Triangle Factory Fire Commemoration

Join your fellow UCATS members and other labor groups at this year's Triangle Factory Fire Commemoration TODAY, Wednesday, March 20. This event marks the 102nd anniversary of a watershed moment in workplace safety and labor rights history, the death of 146 women and men in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.  

Workers United/SEIU (ILGWU) Presents 
The 102nd Triangle Factory Fire Commemoration 
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 
12 noon – 1 pm 
Washington Place and Greene Street, NYC 

More information at http://rememberthetrianglefire.org

UCATS to Join Faculty in Taking No-Confidence Vote

PRESS RELEASE:

The Executive Council of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Technical Staff at NYU (UCATS), Local 3882 voted March 12 to take to their membership the issue of President John Sexton’s leadership. The UCATS leadership joins the NYU faculty in taking a no-confidence vote.

The nearly 1,400 NYU staff represented by UCATS are experiencing stagnate wages, unmanageable healthcare costs and a deteriorating quality of work life. The enrichment of those that have, at the cost of those that have less, has been a hallmark of President Sexton’s leadership. The resources required to proceed with the NYU 2031 expansion portends three decades of disinvestment in faculty and support staff who deliver the education for which NYU students pay so dearly.

UCATS represents approximately 1,400 staff working throughout the various schools and divisions of New York University.

Contact Info:

Stephen Rechner
UCATS Local 3882, NYSUT, AFT, AFL-CIO
646-602-1485
ucatspres3882@hotmail.com

Campaign for Obama in Ohio--Without Leaving New York!

You can campaign for Obama in Ohio without leaving New York! UAW Region 9A and AFSCME DC 1707 phone banks are making calls to union members and retirees from many different unions in Ohio as part of the Labor 2012 get-out-the-vote efforts across the nation.

NYC Phone Banks for Obama are being run out of the UAW Region 9A Sub Regional Office, located at 256 West 38th Street in Manhattan, 12th Floor, (between 7th and 8th Aves). You can see the schedule and sign up to volunteer on the New York City Central Labor Council website.

Family and friends are welcome!

NYU Law Trustee Locks Out Nursing Home Workers

For 66 days, workers of the HealthBridge nursing homes in Connecticut have been on strike. The issues are what you would expect: the employer trying to cut benefits, significantly raise health insurance costs and offering miniscule raises that don't cover the cost of living, let alone the increased cost of benefits.

Here's where it gets really interesting. The owner of HealthBridge is a man named Daniel Straus, a trustee of NYU Law School who has funded the Straus Institute for the Advanced Study of Law and Justice! You can read more about it here:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169413/nyu-law-trustee-funds-justice-institute-locks-out-workers

To call attention to their plight, striking HealthBridge workers will be having a "Rally for Justice" outside the Institute on September 11 from 12:00-2:00, as the Institute holds a welcome reception for this year's fellows and scholars. Please support the HealthBridge workers by spending some of your lunch hour at the rally.

When: Tuesday, September 11, 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Where: 22 Washington Square North

Rally against student debt TODAY

UCATS has endorsed 1 T Day, an event to raise awareness about the staggering levels of student debt in this country. From their website:

On April 25th, the total amount of student loan debt in the U.S. is due to top 1 trillion dollars. This marks a momentous victory for Wall Street—much to the despair of student loan debtors across the country. On this date, the profiteers on Wall Street will be popping champagne bottles, eating caviar, and sneering at the debt-burdened students and graduates who lug around this 1 trillion dollar ball and chain.

Occupy Student Debt Campaign is hosting a party of its own. Throughout the country we will be taking direct action to raise awareness about this crisis as part of a new movement to make education a right.

...[J]oin us at 4PM in Union Square, where Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir will preside over a debt jubilee - an emancipatory student loan debt write-off for all! ... Then, let's march to Wall Street banks and watering holes to spread the news about student debt and drink up the joys of our new-found freedom.

You can find more info at the 1 T Day website.

1 T DAY RALLY
TODAY
Wednesday, April 25
UNION SQUARE
4:00 PM start, march to follow