Dear colleague,
Our members have voted: we have strong new contracts, thanks to a massive organizing effort and a five-day strike that showed the power of higher ed labor and our determination to fight for a better Rutgers for ALL of us.
Across our three unions, 93 percent of members who cast a ballot voted yes on ratifying our Tentative Agreements. On the five TAs our members were voting on, the “yes” vote was:
- 92 percent for the full-time faculty (including BHSNJ biomedical faculty) and graduate workers contract.
- 97 percent for the adjunct faculty contract.
- 95 percent for the postdoctoral associates and fellows contract.
- 100 percent for EOF counselors contract.
- 97 percent for the Winter-Summer Instructors contract.
This vote is the culmination of months of intense organizing by so many people. We thank all of you who walked the picket lines, organized with your colleagues before, during, and after the strike, and lent your skills and talents to our incredible campaign. We didn’t win everything that we wanted and that we deserve. But what we did achieve is a testament to all of us, and we are proud of it.
Our members also supported a proposal to ask everyone represented by our unions to make a voluntary contribution to the Rutgers Beloved Community Fund that was established during negotiations. Though President Holloway’s administration backed out of a previous commitment to contribute to the fund, we want to show our support for an initiative to support the communities that contribute so much to Rutgers.
We know there are more questions about this community fund—we weren’t able to have the extended discussion we wanted and still get this issue on the ratification ballot. But we are committed to answering all of your questions in the weeks to come. Our members have told us they want our unions to work for social justice, especially in ways that benefit students and the residents of the communities surrounding our campuses. That work can start with this fund, supported by allocations from the state government and our contributions.
We also need to support our nine sibling unions, representing more than 6,000 workers, which are still bargaining nearly a year after their contracts expired. There is no excuse for the administration to drag out negotiations any longer; our staff colleagues deserve a fair contract.
Whatever challenges we face going forward, we hope you are proud of what we achieved together. In important ways—especially in confronting precarity and poverty wages in higher education—we have set a new standard for what public university unions can achieve.
In solidarity,
Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Facebook page: https://facebook.com/RUaaup/
Follow us on Twitter @ruaaup and Instagram @rutgersaaup
Freedom School YouTubeChannel: https://rutgersaaup.org/YouTube
Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rutgersptlfc
Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @ruaaup_ptl
Visit our redesigned website: https://rutgers-ptlfc.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ website: https://onerutgersfaculty.org/
AAUP-BHSNJ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/RUaaupbhsnj
Complete Text of the Ratified Tentative Agreements
- Full-Time Faculty and Graduate Worker Tentative Agreement (including BHSNJ health sciences faculty)
- Adjunct Faculty Tentative Agreement
- Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows Tentative Agreement
- EOF Counselors Tentative Agreement
- Winter-Summer Instructors Tentative Agreement
Highlights of the Ratified Tentative Agreements
- Highlights of the Tentative Agreements for All Three Unions
- Tentative Agreement Highlights Slide Deck
Resources for Understanding the Ratified TAs
- Summaries of Articles in the Full-Time Faculty (including BHSNJ) and Grad Worker TA
- Summaries of Articles in the Adjunct Faculty TA
- Summaries of Articles in the Postdoc TA
- Summaries of Articles in the EOF Counselors TA
- Summaries of Articles in the Winter-Summer Instructors TA
- Raise Calculator for Full-Time Faculty