Rutgers University educators strike in massive, historic walkout
Thousands of professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers at Rutgers, New Jersey's flagship university went on strike Monday after nearly a year of negotiating failed to reach a contract. It's the first such job action in the school's 257-year history.
Hundreds of students, staff and faculty took to the picket lines at the school's New Brunswick campus.
"We are all out here together joining picket lines in solidarity," student Deepti Vajapey told CBS New York.
Picket lines were also being set up at the Newark and Camden campuses.
Three unions representing about 9,000 Rutgers staff members were involved in the strike: the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and some counselors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time lecturers; and the AAUP-BHSNJ, which includes faculty in the biomedical and health sciences at Rutgers' medical, dental, nursing and public health schools.
Union leaders say negotiations produced some movement over the last few days, but the two sides remain stuck on the primary issues: Equal pay for adjunct professors, job security for all faculty and affordable housing for students.
"We are beyond frustrated. We got no raise during a time of historic inflation. Our most vulnerable workers are having trouble paying the bills, and enough is enough," associate professor and general vice president of AAUP-AFT Todd Wolfson told CBS New York.
The university said that classes would continue "on a normal schedule," though students said some classes had been canceled due to the strike.
Negotiations ongoing
Negotiations were set to continue Monday, with the two sides scheduled to meet at Democratic Gov. Gov. Phil Murphy's office at the Statehouse around noon.
Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway has said the university has offered to increase salaries for full-time faculty members, teaching assistants and graduate assistants by 12% by 2025. The university offered an additional 3% lump-sum payment to all the faculty unions that would be paid over the first two years of the new contract.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tweeted a statement calling the sides to meet at his office on Monday "to have a productive dialogue."
The university had said it had brought in a mediator to help the two sides reach a deal.
Holloway sent a letter to the community expressing his frustration over the situation and provided a link with guidelines for students, as well as for faculty and staff, on what to know during a strike.