Bargaining Updates 2026

  • Bargaining Update #21 – August 20, 2026

    TL;DR On August 20, the unified bargaining team met with management’s team in the Knightsbridge offices in Piscataway. The session focused primarily on reviewing a high-level financial presentation by Rutgers management, in which they made the absurd and enraging statement that “every 1% increase in salary & fringe requires a 2.3% increase in tuition.” The…

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  • Bargaining Update #20 – August 18, 2026

    TL;DR At the start of the session, management sent back counters on the following articles: Article 26, Termination for Cause; and Article 23, TA/GA Grievance Procedure. Management again struck “fellows” from the protections available to other graduate workers. The union held firm on the inclusion of fellows under grad articles and signaled that this would…

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  • Bargaining Update #19 – August 11, 2026

    TL;DR At our 19th bargaining session, we pressed management to schedule more frequent sessions; we endured management’s hair-splitting counter to our Title IX Side Letter; and their striking of nearly all our proposed graduate-worker protections in the TA-GA- Fellow Grievance Procedure. We also received yet another rejection of the essential enhancements to the current Academic…

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  • CRU Bargaining Update #18 – August 7, 2026

     TL;DR On August 7 the Coalition of Rutgers Unions (CRU) held a bargaining session with the Rutgers administration for 20,000 union-represented faculty and staff across the university. Union representatives from across CRU spent an hour presenting four proposals addressing Flex Work, Fiscal-Emergency, Health Benefits, and workplace Health and Safety., This CRU session had been scheduled…

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  • Bargaining Update # 17 – August 3, 2026

    TL;DR  Our unified bargaining team met with management in Newark on August 3 to discuss Article 30B (School of Nursing Workload). At the start of the session, management sent back a counter that not only struck the majority of the union’s proposal, just as they did to the School of Health Professions (SHP) proposal at…

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  • Bargaining Update # 16 – July 30, 2026

    TL;DR  Our unified bargaining team met with management in Newark on July 30. Once again, management sent back a counter that crossed out the majority of the union’s proposals, just as they did during the last School of Health Professions (SHP) bargaining session on June 3, when they rejected essentially everything we had proposed. In…

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  • Bargaining Update #15 – July 23, 2026

    TL;DR After a break since the end of June, Thursday’s bargaining session focused entirely on the Disability Accommodations side letter. Rutgers’ Office of Employment Equity (OEE) provided a detailed overview of the university’s current accommodation process, policies, and data, giving both parties an opportunity to clarify how the system currently operates. The coalition then identified…

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  • Bargaining Update #14 – June 25, 2026

    TL;DR At our 14th and final bargaining session before our contract expires, we came close to finalizing a few articles, while management refused to move on others. We presented extensive additions to Article 15 (Professional Duties) to protect teaching workloads and stabilize increasingly large class sizes through a faculty governance process, and overload compensation, and…

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