TL;DR
Our united bargaining team put four articles “across the table” last Friday: Article 12 – Teaching Assistants/Graduate Assistants/Fellows; Article 5 – Deduction of Professional Dues; Article 9 – Miscellaneous (Parking); Article 21 – University Procedures. Management presented a counter proposal for Article 6, and after a lengthy bargaining session, we reached a tentative agreement on Article 6 – Civil Rights and Opportunity, our first TA of this contract campaign.
Highlights of the Session
Article 12 – Teaching Assistants/Graduate Assistants/Fellows
Graduate worker Bryan Oller (Physics, Newark) presented Article 12 and emphasized that the work of TAs and GAs is critical to university functions. He highlighted the need for stability in a rigorous academic environment, and as noted in previous sessions, it is lack of support, not ability, that prevents students from graduating. The lack of consistency and equity across all graduate worker positions is a critical issue, especially regarding fellows, who have reduced benefits, lower salaries, and lack union representation. Article 12 proposes guaranteed financial support and health benefits for doctoral students, including tuition and fee remission, and consistent union representation, during at least the first five years of their program. It also ensures doctoral students with fellowships have salary and health benefits equivalent to TAs/GAs. There is a provision for international students to take a leave of absence for resolving visa or other immigration issues. Upon their return, these students can resume their program and retain five full years of support in their doctoral program.
Questions from management included the nature of health benefits that would be provided. AAUP-AFT President Becky Givan (Labor Studies and Employment Relations, New Brunswick) stated we want comparable (or better!) benefits if fellows cannot be moved into the SHBP. The key here is to eliminate the need to switch health plans for those who have different appointments every year. Bryan Oller also mentioned the high cost of insuring a spouse/dependent under the current fellowship benefits plan. This disincentivizes students from accepting fellowships, as many graduate workers are international and their family cannot be insured other ways.
Article 5 – Deduction of professional dues
This article attempts to resolve problems with the university failing to reinstate dues deductions when members move between bargaining units or are temporarily out of a bargaining unit. Management questioned the ease of fixing this issue in Oracle, and the bargaining committee suggested linking union dues to employee ID and proposed a small group, including relevant university and AAUP-AFT staff who manage member data.
Article 19 – Miscellaneous
This article would ensure equity in parking costs across RBHS and non-RBHS campuses. There is also a provision for a reduction in costs for hybrid or fully electric vehicles, with provision of electric charging stations in larger lots.
Management questioned the infrastructure cost of charging stations. Becky Givan stated the bargaining committee’s goal is to promote climate-friendly transport, not to attack revenue; we would support incentivizing other greener ways to get to work as well. It was also pointed out that the transition of Rutgers vehicles to entirely electric is scheduled to take place by 2030 per the previous administration, suggesting the addition of charging stations for university vehicles is on the way.
Article 21 – University Procedures
Removes reference to existing law and just states the relevant details within the contract.
Article 6 – Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
In previous bargaining sessions, management stated that the details of Article 6 reflected the values on their side of the table. Management presented a counter proposal that removed much of the language that codified the purpose of the University Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (UCD) and the work it is intended to support. They proposed vague language around engagement as an operating framework and the restriction of UCD involvement and implementation with respect to key initiatives. Management also proposed a reduction in the funding for the programs/fellowships proposed in our initial proposal for this article, which would significantly reduce the number of faculty and students that would be able to benefit from these programs. The bargaining committee’s counter proposal maintained that funds for this committee need to be retained or increased from previous contracts as well as that the UCD needs to be directly involved with current program/fellowship implementation and future program’s design and operation. We argued that language about eliminating barriers to opportunity as a fundamental goal of this committee must also be included. Our bargaining committee was in close contact with members of the University Committee on Diversity and members of our unions’ Equity and Diversity Committee in order to confirm that our proposals appropriately advanced our members’ interests. There were discussions regarding the name of the UCD and The Committee to Advance Civil Rights and Opportunity was proposed by the bargaining committee.
We are happy to report that after a seven hour bargaining session we reached a tentative agreement on Article 6 – our first TA of this round of bargaining.
