• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Rutgers AAUP-AFT: 50th Anniversary

  • Contract Campaign
    • What We R Fighting For
    • 2023 Strike FAQ
    • Strike FAQ for Students
    • Bargaining Status at a Glance
    • Contract Resource Center
    • Opening Bargaining Proposals
    • Bargaining Updates
    • From the Table Updates
  • Who We Are
    • Our History
      • Our Union’s Timeline
      • The Living History of Our Union
      • Our Logo: The Story of the Pencil-Fist
    • Full-Time Faculty
      • Know Your Contract
    • Part-Time Lecturers
    • Grad Workers
      • Know Your Contract
    • Postdoctoral Associates
    • EOF Counselors
    • Winter-Summer Instructors
    • Retiree Assembly
    • Rutgers One
  • Know Your Union
    • Rutgers AAUP-AFT Officers
    • Executive Council
    • TA/GA Steering Committee
    • Chapter Leaders
    • Negotiating Committee
    • PTLFC Executive Board
    • Working Groups
      • Rutgers Grads United
      • International Students Working Group
    • Union Staff
  • Resources
    • Know Your Contract
    • Text of the Current Contract
    • Health and Safety FAQ
    • Salary Equity Program
    • Postdoc Merger Campaign FAQ
    • Reproductive Justice FAQ
    • Remote Instruction FAQ
    • OPRA Document Center
    • Promotion-Tenure Webinar Slides (2021)
    • Union Bylaws
    • Dues Charts
    • Student Scholarships
    • Student Paid Internships
  • News
    • Bargaining Updates
    • Member News
    • Media Statements
    • Statements and Resolutions
    • RU Listening Podcast
    • By Our Members
    • Member Spotlight
  • Get Involved
    • Sign Up to Get Involved
    • Calendar
    • Freedom School
    • Committee on Political Education
    • Working Groups
      • Rutgers Grads United
      • International Students Working Group
  • Join Us!
    • Join Our Union
    • Become a Fellows Member
    • Why Join?
    • Dues Charts

Bargaining Update #23 – February 9, 2023

February 9, 2023

By K. Sebastian León, Executive Council, Rutgers AAUP-AFT

This was the third bargaining session of 2023. Our previous session took place on February 6, where Articles 8, 25, 9, 10, and 11 were discussed. The February 6 bargaining session was hybrid, with a combination of in-person and remote/virtual participants. Today’s meeting was focused on a proposal package, containing Articles 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 21, 22, 25, and Appendices E and H. A summary of bargaining proposals and full text for most articles can be accessed here.

Takeaways

  • Management transmitted their counters to Articles 2, 4, 6, 21, and 22 at the start of the bargaining session.
  • On Article 4, the union has proposed that the word “caste” be included in the university’s non-discrimination policy. Management wishes to establish a task force to study the relationship between caste and current non-discrimination frameworks. This task force would include union representatives as full members.
  • Management agrees to multiple components of Article 6 (UCD; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), but rejects all clauses in which “historically underrepresented” faculty appear.
  • Category 2 grievances were discussed and debated.
  • Caucus breakout rooms began at approximately 12:55pm, lasting approximately 40 minutes. Upon return, the union emphasized the rationale for its positions on the proposal package. 

Positives

  • Management does not want to speak to the necessity of masking during hybrid bargaining sessions, but is willing to wear masks to allow for more in-person participation by our team. While the pace of negotiations has been glacial in the past, there appears to be meaningful, albeit piecemeal, progress on Article-specific components.
  • Bargaining dates for March 2023 appear to be materializing, with a combination of virtual and in-person meeting options in Winants Hall.
  • Management indirectly conceded that existing data infrastructure (e.g., HR software) are structurally insufficient.

Negatives

  • Today marks yet another day without a contract.
  • Management is stalling on a range of components on each Article.
  • Management is treating the Bargaining for the Common Good proposal as a dollar-for-dollar matching fundraiser, and seeks to eliminate the proposal from the scope of bargaining.
  • Management has not changed their position on eliminating terminal sabbaticals.

Next Steps

  • Future bargaining meetings will range between online and hybrid options. In-person meetings will be masked (while not speaking) out of respect for the health and safety of various participants and their corresponding households.
  • The union remains intent on adding caste to the university’s non-discrimination policy, consistent with the broadening of anti-discrimination protections that have taken place at other institutions of higher education (e.g., the California State university system). The union will prepare a counter to management’s counter on how to proceed with caste-specific non-discrimination protections.
  • Graduate assistantships are going to be formatted as a binding MOA (Memorandum of Agreement).
  • Articles 2, 4, 6, 9, 10, 11, 21, 22, 25, and Appendices E and H remain in negotiation in package form, whereby the rejection of any single article proposal equates to the rejection of all article proposals in the package that our team presented.
  • The next bargaining session will be held on Monday, Feb. 13 with an emphasis on research and postdoctoral support.

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.

Related

Category: Bargaining Updates
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Mail

Copyright © 2023 · Rutgers AAUP-AFT · 11 Stone Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1113 · (732) 964-1000 · aaup@rutgersaaup.org · Login · Return to top