RAFA brings the heat with the Summer 2022 Dispatch!
Circulated via Mailchimp on July 21, 2022
In this issue…
RAFA at the Labor Notes Conference
RAFA and MAC Townhall on Democratizing the Bargaining
Palestinian Solidarity Organizing at CUNY
The Platform Committee’s Vision for Equity and Job Protection
Public Sector Cross-Union Strategizing Summit
RAFA at Labor Notes
In June, members of Rank and File Action and other PSC members went to the Labor Notes conference in Chicago. With an unprecedented 4000 labor militants attending, it is no surprise Jacobin billed it the beating heart of the US labor movement. A combination of big sessions with the likes of ALU’s Chris Smalls and Bernie Sanders and dozens of workshops, Labor Notes was an intense and inspiring immersion into a vision of rank and file-led, militant, democratic unionism that Labor Notes has long championed and supported.
Highlights from the conference include a 200-people strong higher education industry meet-up, where undergraduate and graduate workers, staff, and faculty of all ranks shared rank and file challenges and wins. Multiple workshops on open bargaining brought home the fact that open bargaining is an essential tool for building union power and winning good contracts, no matter the size of the union (nudge nudge, PSC).
RAFA members helped lead workshops on campus institutional debt and using social media to organize. Connecting with militant rank and file organizers across different industries gave us a boost of energy to keep fighting for a more democratic and powerful PSC.
Packed house for the higher ed meetup
Crowd at the ‘Using Social Media to Organize’ workshop
Gerry and Sofya speak about using Twitch to democratize union meetings at the Using Social Media to Organize workshop.
Joint RAFA-MAC Townhall on Democratizing Bargaining
In late June, RAFA and Member Action Coalition of the United University Professionals (the SUNY union) held a joint townhall to discuss democratizing the bargaining process in both of our unions.
UUP has begun bargaining its contract, and the PSC will begin next year. Members of both unions are facing stagnant wages further slashed by inflation, contingency, unhealthy working conditions in the continuing pandemic, and more. These challenges are best tackled by a powerful union with members who are informed, engaged, and ready to fight for the contract they deserve. However, both the UUP and the PSC currently embrace undemocratic and nontransparent bargaining processes where they essentially bargain behind a wall of silence with minimal and tokenized engagement from rank and file members and limited and vague communication.
At the townhall, we heard from Barbara Madeloni of Labor Notes and Marisa Chappell of United Academics of Oregon State University how other unions break down that wall of silence, from sharing every proposal on their websites to inviting rank and file union members to bargaining sessions. These practices build union power and result in concrete wins at the bargaining table. Moreover, as Barbara pointed out, open bargaining leads to member militancy: union members who are ready and willing to escalate tactics all the way to strikes—yes, even in states where unjust laws make public worker strikes illegal. We look forward to continuing building with MAC comrades.
RAFA Members Participate in Palestine Solidarity Organizing at CUNY
Several RAFA members participated in Palestine solidarity actions via CUNY for Palestine in June. These actions were organized around the New York City Council Higher Education committee “hearing” on alleged anti-semitism at CUNY initially planned for June 6 and then rescheduled and held on June 30th. This included a social media and email/phone call campaign targeting the CUNY Chancellor to oppose the CUNY administration’s participation in this sham hearing as well as participating New York City Council members.
CUNY for Palestine also released a statement to explain how the “hearing” is part of a broader zionist backlash, including defamation, character assassination and harassment, that followed the successful mobilizations across CUNY in the spring of 2021 against Israel’s accelerated settler colonial and apartheid violence. CUNY4Palestine also released its own “Peoples Resolution” as a response to the resolution presented by council members Eric Dinowitz and Gale Brewer “calling upon the City University of New York to compile data on bias incidents and hate crimes.” The CUNY4Palestine resolution details numerous incidents of racism, particularly anti-Palestinian racism, across CUNY that are intentionally obscured by the New York City council sham hearing. It also announces the organizing of a People’s Hearing for Fall 2022 that will bring together various anti-racist, anti-colonial, and social justice formations at CUNY to shine a light on these incidents as well as other forms of institutional racism at CUNY and to demand action from the administration. More details to follow!
As part of its support for Palestine liberation solidarity organizing at CUNY, RAFA also endorsed the statement “CUNY Jewish Antizionists in Solidarity with Palestinian Liberation,” signed by Jewish students, workers and alumni, as well as organizations (CUNY or Non-CUNY) that wish to demonstrate their “solidarity with Palestine liberation organizing at CUNY and opposition to the weaponization of antisemitism to undermine this organizing.”
