Thousands of Rutgers University faculty workers to strike over contract

New Jersey, The Gulf Observer: Academic workers at Rutgers University, including faculty and postdoctoral associates, voted to strike starting Monday, their unions said, calling it a first in the school’s nearly 257-year history. Workers have been asked to join picket lines and suspend classes and research work.

The vote to strike came after the unions, representing nearly 8,000 workers across three campuses, failed to reach an agreement with the administration after nearly a year of bargaining for a new contract. The unions have been fighting for a salary increase, in line with inflation; more job security, including longer contracts for untenured faculty; living wages for teaching assistants; and race and gender equity initiatives, among other demands.

The university’s president, Jonathan Holloway, called the decision “deeply disappointing,” saying the negotiations had been “constant and continuous.” This week, he said, a mediator was appointed to help the two sides reach an agreement.

The strike announcement, set to affect 67,000 students, prompted New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) to step in. Calling Rutgers University one of the “nation’s premier institutions,” he invited the school’s administration and the union committees to meet Monday for a “productive dialogue.”

The three unions involved in the bargaining are Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers and postdoctoral researchers; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, representing part-time faculty members; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents members of the medical school.

At a town hall after the vote, members of the unions expressed their frustration with the negotiation process.

“We have bargained and bargained and bargained and bargained and bargained, and we are not getting anywhere, and we need to do something more,” said Rebecca Givan, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. “We will take this momentous step.”

“It’s not for lack of trying that we now have to have a strike,” said Catherine Monteleone, a professor of medicine and the president of AAUP-BHSNJ.

In his statement, Holloway sought to portray progress, saying only a “few outstanding” issues remained.

“The continued academic progress of our students is our number one concern, and we will do all that we can so that their progress is not impeded by a strike,” he wrote.

The decision to strike by Rutgers unions follows a pattern of growing labor action at U.S. campuses. A labor action tracker by Cornell University reported that the majority of all workers to picket in 2022 belonged to the educational service industry, and the sector made up the majority of strike days, too.

Last year, nearly 50,000 academic workers in the University of California system went on strike for better wages and working conditions. It was the largest academic strike in U.S. history, according to their union.