Rutgers University: Why Are Faculty and Staff On Strike?
Rutgers University faculty and staff have made headlines due to their strike on the largest college in New Jersey. The three unions (The Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ) represent the university’s educators, researchers, and clinicians. They have joined together to fight for fair contracts.
“The unions and university representatives have been negotiating since the prior contracts expired last summer, the unions’ release said per CNN. “But while both sides acknowledged some progress in recent days, union leadership said Sunday that their essential demands were still far from being met.”
The release continued: “Rutgers AAUP-AFT and AAUP-BHSNJ have united their bargaining efforts and are jointly negotiating a single contract for all full-time university faculty, while the Adjunct Faculty Union is independently negotiating a new contract for part-time lecturers who must be reappointed to their teaching positions after a set number of semesters or years.”
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The group’s goal is to achieve “a better Rutgers for everyone: our students and their families, staff, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, clinicians, full-time and adjunct faculty, and communities surrounding our campuses.”
Faculty and staff are seeking:
- Equal pay for equal work for adjunct faculty
- Guaranteed funding and a living wage for graduate workers
- A fair salary increase that keeps up with inflation
- Job security for all faculty
- One union for all Rutgers educators, clinicians, and researchers
- Affordable housing for students, members, and our communities
- Forgiveness for students’ overdue fees and fines
- Control over course scheduling and teaching and research conditions
- Affordable health insurance for all
- Equity for Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark
- Workload standards for medical clinical faculty
Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway told students in an email last week that the university “would have no choice” other than seeking legal methods to “ensure that any job action does not affect our students’ academic progress.”
It is unclear how long the Rutgers strike will last.
