truthout reports Delegates of the Professional Staff Congress-City University of New York (PSC-CUNY) - the Union representing Faculty, Graduate Assistants and many Staff titles at CUNY, have voted 73-to-70 in favor of a resolution for the Union to divest from Israeli companies and government bonds, identify other potential investments for divestment, and recommend the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) Pension Plan also divest its $100 million invested in Israeli companies and bonds. This is an important victory for CUNY Workers and the movement for Palestine, setting an example for the broader Labor Movement. This comes as Palestinians in Gaza have endured a brutal genocide and, after the recent ceasefire agreement, are coming back to rebuild amid the rubble. At the same time, violence against Palestinians is continuing. The vote at CUNY is the product of an international struggle in solidarity with Palestine, with massive marches all over the world and significant student activism. Union Leaderships have dragged their feet to put out ceasefire resolutions and then to do anything other than ceasefire resolutions, refusing to organize a strong resistance to the genocide or to the attacks on pro-Palestine Workers and students. A notable counterexample is United Auto Workers Local 4811’s Unfair Labor Practice Strike at the University of California in May 2024, following the brutal repression of the encampment at UCLA. But despite hesitations from Union Leaders, Rank-and-File Workers organized for Palestine, took to the streets and are forcing Union Leaders to heed the call from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions for the international Labor Movement to “declare your Union to be an Apartheid Free Zone, to end corporate and institutional complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime and genocide of the Palestinian People.” Public Sector Workers in New York City - including from PSC-CUNY, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees District Council 37 (DC37), and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), have been collaborating on a pension divestment campaign for over a year. DC37 Local 3005, which represents Public Health Care Workers in New York City, passed a similar resolution demanding divestment from their own pension plan in September.

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