Bargaining Update #8 – May 21, 2026

TL;DR 

Our united bargaining team met with management on May 21. The wide-ranging discussions focused on our proposed Patent Policy to reverse increasingly excessive patent royalty cuts; a side letter to enforce and humanize disability accommodations; eliminating oppressive non-compete clauses for doctors; aligning Title IX grievance procedures with a new NJ Supreme Court ruling; and revised promotion criteria for TT faculty to integrate BHSNJ faculty.  We also received management counters on our Article 9 Grievance Procedure.

Highlights of the Session

Presenting Article 36 – Patent Policy

Union representatives raised concerns about changes to Rutgers’ patent royalty distribution policy, arguing that the University has increasingly retained a larger share of patent revenues at the expense of research centers and inventors.

  • Tom Nosker (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, New Brunswick), a longtime Rutgers researcher and inventor, described how royalty income historically supported research operations, graduate assistants, equipment, and staff within his plastics recycling center.
  • He explained that research centers once received roughly 30% of royalty proceeds, but policy changes since 2021 reduced that share to about 13.5%
  • Nosker argued that the policy language is vague and that reduced funding threatens long-term research innovation and sustainability, and that this was not viable going forward: “One day people will be saying, ‘What happened to all the wonderful research centers we used to have at RU?’”
  • Diomedes Tsitouras (Executive Director, AAUP BHSNJ) stated that the Union proposal seeks to ensure that licensing proceeds flow back to the units and people performing the research. Patent incentives should directly support inventors, labs, and research personnel.
  • Management acknowledged Nosker’s contributions but said the issue is complex and requires further discussion.

Presenting Accommodations Side Letter

Faculty often experience delays, denials, excessive medical documentation requests, and inconsistent treatment. Several examples were shared where faculty felt unsupported or forced to use leave rather than being accommodated. The Union proposed a stronger, enforceable accommodation process for faculty with disabilities. 

Main proposals:

  • Guaranteed timelines and faster implementation of accommodations.
  • Interim accommodations while requests are pending.
  • Union representation at accommodation meetings, if requested.
  • Creation of a review committee to track data and identify barriers in the process.
  • Making the side letter enforceable under the contract.

Management agreed that accommodations are important and acknowledged concerns about perceptions of the process, but argued that accommodations are highly case-specific and denied that cost is a common reason for denial. They suggested a smaller working group to continue discussions.

Presenting Title IX Side Letter

We presented our proposal for reconciling Rutgers’ grievance/arbitration procedures with a recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling on Title IX cases. That decision gives complainants the right to be present in all proceedings, something that arbitration does not allow.

Union proposal: If a faculty member appeals a Title IX disciplinary decision through arbitration, the complainant would have equal participation rights throughout the process. Similar participation rights would apply in tenure termination proceedings involving Title IX findings.

Both sides acknowledged that this is legally unsettled territory and may become a model for other institutions.

Presenting Appendix P – Restrictive Covenants

The Union proposed eliminating non-compete clauses for physicians:

  • Existing restrictions discourage retention and contribute to burnout.
  • Non-compete agreements restrict patient access to care and physician mobility.
  • The AMA and many states oppose or prohibit such agreements.
  • Dr. Dan Morrison (Robert Wood Johnson Medical School): “In Emergency medicine…the burnout rate is very high…A restrictive covenant harms the physician and the patient by restricting them to a particular area. Patients can be left without care, need to preserve the physician/ patient relationship, and the continuity of care.”
  • Diomedes Tsitouras (Executive Director, AAUP BHSNJ): “…the landscape has shifted in recent years from practices owned by the physicians themselves. Now, more doctors are employees; roughly 80% of physicians in the US are now employees, creating power imbalances between doctors and hospital systems.”
  • Dr. Josh Bucher (Robert Wood Johnson Medical School): “Restrictive covenants are disruptive for patient autonomy and go against the fundamental right to choose your own doctor.”

