By Jackie Watters, Member, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Takeaways:
- We presented Article 12 of our demands regarding the graduate worker contract, including 1) Increasing graduate worker PhD appointment lengths to 5 years; 2) Including graduate fellows in the contract, with equal pay protections and benefits; and 3) COVID extensions for workers whose completion timelines were affected by the pandemic.
- COVID extensions were broken out into a side letter, which was discussed.
- Several speakers worked with our bargaining committee to present personal statements regarding the importance and urgency of our demands.
- Despite prior knowledge of the articles being discussed, management did not respond to or provide counter offers for any of our demands.
- Bargaining had a small army of graduate observers to take their thoughts back to their departments.
Positives:
Our bargaining committee skillfully presented the articles being discussed. Several speakers who have been affected by the unacceptable present conditions at Rutgers spoke with heart.
Sara, a graduate worker, spoke about the importance of short-term COVID extension funding. Kyle, a graduate program director, spoke to the importance of COVID extension funding and all graduate demands. Liana, a graduate student, spoke to the significance of including fellows in the bargaining unit. Another student spoke to the importance of graduate contract demands for attracting programs, status, and candidates. Donna, a professor, spoke to the difficulty that her department has had attracting students to Rutgers. Everyone who attended had the chance to feel the urgency of our demands through the personally shared experiences of graduate workers.
Furthermore, our bargaining team firmly urged management to respond to our demands in the urgent COVID extension funding letter.
Negatives:
Management did not directly reply to or provide counter offers for any of the proposals given this day or previously. The two-hour session started almost 15 minutes late with little explanation. Management repeatedly expressed confusion and needed to be reminded more than once about previous communications for discussion that day.
Some Quotes from Speakers:
“This academic year, I became a graduate fellow after two years of working as a TA. Being a fellow means that I am continuing to work on my dissertation research, serving as an undergraduate mentor, and assisting in my department’s operations, such as speaking to prospective students and attending departmental graduate student organization meetings. Being a fellow also means that I have a nine-month salary of $25,000, which is significantly lower than the salary of a TA and far from a living wage in NJ. This is a fixed rate, with no possibility of a raise, even for inflation, and constituted a large wage cut for me. Most importantly for me, being a fellow means switching onto a new, lower-quality insurance plan. As someone with an autoimmune disorder and at a high cancer risk, continuity of care is essential to my health and well-being. Moving between different insurance plans means that I have to reconstruct my care network every time I change work classifications, which is not only stressful but means I might miss crucial check-ins, jeopardizing my overall health.
“My experience is not unique. There are roughly 1,000 graduate student fellows at Rutgers this semester and most graduate workers will cycle between fellow and TA or GA appointments over the course of their PhD studies.”
“By supporting grad workers through this extension, they can focus on their research and jobs as GA/TAs, giving all graduate workers a much improved chance to complete their degrees, find employment in their chosen field, and fulfill the mission of the university.
“As many of you know, degree completion is extremely important. Graduate student research helps form the basis of Rutgers reputation as a cutting-edge research institution, while fulfilling our obligation to NJ taxpayers to use our resources to create new knowledge and solve pressing problems. Grads who aren’t supported will be unlikely to do so.”
“Since my funding has been discontinued, rather than spending time on my research, I have spent countless hours trying to navigate the byzantine Rutgers bureaucracy related to understanding health care and financial aid options. It took over two months of emails, calls, and meetings to get an accurate term bill. Despite some financial help from the Graduate School and the School of Criminal Justice and teaching as a PTL, I am unable to survive without financial aid. Due to continued delays from the registrar’s office, I have been increasingly stressed about basic living expenses and if I have enough money for rent and food. Not having an extra year of funding has drastically impacted my ability to successfully progress in the program. Due to the pandemic and lack of funding, I have increasing concerns that I will not be able to successfully complete my doctorate and move forward with my career.
“Rutgers has not been transparent or supportive of grad students’ progress. This is shameful. I am not alone in my struggles. There are countless grad students who were impacted by the pandemic. We need funding extensions which is what the union has proposed in the side letter. This is an urgent issue that requires urgent solutions.”
The above is a report from a bargaining session for our next contract. After each session, our union will provide an update, written by a rotating cast of member-observers who are sitting in on negotiations. Click here for a full archive of Bargaining Updates.