If you experience any instance of retaliation or threats for participating in the strike or surveillance by anyone associated with Rutgers, please report it immediately by filling out this form (the contents of all reports will remain confidential). We will vigilantly defend everyone our unions represent.
We’ve learned that management may attempt to enlist department Chairs, Undergraduate Directors, department staff, and others to report striking workers. The only plausible reason for this would be to try to withhold pay, cancel our health insurance (as the now-resigned Temple University president recently did to striking graduate workers), hold us in contempt of a possible court order, or otherwise retaliate against us. The goal of such action would be to divide us and create hostility among members, breaking down our solidarity and undermining the strike.
No one should comply with any attempt by the central administration to gather information about who is on strike. We particularly make this request of Chairs, Undergraduate Directors, and our staff colleagues. This is not a neutral act; it is active strike-breaking. We think it will be very difficult for the administration to gather information about our strike without the cooperation of faculty or staff. So please don’t cooperate!
The administration may use an opt-in strategy. They may ask people to report who is showing up to work or ask individual workers to “sign in” somewhere. Do not do this! It is effectively the same thing as reporting who is on strike.
Complying with a management request to report on fellow workers also raises practical problems:
- Any attempt to do so would be arbitrary, as some departments would report and others would not.
- Such short-term thinking by the administration fails to consider the long-term impacts. The division and hostility created by members of departments turning in other members would never heal.
- That such an idea was even proposed exposes the lie that President Holloway or anyone in central administration cares about the long-term health of Rutgers University.
We will win this strike and a contract that benefits all Rutgers faculty, staff, and students by sticking together. There is a reason our shirts say “Solidarity.” That is how positive social change happens.
If you learn that someone is reporting striking workers and don’t feel comfortable talking to them yourself, please let the union know by emailing aaup@rutgersaaup.org so that a union leader can engage them about the ethics of what they are doing.
One last note: Last month, the University Senate passed a resolution criticizing President Holloway for telling students a strike would be “illegal” and asking everyone in the Rutgers community to sign a No Retaliation Statement. If you haven’t already, please take the Senate pledge by clicking here.