PSC members: want to learn more about the ’s proposed bargaining agenda for the next contract? Join us on Zoom Feb 2 from 5:30-6:30, directly before the Delegate Assembly where it will be voted on. RSVP at tinyurl.com/DAMeetup
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Rank and File Action
@RanknFileAction
Rank & file activists at CUNY challenging the culture of racist austerity in higher education and demanding a more democratic fighting union. #WhyRAFA?
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Most important to me: I hope that this is an event/space/gathering where people can come to pass resources, bear witness, ask for help or for someone to listen, and for folks to share.
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We’ll be holding weekly potlucks with free dinners Wednesday evenings 5-7pm in the People’s Pantry/Dining Commons. ✊🏻
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Unions back bill to give immigrants legal representation in New York cityandstateny.com/policy/2023/02 via let's add our name!
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We've had such an amazing community response to the GC People's Pantry! Please keep taking what you need and bringing what you can.
We'll be having a potluck again Wednesday @ 5pm where we'll be talking about next steps. Join us in Commons!
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⚠️⚠️ this is today! Let’s fight for a better contract together!
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PSC members: want to learn more about the @PSC_CUNY’s proposed bargaining agenda for the next contract? Join us on Zoom Feb 2 from 5:30-6:30, directly before the Delegate Assembly where it will be voted on. RSVP at tinyurl.com/DAMeetup
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So proud of fellow members. We pulled it off! Food, community, care in the (dining) commons.
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The Graduate Center People's Pantry is open! We're reclaiming the Commons: give what you can, take what you need.
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It’s official: every mutual aid pantry should be full of the giggles of toddlers playing under it.
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A powerful evening at tonight; community members hosted a potluck and started a GC food bank.
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The Graduate Center People's Pantry is open! We're reclaiming the Commons: give what you can, take what you need.
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We’re reclaiming the CUNY Graduate Center Dining Commons. Feb 1st 5-7pm, 8th floor of the GC. Join us!@RanknFileAction @psccunygc 1/c
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Sure wish the Graduate Center had dining services so I could have a nutritious snack before my evening class. Good thing and are on it
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See you tomorrow (February 1st) @ 5pm in the Dining Commons for a potluck to kick off a new community food bank! More info:
docs.google.com/document/d/1HC
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We’re launching a food pantry and holding a potluck, having a community meeting to discuss our shared future as people who work and learn in the building.
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We’re reclaiming the CUNY Graduate Center Dining Commons. Feb 1st 5-7pm, 8th floor of the GC. Join us!@RanknFileAction 1/c
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I said this on an internal union list but I wanna say it again here. Because CUNY is so large, a huge portion of the available NYC-area adjunct jobs are at CUNY. So our adjunct wages function as a salary depressant for the whole region, because (1/?)
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reminds me that even in 1982, when profitability was generally much shakier than today, a fifth of the 400 corporate executives polled by Business Week admitted that "although we don’t need concessions, we are taking advantage of the bargaining climate to ask for them." twitter.com/CubicleApril/s
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Every time a union leader says we must fight for what is feasible instead of what is just, a labor fairy dies.
GIF
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This is a point that we return to again and again in
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Reform caucuses like CORE in Chicago (and @MOREcaucusUFT! and @DC37progressive! and @UUPMAC) have shown us that fighting the union is about more than taking office. The caucus must outlive elections to hold leaders accountable and offer an alternative vision of union activity
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It was really invigorating chatting about Class Struggle Unionism today with some great comrades at --I was honored to represent on the panel. It's a must-read for lefties in the labor movement; check it out!
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Gerry calls out our union leaders telling us the most important thing is go to lobby days and contribute to political funds. And management tell us to go elect Democrats if we want better working conditions. Same logic.
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Here’s another livetweet thread of the Joe Burns Class Struggle Unionism events!
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.@MOREcaucusUFT Jia Lee introducing the Class Struggle Unionism event with Joe Burns. I'll try to tweet along.
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Now on to the panel, starting with : many different contracts and sites. Rank and file is involved in bargaining and use consensus not vote. Had hybrid negotiations so people who participate and see how bad the boss is. ✊❤️
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Gerry also talked about how bc universities are full of experts, we have a propensity to defer to others (including union leaders) instead of wanting to take workplace struggle into our own hands
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A university setting also has lots of academics who believe they are experts in everything! Now @Gerry_Martini describes a recent vote of no-confidence at the Grad Center where workers hadn’t consulted @psccunygc before they held the vote. We have lost control of the shop floor.
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Union leaders are not in the same class as the workers! We are talking about people who do not share the same struggles, Martina asserts. We have to hold their feet to the fire—like MORE did in the recent case of early childhood educators getting fired.
Such an inspiring panel!
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Finally we have Martina from sharing about the history of organizing during the pandemic. MORE fights for a more transparent & democratic union. The 500-member bargaining committee has to sign a nondisclosure statement on negotiations, keeping members in the dark
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A university setting also has lots of academics who believe they are experts in everything! Now describes a recent vote of no-confidence at the Grad Center where workers hadn’t consulted before they held the vote. We have lost control of the shop floor.
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Now our own brings the conversation to the public sector where the fight is also against the government. Unions like ours are so drawn to the thrall of electoralism, convincing themselves that it’s fine for most of the power to fall in the hands of a few people!
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You have to be willing to risk some level of comfort with the understanding that you’re working to make everything better. This kind of larger vision is often lacking. High turnover at Starbucks and some see the fight as only temporary. We need more!
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Now someone from a unionized location in Williamsburg shares about her own journey—they’re a first gen college student, part of a downwardly mobile youthful class that knows that they deserve more. Socialism is no longer taboo amongst college-age students
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The nurses at Montefiore used open bargaining via a hybrid negotiations model to help mobilize members. The negotiating team were clear: they wanted to strike. This despite desperate attempts at concessions from management.
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Now (at the Joe Burns Class Struggle Unionism event), a nurse from shares about the recent successful strike! She notes that four years ago the nurses came close to striking but union leadership betrayed them, so there was a lot of antipathy toward the union.
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If you take a staffing position within a union, Burns says, you must be willing to be fired! Otherwise the risk is high that you will become part of the apparatus. The union leaders are literally your bosses
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Reform caucuses like CORE in Chicago (and ! and ! and ) have shown us that fighting the union is about more than taking office. The caucus must outlive elections to hold leaders accountable and offer an alternative vision of union activity
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Burns says in response to a question about disenchantment in the Transit Workers’ Union (shout-out to !) that we have downplayed in recent years the need to reform and transform our unions. Criticism of unions can come across as anti-union when it’s the opposite!
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Class struggle unionists: how do workers wage the kind of fight that will enhance workplace power and organization? How do we reform the labor movement and turn it into a fighting force that can build the credible threat of a strike?
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There is also a THIRD CATEGORY: Labor liberalism! Emerged amongst labor staffers, take on progressive issues (ex: SEIU in 1990s)—but didn’t break with business unionism. Gave up shop floor struggle, stretched across whole states, relies on media publicity and lost labor militancy
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