The Platform Committee’s Vision for Equity and Job Protection for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel
Summary of the Vision:
The Platform Committee was established as a subcommittee of the PSC’s Committee for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel (CAP) back in 2019. It met for two years with the goal of preparing for the next round of contract bargaining. This spring, members of the Platform Committee reconvened to move forward with the agenda. They reviewed earlier work, incorporated suggestions and created the following platform document, “The Vision for Equity and Job Protection for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel.”
The Vision is based on the following principles:
• Move toward one faculty, one staff, one CUNY
• Attain equity in pay, benefits and job protection
• Strengthen job security to eliminate contingency
• Embrace rather than replace adjunct faculty
• Bargain for all to receive the same benefits with respect to health care, sick leave, disability insurance, family leave, tuition reimbursement, etc
• Smaller classes
The Vision includes multiple provisions to improve job protection including, introducing an Adjunct CCE after five years of service, a seniority system that starts when hired and broad eligibility for the three-year contract for protection prior to obtaining the CCE. As well, it expands options for moving to full-time secure work that include additional dedicated lecture lines and other mechanisms for advancement toward full-time work. The Vision takes the approach that transitions to more full-time positions or increasing course load for some should not be done by displacing other adjuncts or reducing their course load.
The salary demand is for $11,000 for three contact hours with the recognition that parity must include additional compensation for the costs of contingency. Other provisions include compensation for course cancellations and for over-tallies, equity in benefits, including enhanced health insurance eligibility, health benefits in retirement, and disability insurance. The Vision also calls for an end to the workload restriction known as the “9/6” rule where adjuncts are limited in the number of courses they can teach.
We need to dismantle the multi-tier system that perpetuates significant inequities, exacerbates increased work demands, undermines faculty governance in the university, and weakens the union.
Summary of the Work of the Platform Committee:
The Platform Committee was established as a subcommittee of the PSC’s Committee for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel (CAP) back in 2019. The Platform Committee was established with the idea of preparing for the next round of contract bargaining. In order to bring adjunct faculty and part-timers across CUNY together to build our strength and better influence the bargaining agenda, the Platform Committee felt we needed to develop a visionary platform that would address our key needs, undermine the two-tier system, and serve as the basis for contract bargaining. While developing and circulating the platform was the first goal, a second, equally important goal, was strategizing about how to best to wage the fight to win these visionary demands.
So, the Committee worked for two years on the platform which was presented at a CAP meeting in May 2021 and a great discussion ensued. The next steps of incorporating suggestions and finalizing a draft did not take place right away when CAP meetings appeared to be on pause.
This spring members of the Platform Committee reconvened to move forward with the agenda. Members reviewed the earlier work, incorporated suggestions and created the following platform document, “The Visions for Equity and Job Protection for Adjunct Faculty and Part-Time Personnel.” New members have joined the Platform Committee and contributed in many different ways to its work. This Vision is being circulated with the goal of engaging others, getting feedback and seeking support for the Vision’s basic principles and its provisions (or most of them).
For more information or to get involved with the Vision Statement organizing, contact: clarkehc@aol.com
Public Sector Cross-Union Strategizing Summit
This year, most of the 300,000+ NYC public sector workforce are going into negotiations with the Mayor Adams administration. The stakes are high with inflation spiraling and an austerity-minded mayor in office. Nurses, teachers, and other essential workers in this city are facing unprecedented burnout, a fresh round of budget cuts, and new economic challenges within our communities. As with all things, mounting any resistance must be led by rank and file efforts.
We are stronger together, and plans are in the works for a cross-union public sector summit, scheduled for Saturday, August 27, to share assessments of the balance of forces and combine our efforts for strategy heading into the year. The event will welcome rank and file activists from UFT, PSC, DC37, NYSNA, and other public sector unions to discuss what to expect from the mayor and our union leaderships, assess how to build confidence and willingness to wage a fight amongst our coworkers, share some ideas and concrete tactics for building democratic contract campaigns, and brainstorm sector-specific and cross-sector common demands and how to achieve them.
This coalition arises from the Public Sector Workers Unite group that formed in 2020 to address exigencies of the pandemic. We organized a march in the cold on Biden’s Inauguration Day, a teach-in centered around taxing the rich in March 2021, and a contingent for the Queer Liberation Marches in 2021 and 2022.
For more information about the cross-union summit and/or to get involved, email Boyda at johnstoneb2@gmail.com.