Rutgers faculty strike ends as unions approve new contracts
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBS/AP) — Three faculty unions that went on strike last month at Rutgers University, New Jersey's flagship university, have overwhelmingly approved four-year contracts. This brings a formal end to the first such job action in the school's 257-year history.
Thousands of professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers at Rutgers University staged the five-day strike at the New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden campuses as students were finishing their spring semester and preparing for finals and commencement. It began April 10 after months of negotiations had failed to resolve disputes over salary increases, better job security for adjunct faculty and guaranteed funding for graduate students, among other requests.
The strike began on a Monday and a tentative deal and end to the work stoppage was reached by Saturday morning.
Union leaders announced this week that the new contracts were approved by 93% of members casting ballots. The deals include across-the-board raises and additional job security for part-time lecturers, along with significant raises and job security provisions for graduate workers.
What do the Rutgers faculty unions' new contracts include?
Documents from the Rutgers faculty unions say the contracts ensure minimum salary increases for adjuncts and raises for graduate student workers, job security improvements for adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty.
The unions say faculty will gain more control over teaching conditions including scheduling.
The contracts will also increase salaries across the board for full-time faculty by at least 14% by July 2025.
According to the unions, the contracts will also provide a 43.7% increase in the per-credit salary rate for adjuncts and strengthen their job security, increase minimum salaries for postdoctoral fellows and associates and substantially increase wages and other support for teaching assistants and graduate assistants.
And graduate fellows doing work as a teaching assistant or graduate assistant will be able to get health care by classifying themselves as a TA or GA, and postdoctorate students will get a pay increase.
Three unions, which represent 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.
