Rutgers Professors Agree To Strike If New Contracts Cannot Be Reached

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — If Rutgers professors and administration cannot reach an agreement in contract negotiations, thousands of Rutgers' teachers, part-time lecturers, lab workers, researchers and other university staff will go on strike sometime this spring.

If it happens, it would be the first strike in Rutgers' 257-year history. It also means Rutgers students would not have professors teaching class or giving exams.

This was announced Friday by the two major unions that represent Rutgers University faculty.

If administration and the unions cannot come to an agreement soon, a strike will happen, said union leadership.

"There is no deadline for a contract to be signed," said a union spokesperson. "But we obviously want a contract negotiated before the end of the semester — well before the end of the semester so exams aren't disrupted."

Rutgers' unionized faculty say they have been working for the past nine months without a contract, and there has been no agreement to proposals the unions made last spring.

Rutgers professors are seeking a raise, among other requests.

"No one wants to disrupt students’ academic progress and we are committed to working as hard as we possibly can to negotiate contracts with our unions that are fair, reasonable and responsible," said Rutgers spokeswoman Dory Devlin in response to Friday's vote. "We have already held more than 100 bargaining sessions with our faculty and staff unions and will continue to meet in good faith with them until we reach comprehensive agreements on mandatorily negotiable issues, including compensation."

"We are hopeful that agreements with all of our unions can be reached as quickly as possible while we continue to plan for our commencement celebrations in May."

"A vote to authorize a strike is not the same as declaring a strike," she added. "Votes to authorize strikes have occurred at the same point during previous negotiations and fortunately those prior strike authorizations have not resulted in strikes."

In late February, the two unions, Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, asked their 8,000+ members if they would authorize a strike if contracts cannot be agreed upon.

The vote took a 10-day process and on Friday, 94 percent of members responded “yes” to empower union leadership to call a strike if they think one is necessary.

Eighty percent of two unions' members sent back their mail-in votes.

“The ball is in their court," said Rutgers AAUP-AFT president Rebecca Givan, referring to university administration. "The administration can decide to keep us in our classrooms, labs and libraries if they respond with serious offers that meet the urgent needs we’ve identified with our contract proposals. But if they continue to drag their feet, our members are fed up with being disrespected and dismissed.”

On March 6, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway released this update to the public on labor negotiations: https://www.rutgers.edu/Update...

Another union, AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents medical faculty at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences schools, began its own strike authorization vote earlier this week. Other Rutgers unions may follow suit.

Negotiations are expected to continue next week with all unions bargaining contracts and negotiations will continue during Rutgers spring break next week (March 11-19).

Prior: Rutgers Professors' Union Considers Going On Strike (Feb. 28)