The Union also argued that Rutgers should standardize policies for outside employment reporting and provide physicians greater flexibility. Faculty across schools face inconsistent rules. 

Management indicated it would review the proposal.

Presenting Article 14A – Reappointment and Promotion TT

The Union proposed mostly technical and BHSNJ integration-related changes.

Key points:

  • Updating gendered language.
  • Integrating legacy BHSNJ faculty more consistently into Rutgers policies.
  • Replacing rigid requirements such as the expectation of two R01 grants, with department- or school-specific criteria.
  • Management raised no major objections.

Hearing Management’s Counterproposal:

Article 9– Grievance Procedure

The University presented a counterproposal in response to the Union’s demands for expanded grievance and arbitration rights. They claimed that the Union proposal would make the process overly legalistic, expensive, and difficult to administer. They claim to want to “preserve managerial discretion” and “encourage informal resolution and mediation.”

University proposals include:

  • Eliminating the distinction between category one and two grievances 
  • Scaling back expedited arbitration procedures.
  • Extending some timelines to make administration more realistic.
  • Removing accommodation disputes from the grievance process.

Union concerns:

  • Current grievance timelines are too slow.
  • Delays create stress and undermine confidence in neutrality.
  • Information requests and arbitration scheduling are major sources of frustration.

Both sides agreed that the process could be improved to become faster and more effective. Further negotiations are needed on timelines, arbitration scheduling, and procedural rules.

Mark your calendar!

The next session is scheduled for Wednesday, June 3, from 2 to 5 pm in Newark

Other Upcoming Events

Click here for a full calendar: https://rutgersaaup.org/events/

Our Bargaining Team

AustinRooneyCamdenPhilosophy & Religion
BethAdubatoNewarkSchool of Criminal Justice
BryanSacksCamdenPhilosophy & Religion
DavidLetwinCollege Ave-NBRutgers Arts Online
HowieSwerdloffCook-NBLabor Studies & Employee Relations
BorisPaskhoverNewarkOtolaryngology (NJMS)
CatherineMonteleoneRWJMS-NBMedicine
ClaireO’ConnellBusch-NbSchool Of Health Professions
CynthiaSuttonRSDM-NewarkRSDM Diagnostic
JeffLevineCollege Ave-NBFamily Medicine (RWJ)
JoshBucherCollege Ave-NBEmergency Medicine (RWJ)
KathleenBeebeNewarkOrthopaedics (NJMS)
MelissaRogersNewarkMicrobiology (NJMS)
PankajAgarwallaNewarkNeurosurgery (NJMS)
RulaBtoushNewarkSchool of Nursing
StephanSchwanderNB PiscatawaySPH
TessaBergsbakenNewarkImmunity & Inflammation (NJMS)
LaToyaGibbonsCamdenEnrollment & Student Success
MiguelRodriguezCollege Ave-NBSchool of Arts and Sciences
AdrianLiuCollege Ave-NBPhilosophy
AlexanderSteinerRCIRadiation Oncology
AnnikaBarberBusch-NBMicrobiology
BeckyGivanCook-NBLabor Studies & Employee Relations
BrittParisCollege Ave-NBLibrary & Information Science
BryanOllerNewarkPhysics
CarlosDecenaLivingston-NBLatino & Hispanic Caribbean St
ChideraNtiwunka-IfeanyiBusch-NBBiomedical Engineering
EmilyMarkerCamdenHistory
IanOilerNewarkInstitute for Quantitative Biomedicine/Earth
and Environmental Sciences
KathyLopezCamdenPublic Policy
KyleRiismandelNewarkHistory
LeeCarpenterCamdenLaw School
LilyTodorinovaDouglass-NBNew Brunswick Library
PaulO’KeefeLivingston-NBGeography
SeasonQiuNewarkMolecular And Behavioral Neuroscience
TaraMatiseBusch-NBGenetics
HeatherPierceCollege Ave-NBPolitical Science
LuisSotoLivingston-NBCriminal Justice