning out! Chipotle workers need your support. And since many Chipotle workers are CUNY students, they would be awed to see solidarity from their teachers. The hours, wages, and scheduling issues at Chipotle get in the way of their education, so improving their working conditions will improve their learning conditions!
Why Roe v. Wade is a Labor Issue
Rank-and-file union members — especially in teachers’ unions — organizing independently from their leaderships have already played crucial roles in the fight for abortion rights in Argentina, Poland, and Ireland. If we want to fight the right wing and defend our rights, we need to build that kind of movement in the United States, tied directly to our workplaces and places of study, because that’s where our power lies– in the fact that they need us to make the world run. CUNY students, faculty, and staff are already organizing a cross-campus, cross-title CUNY For Abortion Rights committee, which you can join here. Please forward this link to your students and coworkers, or follow on Facebook or Instagram.
Just current CUNY students and workers make up more than half a million people. The sit-in movement to desegregate lunch counters began with just four college freshmen, and it spread across the entire South — imagine what we can do if we can mobilize even just a small portion of our forces. Already we have seen middle and high school students in Washington State and elsewhere organize walkouts for abortion rights. And we need to do that here. CUNY is unique in that we’re a whole bunch of different schools much closer together physically and closely interrelated organizationally than other public university systems. We have an advantage, and we can use that advantage to lead the way and be role models for other universities and other workplaces in New York and across the country.
On Friday, May 13, students, faculty, and staff at Brooklyn College walked out and held a rally, and on Saturday, May 14, many more members of the CUNY community marched for abortion rights at various events across New York City, including the Planned Parenthood National Day of Action march. Get in touch with CUNY For Abortion Rights to stay up to date with future actions and planning meetings.
Latest in Palestine solidarity at CUNY
CUNY Staff and Students Say No Bridges with Apartheid States
On Tuesday April 26th, Chancellor Matos-Rodriguez sent out a statement announcing that he and 12 CUNY college presidents were heading to the occupied Palestinian territories as part of a program called “Scholars as Bridge Builders.” This program, instituted by the Jewish Community Relations Council in 2019, markets its goals as “Building relationships, connecting communities, meeting challenges.” This academese obscures the fact that the JCRC is “Building Bridges” to a settler-colonial state (Israel) whose policies of ethnic segregation have earned it a designation as an apartheid state by Amnesty International as recently as February 2022. Felo and co. planned to tour Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, and condescended to dip into Ramallah if time permitted. This direct appeal to Israeli universities comes on the heels of an IDF military order to restrict the rights of Palestinian universities “in the Judea and Samaria Region” to hire whomever they please. The delegation also decided to tour the area on the weekend of Eid-al-Fitr, and in the weeks before the annual remembrance day of the Nakba. Finally, it came at a time when Israel was escalating the violence it uses to maintain its domination of Palestine.
The indifference to the oppression of Palestinian academics shown by the CUNY administration is exceeded only by their crass insensitivity to their own Palestinian and Muslim students. In response to this, comrades from Within Our Lifetime, Cuny For Palestine, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Cross-CUNY Working Group Against Racism and Colonialism, the PSC’s Anti-Racism Committee, and RAFA came together at a moment’s notice to coordinate a response. Within a few days, CUNY For Palestine promulgated a statement condemning the visit. A protest was also organized to coincide with a snap rally against Israeli violence at Herald Square. Around 100 comrades from across CUNY and the Palestine solidarity movement came together in front of the Graduate Center to express their outrage, and to name and shame those who had joined the visit to the occupied territories. As speakers from the different groups connected the oppression of Muslim students to CUNY’s pro-Israel policies, regular New Yorkers stopped to show support, and passing drivers showed their solidarity. The event was followed by an Iftar at John Jay, where people talked about the way to move Palestinian solidarity forward at CUNY. The ability to turn out a strong show of support and to coordinate a response to CUNY’s complicity with apartheid regimes shows that our community is no longer ready to accept business as usual. CUNY is an international institution, and international solidarity with our oppressed comrades abroad is as important as our agitations and struggles at home.
Resistance to John Jay administration’s cancelation of Palestine Lives event
CUNY administration came back from their tour of Israeli universities to cancel a long-planned student-organized event at John Jay College days before it was supposed to happen. The Palestine Lives Conference was organized by John Jay Students for Justice in Palestine, the John Jay student government, Within Our Lifetime, and Existence is Resistance as part of the commemoration of the massacres and ethnic cleansing behind the establishment of Israeli settler colonial rule in 1948 (“Nakba Day”). The pretext for canceling it was that there is not enough “security”. This decision is part of a broader zionist backlash against Palestine liberation organizing at CUNY and contributes to a generalized climate of anti-Palestinian racism and political repression at CUNY. Hundreds have already signed CUNY for Palestine’s petition demanding that the administration reverse its decision, reimburses the organizers, and commits to Palestinian liberation.
