$7K or Strike: CUNY Union adjunct professors speak out against low wages

Part-time professor: "It's time we show the board what it looks like without our labor."


City University of New York adjunct professors have been pushing for a living wage since 2017. Now that the school's Board of Trustees has ignored their demands, some members of the CUNY union representing adjuncts, faculty and professional staff, Professional Staff Congress (PSC), are pushing for a strike.

"A half-million students in New York City attend CUNY," said Barbara Bowen, president of PSC. "A huge number of the people working in the city today went to CUNY themselves or are hoping that their children or grandchildren attend CUNY. It is a travesty the public university that most working people rely on in the city is consistently underfunded."

At a public hearing for CUNY's proposed budget, angry and disappointed part-time workers spoke for three minutes each, lambasting the Board of Trustees for ignoring their needs. The board, 13 officials appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio and 2 elected representatives, did not respond to any of the individual speakers.

"I have tried to get full-time work at CUNY," said an assistant professor who teaches a stress-management class mandatory for students in her program, and has a master's degree in dance from NYU. "I can't afford to keep working here. The stress of looking for other work has become too great."

Read more: https://www.metro.us/news/local-news/new-york/7k-or-strike-cuny-union