SUNY Faculty, Staff Advocate for State Contract at May Day Rally
By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZELONEONTA
Amidst statewide contract negotiations for SUNY faculty and staff, around a hundred members of the SUNY Oneonta and local community gathered on campus to celebrate May Day (also known as International Workers’ Day) and advocate for improved working conditions and compensation. The demonstration’s focus also included calls to tax the rich; fund education rather than the U.S. war with Iran and the Trump administration’s deportation agenda; and “defend academic freedom, free and fair elections, and democracy itself.”
The May 1 rally was organized by campus locals of the United University Professions, which represents around 900 faculty and professional staff; the Civil Service Employees Association, which represents around 220 employees ranging from custodial to clerical staff; and the liberal activist group CooperstownOneonta Indivisible. It came as part of a national day of action with the May Day Strong coalition, a network of hundreds of groups across the country holding similar demonstrations.
Ethan Fox, who is the political outreach coordinator for UUP Oneonta and has worked as a service desk coordinator at SUNY Oneonta for the past several years, told AllOtsego that the “state’s coming up against the wire” and that fellow union members are “itching for an on time contract.”
Their current statewide contract is set to expire July 1.
