Notes from GC Chapter Meeting – 2/28/18
- Announcements
- Tati presented a brief history of International Women’s Strike & mobilized us to attend on March 8th
- West Virginia striking teachers paving the way forward despite no-strike laws
- One-hour work stoppage starting at 4:00 + march stopping by various key locations
- Lynne informed us of two-tiered funding for doctoral students & mobilized us to attend meeting to organize around this on March 6th
- Conor updated us on the adjunct & Free CUNY organizing which has involved solidarity across CUNY organizations, including the union, student’s groups, Free CUNY
- Another issue that requires organizing is the GC’s efforts to de-democratize governance over Masters programs and raise tuition & fees for Masters students
- Marisa updated us about being fired from CUNY TV in retaliation for her union organizing efforts there, without a disciplinary process
- Currently, we are waiting for the PERB hearing scheduled in April
- CUNY, HR & CUNY TV have postponed the hearing date several times
- We should organize a street action or flyering the GC in early April
- West Virginia teachers settled just yesterday which won them a raise as well as 3% raises for the rest of West Virginia’s public sector workers
- Columbia Grad Workers unionized but Columbia admin (illegally) refuses to recognized their union
- Organizing strike authorization vote to force the admin to bargain with them
- Jane updated us on UK university defending their pension → can we do statement of solidarity?
- Take a solidarity picture
- Demali announced MA emergency town hall to organize against the fee increase for incoming MALS students
- Chase has tried to drive a wedge between MA from PhD students in the past by saying the DSC only advocates for the latter
- Marc reported back from his lobbying efforts with the PSC in Albany, where they distributed literature on $7,000/course for adjuncts & PSC members from across titles advocated for adjunct equity
- Tati presented a brief history of International Women’s Strike & mobilized us to attend on March 8th
- Chapter elections for 2 vacant alt-delegate positions: Anh nominated Roxanne Shirazi & Lynne Turner; there were no other nominations via email or at the chapter meeting → members present at the chapter meeting voted unanimously in favor
- Items for Labor Management
- Justice for Marisa Holmes: Marisa should be able to enter GC without being escorted out for trespassing; ask President Robinson to take a stance to pressure CUNY Central to not back out of the upcoming PERB hearing
- Governance plan for MA programs is being de-democratized
- Check in on our FoiL request to get demographics of students who receive full funding, those who don’t, and what the outcomes are
- Get a line-item budget for the GC
- Uneven workloads across campuses, currently with no contractual solutions
- Members should come to share their stories
- MALS tuition/fee increases
- Adjunct visibility week (March 12-16) → we need to figure out what to do at the GC!
- Cross-campus planning going on to mobilize for BoT Public Hearing on 3/12
- Labor management meeting will launch off March 12 → mobilize a contingent of people
- Get a long list of sign-ups of people to come holding signs advocating for their various issues
- Social media blitz → get a photo booth set up for adjunct story-telling on Instagram or take a picture with a hand-written signs
- Maggie, Jane
- Speak-out at GC to kick off the entire week, marching to labor management meeting
- Undergrads are organizing around next BoT on 3/12 → should show up to help them
- Fill out “course evaluation” for Chase → how to make this go beyond symbolic?
- Should each day have a different theme like the #BLM week of action?
- Button-up for the entire week
- Grad students teach 7,700 courses w/ enrollment of 200,000 CUNY students every year
- Phone & email blitz to GC President & Provost focused on a different theme each day
- We all took a solidarity picture to send to striking teachers in the UK