The City University of New. Photo: York//Flickr//Bonnie Natko

Challenging decades of legal precedent, six City University of New York (CUNY) professors are suing to sever all ties to the school’s faculty union — the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) — from which they resigned over its allegedly antisemitic and anti-Zionist views.

Represented by the National Right to Work Foundation Legal Defense Foundation (NRTW), an advocacy group opposed to compulsory union representation, the professors are appealing a US District Court’s dismissal of their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a New York State Law — the “Taylor Law” —  that grants PSC the right to continue representing the professors in collective bargaining even though they are no longer members of it.

According to court documents, the professors resigned from PSC after it passed a resolution during Israel’s May 2021 war with Hamas that declared solidarity with Palestinians and accused the Jewish state of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and crimes against humanity. But the professors remain in its bargaining unit, which, the NRTW argued, is coercive, denying the professors’ right to freedom of speech and association by forcing them to engage with an organization they claim holds antisemitic views. 263 other professors and staff have resigned from the union as well, according to the website of the Resign.PSC campaign, which accuses the body of having “violated its mandate” by weighing in on a contentious political issue.

A New York district judge dismissed the suit in November, ruling that several previous cases have affirmed the constitutionality of compulsory union representation and rejected the argument now advanced by the NRTW.

“Taken to its logical extreme, plaintiffs’ theory would entitle every single member of a bargaining group to negotiate separately with the public employer over terms and conditions of employment,” the judge wrote in his opinion.

In its appeal, NRTW argues that the court’s dismissal was “misguided.”

“No American worker should be forced to associate with union officials and union members that openly denigrate their identities and deeply-held beliefs,” NRTW president Marx Mix said in a press release. “Yet, New York State’s Taylor Law grants union officials the power to force dissenting workers under the ‘exclusive representation’ of a union hierarchy. As these CUNY professors have experienced, granting union officials the power to nullify public employees’ free association rights in this way breeds serious harm and discord among employees.”

“If successful, their lawsuit could transform the relationship between public sector unions and employees in New York, and potentially, beyond,” added Nathan McGrath, president and general counsel of Fairness Center, which also represents the professors.

On Wednesday, a CUNY PSC spokesperson told The Algemeiner that the lawsuit is “meritless,” arguing that it is “an attempt to erode the power of organized labor to fight for better pay and working conditions and a more just society.”

The spokesperson added that “PSC members — and non member free riders — have good health insurance, benefits, due process rights, contractual raises and salary steps because of the union’s contact negotiations.” She also said that “antisemitism is on the rise and must be confronted” but that “deeply held convictions and differences of opinion that some PSC members have about Israel and Palestine should not be distorted in service of an anti-union agenda.”

CUNY is also the subject of a Title VI complaint, filed in July 2022 by the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), alleging that it has intentionally ignored “a sustained pattern of antisemitism.” It followed accusations of antisemitism at CUNY campuses aired during a New York City Council hearing held the previous month after the CUNY School of Law faculty endorsed a boycott of Israel.

Facing widespread criticism from Jewish groups and lawmakers, CUNY also recently issued a statement condemning hate speech after student Fatima Mohammed alleged in a law school commencement speech that Jewish money manipulates school policy towards Israel and said “our morality will not be purchased by investors.” She also accused Israel of “settler colonialism,” charging that it “continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old the young, attacking the funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs.”

Last Thursday, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY) proposed legislation that would prohibit colleges that host antisemitic events from receiving federal loans and grants.

“I am of the mindset that people certainly have the right to say what they want to say, but you don’t have the right to hate speech,” Lawler told The Algemeiner. “This most recent incident at CUNY really just made it all the more important to get this legislation filed. Taxpayer money should not be used to support this type of rhetoric or conduct — people who support the BDS movement, which is antisemitic.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.