Imagine a transit system where there are no turnstiles, minimal police presence because cops aren’t lurking around to enforce fares. Picture a subway and bus network that is free, open and functional because those who profit most from it pay for it.
No black person — or Hispanic person or ally of people of color — should ever even consider voting for Michael Bloomberg in the primary. His expansion of the notoriously racist stop-and-frisk program is a complete and nonnegotiable deal breaker.
This is one of two contrasting viewpoints posted to Portside Labor today about the PSC (AFT) tentative agreement with CUNY, covering 30,000 faculty (including 12,000 adjuncts), professional and graduate employees.
The history of Rikers is a warning about putting the onus of reform on infrastructure rather than the systems that lead to incarceration. If new prisons are built to replace it, it won't be long before they too will be judged inhumane.
The government-promoted plans let employers completely off the hook and put the entire burden of retirement savings and investment management on workers. They put another nail in the coffin of traditional plans in which employers share the expense.
A coalition of labor and civil rights activists recently demonstrated in New York City to call for an end to pay discrimination against Emergency Medical Service workers.
Ratification is currently underway, and when ratified, this agreement stands to set a liberating precedent for nurses across the country (except CA where staffing limits are law) who are eager for safer working conditions for themselves and patients.
Spread the word