Rutgers University Faculty On Strike

By Christian Wade | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square New Jersey

April 13, 2023

(The Center Square) — More than 9,000 educators at New Jersey’s taxpayer-funded Rutgers University are on strike this week over pay and workplace issues.

Faculty and staff represented by three unions walked off the job on Monday after failing to reach a contract agreement, marking the first strike in nearly four decades at the university and shutting down most classes at Rutgers' New Jersey three campuses.

Members of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT said the union's core demands include increased wages and job security for adjunct professors who now have to renew contracts every semester. They're also pushing for improved health care benefits and higher salaries for graduate student workers from $30,000 annually to $37,000, among the demands.

Union leaders said they have been negotiating a contract for nearly a year but claimed that university officials have "delayed and obstructed" efforts to reach an agreement.

"The administration doesn’t understand that we are determined to fight together for equal pay for equal work, a living wage for all, real job security, race and gender equity, and a fair salary increase," they said in a statement. "We have no other choice than to go on strike to build a university that truly values its workers and its students."

Gov. Phil Murphy has intervened in the dispute by hosting negotiations between the university leaders and the union at the State House in Trenton.

New Jersey provides funding for about one-fifth of Rutgers’ $5 billion budget. The university also receives revenue from public and private sources, including tuition and fees, patient care services, sponsored research, private grants and contracts.

The unions — AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and the Rutgers AAUP-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey — posted an update on Wednesday saying they had made progress in the negotiations, but claimed university officials are "still resisting many of our non-economic demands, which embody critical values for us."

"We won’t stop fighting for these, because our struggle has always been about more than wages — it is about our values of solidarity, community, and lifting up the most vulnerable," the union's statement said.

Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway had threatened to file a lawsuit to halt the strike, arguing that state university worker walkouts are "illegal" under recent court rulings dealing with the public sector employees.

But the unions have argued that the state Constitution and statutes are "silent" about whether strikes by public-sector workers in New Jersey are legal.

"In some instances, courts have issued injunctions against striking public employees," the unions wrote in a recent post. "If the administration takes us to court, our lawyers will oppose the granting of such an injunction."

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.