All photos by Dave Sanders and Erik McGregor via PSC-CUNY Facebook page.
Two weeks ago, PSC-CUNY members demonstrated in response to 6 years without a contract at CUNY Central Administrative offices, where about 50 people were arrested. Four Murphy Institute community members were arrested in the action. Irene Garcia, Academic Advisor for the Labor Studies Master of Arts program at the Murphy Institute, answers questions about her experience.
Q. Why did you participate in yesterday’s CD action?
A. Although all CUNY employees have worthy demands, the biggest motivation for me to participate in the civil disobedience action was to state my discontent with the unfair wages and job security situation that adjunct professors face. As someone who deeply cares about public higher education as the only option for lifting people out of poverty, it is unacceptable to me that thousands of highly educated and caring professionals who teach our low-income students are in poverty themselves!
Q. What was most striking about the experience?
A. That the policemen were very supportive, to the point of cheering, and expressing that we should continue the fight for all. They are also renegotiating their contract.
Q. How did you experience the PSC and CUNY community’s support (e.g. students, other unions)?
A. Everybody was really supportive! I really felt the power of the Union. I knew people were going to be out there, since we are very committed people, but it did take me by surprise receiving thank you emails from colleagues.
Q. What do you take away from your CD action?
A. My cellmate, a tenure-track Math professor at Bronx Community College, said that she was not a political person. She hadn’t been very active in the union, had never been to demonstrations, let alone civil disobedience actions. This time, she said it was different. She felt she was working so much she was getting sick all the time and could not afford her one bedroom apartment in Queens, so she thought it was important to do something. So I think if we can get more people like her to get involved in the campaign, then we will be stronger. 
Q. Any thoughts about being a woman of color? And additional identifications?
A. CUNY serves a large percentage of Latino students in the city, and for many of them, a good education is the only way out of poverty. So for me, being a Latin American immigrant myself, participating in CD is the least I can do. Many Latinos in the US have pending immigration processes, so they cannot participate in actions like this, so I felt I should do it because other people couldn’t.
Q. Where do we go from here?
A. I’m ready to go on a strike. It will hurt me in the short-term, but hopefully there will be a long-term benefit. I know many people disagree, but the poor response from the university and the state administration to our demands seems part of a larger ominous plan to defund public education. It is not so much about our contract anymore, it’s about the future of the public education.
Q. Thoughts on the experience of being arrested?
A. PSC, our union, is so great. They are taking care of everything and guiding us in every single step. I’m not worried about it at all. I don’t think anybody was worried about it — otherwise we would not have been chanting “Solidarity Forever” in our cells.
For more coverage of this important action, check out our interview with Prof. Stephanie Luce, another one of the four Murphy community members arrested.