Highlights of the Article 6 – Civil Rights and Opportunity:
The AAUP-AFT and the University recognize the importance of contributing to social change and eliminating barriers to opportunity and therefore the value of access, advancement, development and mentorship for all negotiations unit members. The article enshrines existing committees and programs in our contract to protect and support members from minoritized groups, and has a contract-stipulated amount that goes towards this programmatic work. We also maintain and deepen enforcement structures that exist to protect these wins on a daily basis. The Committee to Advance Civil Rights and Opportunity will continue to work with the Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs to support underserved, first-generation, and economically disadvantaged members of our community. This Article provides funding for the Cheryl Wall Faculty Fellowships, which are awarded to faculty whose scholarship, service, or innovation in designing new curricula or programs supports the mission of this committee. There are also committed funds for Faculty Mentorship. A Dissertation Fellowship (that we hope to name after Paul Robeson, if given approval by the Robeson family) will provide full salary, health benefits, and tuition support to 8 doctoral students per year in support of research that engages with issues that have the potential to impact policy or social change.
Thank you to members of the Equity and Diversity Committee and the union members on the University Committee on Diversity for their leadership on Article 6, especially current Co-Chair Keith Green; former Co-Chair Deepa Kumar; Rutgers AAUP-AFT vice-president and bargaining committee member Carlos Decena; and committee members, Adrienne Eaton and Khadijah Costley-White.
Mark your calendar!
The next session is scheduled for Thursday, April 30, from 10 am to 2 pm – This meeting will be on the Newark campus.
Other Upcoming Events
Click here for a full calendar: https://rutgersaaup.org/events/
Our Bargaining Team
| Austin | Rooney | Camden | Philosophy & Religion |
| Beth | Adubato | Newark | School of Criminal Justice |
| Bryan | Sacks | Camden | Philosophy & Religion |
| David | Letwin | College Ave-NB | Rutgers Arts Online |
| Howie | Swerdloff | Cook-NB | Labor Studies & Employee Relations |
| Boris | Paskhover | Newark | Otolaryngology (NJMS) |
| Catherine | Monteleone | RWJMS-NB | Medicine |
| Claire | O’Connell | Busch-Nb | School Of Health Professions |
| Cynthia | Sutton | RSDM-Newark | RSDM Diagnostic |
| Jeff | Levine | College Ave-NB | Family Medicine (RWJ) |
| Josh | Bucher | College Ave-NB | Emergency Medicine (RWJ) |
| Kathleen | Beebe | Newark | Orthopaedics (NJMS) |
| Melissa | Rogers | Newark | Microbiology (NJMS) |
| Pankaj | Agarwalla | Newark | Neurosurgery (NJMS) |
| Rula | Btoush | Newark | School of Nursing |
| Stephan | Schwander | NB Piscataway | SPH |
| Tessa | Bergsbaken | Newark | Immunity & Inflammation (NJMS) |
| LaToya | Gibbons | Camden | Enrollment & Student Success |
| Miguel | Rodriguez | College Ave-NB | School of Arts and Sciences |
| Adrian | Liu | College Ave-NB | Philosophy |
| Alexander | Steiner | RCI | Radiation Oncology |
| Annika | Barber | Busch-NB | Microbiology |
| Becky | Givan | Cook-NB | Labor Studies & Employee Relations |
| Britt | Paris | College Ave-NB | Library & Information Science |
| Bryan | Oller | Newark | Physics |
| Carlos | Decena | Livingston-NB | Latino & Hispanic Caribbean St |
| Chidera | Ntiwunka-Ifeanyi | Busch-NB | Biomedical Engineering |
| Emily | Marker | Camden | History |
| Ian | Oiler | Newark | Institute for Quantitative Biomedicine/Earth and Environmental Sciences |
| Kathy | Lopez | Camden | Public Policy |
| Kyle | Riismandel | Newark | History |
| Lee | Carpenter | Camden | Law School |
| Lily | Todorinova | Douglass-NB | New Brunswick Library |
| Paul | O’Keefe | Livingston-NB | Geography |
| Season | Qiu | Newark | Molecular And Behavioral Neuroscience |
| Tara | Matise | Busch-NB | Genetics |
| Heather | Pierce | Douglass-NB | Political Science |
| Luis | Soto | Livingston-NB | Criminal Justice |