Grad Center chapter events on Internationalism and Palestinian Solidarity
As part of the PSC’s Resolution In Support of the Palestinian People, the Political Education Subcommittee of the Graduate Center Chapter has been organizing events on international labor solidarity. The first of these, which took place on the 30th of March, was centered on the question of internationalism at large. We heard from comrades within the PSC (Corinna Mullin from the International Committee and Lawrence Johnson from the Anti-Racism Committee) about the history of global labor solidarity and the fight for internationalism within CUNY itself. We also heard from Lisa Milos from UPTE-CWA 9119 Local 7 about individual resolutions passed in support of struggles abroad by labor unions on the West Coast. This was followed by a conversation about how we, as the PSC, can orient ourselves towards international solidarity. The second meeting, which took place on May 6th, focused explicitly on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions as a strategy for labor solidarity with Palestine. We heard from Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource and Organising Centre, and Michael Letwin of Labor for Palestine, about how unions like ours can support the BDS picket line, and about inspiring examples of solidarity like the Block the Boat Campaign. We then had a long conversation about what concrete steps we can take as a union. The debate was extremely constructive, built around a shared sense of the urgency of international solidarity within the PSC. The Political Education Subcommittee hopes to continue organizing events like this in the Fall. If you are at the GC (or really any college), and have ideas about events you’d like to see around the question of Palestine or labor struggles generally, email Giacomo.bianchino@hotmail.com.
Bringing Solidarity from RAFA to Amazon Union - PSC Rank and Filer testimony
It was great fun to bring Rank and File Action solidarity to the rally for LDJ5 workers on April 24 in Staten Island. Being able to show solidarity with working class workers of color is critical for us as too often academic unionists are perceived as not connected on the ground. Christian Smalls, Derreck Palmer, Angelika Maldonado, Michelle Valentin Nieves, and other young organizers of color have created an absolute fear of revolution in the hearts of the crony capitalists of Amazon. Although the vote for the second warehouse went down, the organizers are not daunted and continue to fight bringing their issues nationwide. Lots of politicians came out for the rally but the most interesting voices at the rally were the organizers themselves–their stories of being fired countless times, of not getting enough hours to survive, and constant injuries due to the work showed the need for unions everywhere and especially with the largest, most abusive corporate overlords. The best part for me was meeting one of the organizers who is also an artist who has been painting the union revolution with ALU, and I was honored to donate and buy a print to support the movement. #StatenIsland gets a bad rap in #NYC and this was the best time I’ve ever had in that borough. The youth of color and allies are unionizing corporate USA and we as academic unionists need to be there for them in person, online, and in donating to the cause. #SolidarityForever #BlackLivesMatter #BlackJoy
By Stuart Chen-Hayes, Professor/Dept. Chair, CLLSE, Lehman College
UFT Elections
United Federation of Teachers - the public school teachers union in NYC - has long been dominated by the notoriously undemocratic and corrupt leadership of Michael Mulgrew and the Unity Caucus. But New York teachers don’t just sit around and wistfully watch the radical teacher uprisings from Los Angeles to Chicago to West Virginia. They built rank and file power through union democracy caucuses like Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE), which took part in running an opposition slate in UFT’s elections this month. Although the United for Change slate lost the overall election to the Unity Caucus, it seriously undermined the old guard’s hold on the union, with 42% teachers voting for United for Change and winning the high school executive board. The fight for a democratic union includes a fight for a robust election process. UFT elections continued to be marred by confusing mail-in ballots, lack of electronic voting, and election violations, which all led to low voter turnout and awareness. Nevertheless, we are inspired by our union siblings in UFT and their ability to put on a competitive election with multiple slates and close results rather than the single-slate system currently dominating the PSC.
Mercy College adjuncts almost go on strike
Leading up to May Day, Mercy College adjunct workers called on the NY higher ed unions to show solidarity by turning out for their planned strike actions. Mercy College is a private college in Westchester, where 70% of courses are taught by adjuncts. Mercy administration has been negotiating a contract with Faculty Forward/SEIU Local200 representing adjuncts for over two years. After the threat of a strike, the union and the administration finally reached an agreement. While strengthening job security, this contract fails to provide living wages, increasing salaries from $3000/course to $3400 per course over the next three years - an abysmally low and insulting rate. The new contract does signal a major concession by Mercy, making the college a union shop where all adjunct instructors are required to join the union. We stand in solidarity with our fellow higher ed workers in the NY area, and call for a truly visionary and ambitious pay goal for adjunct instructors, in line with rampant inflation and out of control living costs. Time of 15K/course!
Open bargaining and cooptation
RAFA is committed to political education and campaigning for opening up and democratizing the bargaining processes in the PSC. After our note on open bargaining in the April issue of the RAFA Dispatch, and multiple PSC delegates bringing up the issue on the Delegate Assembly listserv, there are reports of our union leadership mentioning open bargaining in recent chapter meetings and Campus Action Team meetings. Unfortunately, some of those instances have been claims that the PSC has “always had some form of open bargaining”. Let’s review what open bargaining means: Rank and file union members, and even non-union community members, are invited into the negotiating sessions to observe and testify. Members are involved in every step of the process. They work on title and issue-focused committees, they participate in planning meetings, do outreach, and conduct research. Open bargaining lends the union legitimacy and real power – power that we give up by continuing to bargain behind closed doors. Allowing members to silently observe some session or trotting out selected members for testimony is not sufficient to harness the power of open bargaining. Open bargaining is something many other unions do, such as faculty and staff unions at Oregon State and UMass Boston whose leaders came to explain how they do it in a Grad Center chapter event last semester.
Labor Notes conference
RAFA is proud to take part in the Labor Notes conference, an enormous gathering of grassroots activists and rank and file organizers that will take place in Chicago in June. In a social media panel alongside Tik Tok-using teachers, Strippers United, and Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee, RAFA members will share what we learned from streaming a PSC zoom meeting in the fall of 2020 using Twitch, allowing interactions and commentary that was sorely missing. RAFA members will also take part in a workshop on institutional debt that draws on our participation in the CUNY Debt Reveal and ongoing debt organizing with the Debt Collective and Public Higher Education Workers network.