Yesterday at 6:32 p.m., the CUNY union’s vice-president for part-time personnel, Marcia Newfield, responded to the 121 of us (and counting–read and sign the letter here!) calling for the union to represent adjuncts and graduate student workers. She sent her response to a group of organizers of the COCAL conference this August, of which the Adjunct Project coordinators are a part.

My response to Marcia, on behalf of the 121 of us, follows her statement.

It’s day for since we sent the letter to the union president, Barbara Bowen, and she still hasn’t responded.

Dear Colleagues,

I encourage you not to sign it. Not only is [the] letter full of untruthful statements, but it is unfairly critical of Barbara’s efforts to support a fight for increased funding for CUNY. The PSC’s proposal for increased investment in CUNY as delivered to the City Council by Bowen on May 7th, specifies that “a substantial number of the new positions be designated for existing part-time faculty.” The 5,000K campaign came after the contract demands were ratified by the DA. Right now, I am too busy handling adjunct grievances and trying to help in the fasting adjunct’s plight to go into a point-by- point refutation. I understand the frustration that all underpaid workers feel since I am one, but in order to productively engage in a dialogue I think we need to come from a place of trust.

Marcia

Thank you for this response, Marcia.

There are now 121 of us from across CUNY and the U.S. calling for representation of adjuncts and graduate student workers at the Professional Staff Congress. Join us:

http://bit.ly/RWbXaa

One of the asks in the letter is that the union cover the registration costs of 30 CUNY adjuncts and graduate student workers to attend COCAL.

It’s been four days since Barbara first received the letter and she has yet to respond.

Rank-and-file union democracy now!