Profs Fight for Contract, Chancellor Lives It Up, Students Pay

NEW YORK CITY, October 21 — “They say cut back, we say fight back!” “What do we want? A raise! When do we want it? Now!”
Workers of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) of City University of New York (CUNY) packed the Board of Trustees meeting on September 29. To enter, they first had to be stopped-and-frisked by campus police, a policy too familiar for black and Latin students. Chairman Benno Schmidt, known nationally for his defense of “freedom of expression,” threatened the protesters with being removed by campus cops if they continue to speak out. The meeting proceeded. Fifteen minutes later, PSC president Barbara Bowen signaled for the 100 protesters to chant and walk out. They rejoined 800 protesters outside the building.
The PSC continues to mislead its rank and file by relying on electoral politics. Bowen addressed the crowd, stating they must continue to pressure the new CUNY Chancellor James B. Milliken to put a financial offer on the table. (Milliken makes $670,000 a year, which doesn’t include his new car, driver, and his $3.7 million house paid by tuition hikes and budget cuts.) PSC members have been working for four years without a new contract.
Today, 500 protesters again assembled to demand a raise. At the union meeting, three officers spoke for a total of nearly one hour. No time was allocated for questions and answers from the workers. One worker said, “I didn’t learn anything. They don’t seem to have much of a strategy.” Because the PSC endorsed then liberal Mayoral Candidate Bill de Blasio, we are told we have gained “political capital” with his election.
It is unlikely de Blasio will give PSC a better deal than the contracts that the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the city workers District Council 37 recently received. Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo controls the larger portion of CUNY’s funding. He had forced a contract on State University of New York professors that required them to pay more for healthcare. On the way to CUNY’s central office, protesters passed by Cuomo’s office but didn’t rally there. Go figure!
Unionist or Communist Leadership?
Some rank and filers argue that at least the PSC leaders are taking to the streets whereas most city and state worker unions have rolled over and accepted contracts without a semblance of fighting back. Whether or not PSC gains a new contract, its workers will continue to be exploited. Unions today are a tool to discipline and control the working class (read: coming fascism). Unions serve the dominant liberal wing of the bosses, whose imperialist ambitions lie in combating rivals China and Russia. Workers’ living conditions will continue to deteriorate, and it is up to the politicians and unions to sell us this new fascist normal.
 PLP has long said that workers cannot fight the bosses if we play by their rules. The Taylor Law forbids government workers in New York from striking or even taking work actions. In 1966, transit workers defied the Condon-Wadlin Act with a strike! The Act would penalize workers who went on strike with firings and a three-year pay freeze. Those workers defied the law without immediate repercussions. CUNY workers can learn from history and challenge the Taylor law today. To do this, workers need the support of CUNY’s 250,000 students and other city workers.
Despite internal struggle, the PSC leadership has never had a real program to ally with students. Only with communist leadership can we build a real worker-student alliance to fight the union misleaders, CUNY bosses, and politicians. Many CUNY workers are open to communist ideas. Nearly 200 CHALLENGEs were distributed in total. It is up to PLP workers inside the union and PLP students in CUNY to steer this bartering struggle into one exposing the inevitable decay of capitalism. Only viable option is to fight for a communist revolution.