Dear colleague,
Back in February Governor Murphy unveiled his proposed budget for 2025–26, which included nearly $65 million in cuts to the Rutgers budget—$27 million in operating aid (known as Outcome Based Allocations) and $38 million in various budget line items impacting every Rutgers campus. Our unions, through the Coalition of Rutgers Unions (CRU), trained members to testify and lobby to restore these cuts and thus avoid a declaration of fiscal emergency by the Rutgers administration, as they did during the pandemic. Because of our efforts, the administration’s deadline to declare a fiscal emergency has now passed, and we expect members to see their negotiated raises on July 1.
Over the last month, we had incredible teams of union members in Trenton for our CRU lobby days. Members of our faculty unions, URA, CWA, HPAE, and CIR-SEIU talked to nearly every member of the State Senate and General Assembly—Democrats and Republicans—and most of them expressed support for restoring the proposed cuts to Rutgers. The budget bill will be introduced, then debated, and finally voted on over the next week; the new state budget must be signed and in place by July 1.
The CRU Legislative Committee has been working with Francine Pfeiffer, Rutgers’ Senior Vice President for Government Relations, and her team to coordinate our efforts in Trenton to lobby for the restoration of the cuts. We sent a joint letter to state leaders signed by President Holloway and the presidents of the CRU locals. We described the value Rutgers brings to New Jersey and explained how harmful the proposed cuts will be to our students, patients, research, our jobs, and our communities. CRU lobby teams spent three days in Trenton—June 2, June 12, and June 19—outside of committee and caucus rooms in the statehouse, talking to legislators. Prior to that, members attended and testified at public hearings and phonebanked for full funding in March, April, and May.
Thanks to the following members and staff from our CRU locals who participated in the lobbying efforts to restore the budget: AAUP-BHSNJ: Robin Stephens, Diomedes Tsitouris, Amy Hale, Rachel Sandalow-Ash; Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union: Heather Pierce, Becky Givan, Matt Buckley, Julie Flynn, Bryan Sacks, Annika Barber, Ira Roseman, Shelby Wardlaw, Andres Morera, Ryan Sills, Dez Clark, Patrick Nowlan; CWA Local 1031: Kathy Hernandez, Yolanda Virella, Jim McAsey; URA-AFT: Christine O’Connell, Joe Ederly, Mary Ellen Maguire, Brian Everett, Kay Schecter, Lucye Millerand, Nat Bender, Greg Rusciano; HPAE-AFT: Ryan Novosielski, Herberth Chacon, Kerry Butch, Jean Pierce.
This is important work for our unions to do together as we prepare for upcoming negotiations. We’ll keep you posted on the final budget details. To get involved in our unions’ future lobbying efforts and find out about other Legislative Committee actions, please fill out this form.
In solidarity,
HP and Becky
Heather Pierce, President-Elect, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union
Rebecca Givan, President-Elect, Rutgers AAUP-AFT