Takeaway: 1) Members, look for an email from Election Runner in your inbox starting Tuesday morning with your ballot to vote on strike authorization. 2) Join campus actions in protest of the Board of Governors, which is meeting in Newark.
Dear colleagues,
This is a critical week for our fight for a fair contract. Tomorrow morning, we will be launching our vote on strike authorization—and during the day, we’ll send a message to the administration and Board of Governors that we’re sick of delays and want a fair contract NOW! We urge all of you to vote YES as soon as you get your ballot—and then come to the events on the Newark, New Brunswick, or Camden campuses.
On Tuesday morning, check ALL of your inboxes AND spam folders for an email from Election Runner containing your ballot for the strike authorization vote. This isn’t a vote to call a strike right now. A “yes” vote will empower the union’s Executive Council to call a strike if the administration refuses to bargain a fair contract. NOBODY will know how you vote, only whether you voted.
Our members are mobilizing for the first day of the strike, which coincides with the meeting of the Rutgers Board of Governors in Newark:
In Newark, our colleagues are holding a Day of People’s Protest and Education. The centerpiece of the day is a 12 p.m. rally and action outside Robeson Campus Center. The featured speakers include Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, and Chris Smalls, president of the Amazon Labor Union, as well as members of the Rutgers unions representing 15,000 people who have been without a contract since last summer. We will make sure the Board of Governors hear us.
We’re also organizing two important panel discussions: “Solidarity Beyond the University” at 10 a.m. in Conklin 100 and “Solidarity Within the University” at 2:30 p.m. in Ackerman 123. Click here to see all the amazing panel participants. The rally and two panel discussions will be live-streamed on our union’s Facebook page, so you can watch there.
In New Brunswick, our members will be tabling and canvassing at satellite actions tomorrow in support of the Day of People’s Protest and Education. Please come out at 11:30 a.m. at the following locations and talk to your colleagues about the strike authorization vote, as well as students and members of other Rutgers unions.
- College Avenue Campus: The Yard, near the bus stop
- Busch Campus: In front of the Busch Student Center
- Cook/Douglass Campus: Douglass Student Center
Many of our New Brunswick faculty, grad workers, and postdocs will join their colleagues in Newark—and you can also get on a strike train being organized by Rutgers One, the coalition led by our student allies, leaving from New Brunswick station; click here to sign up! Back in New Brunswick, we will gather at Bell House, our union headquarters at 11 Stone Street, at 2:30 p.m., to watch the livestream of the second panel discussion in Newark.
In Camden, our colleagues will be holding a work-in at the Campus Center from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to show the administration that we are the ones who carry out the research and teaching mission of the university. Come by anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and do your work, grab a snack, and talk with students about why we’ve been forced by the administration to hold a vote on authorizing a strike—and why we voted yes. Too often, our work is invisible, carried out in offices or at home. Let’s make our work visible to management.
It is now eight full months since our contract expired. The administration has delayed and obstructed bargaining long enough! Vote YES and take action to show the administration we’ll fight for a better Rutgers.
In solidarity,
Becky and Todd
Rebecca Givan, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Todd Wolfson, General Vice President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Rutgers AAUP-AFT Facebook page: https://facebook.com/RUaaup/
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Find out the status of our demands in bargaining at a glance.
Read about the proposals we’re putting forward.
See the updates from each bargaining session.
Find all the latest messages to members and union statements here.