Dear colleague,
We’re pleased to announce that we’ve finally reached a tentative agreement* on a new postdoc union contract after two years of negotiations. The agreement must now be approved by the union’s membership through a contract ratification ballot. Here are some of the highlights:
- A significant increase in the minimum postdoc salary to $50,000 starting on July 1, 2021 (up from the current $42,552). All other eligible postdocs will receive a raise of $1,400, or the funding source increase in each year, whichever is greater. These raises will also be effective on July 1, 2021.
- For eligible postdocs who did not receive a raise on July 1, 2019, or July 1, 2020, there will be a retro payment of $1,275 for each year.
- The newly negotiated contract terms also make clear that you can receive salaries above the minimum and raises above those negotiated.
- Postdocs who are leaving Rutgers soon will be eligible for the above increases as long as you are still employed at the time of ratification. That’s next Wednesday, June 16, if a majority of members vote to ratify the tentative agreement.
If ratified, this contract will expire in another year, on June 30, 2022, so we will be bargaining for our next contract as part of the Coalition of Rutgers Unions, along with all faculty, all graduate workers, and nearly all university staff. This will significantly increase our bargaining power. Instead of 600 postdocs bargaining for one contract, we will be part of a coalition bargaining for nearly 20,000 workers and a dozen contracts. We’ll be stronger together!
We also have an agreement with management to continue bargaining for union membership for those RBHS postdocs who are not yet a part of our union. Negotiations on this issue will resume immediately following ratification of this contract.
There is no doubt that we need to win more in future negotiations, but we are also stronger today because we will stand together and move forward with the Coalition of Rutgers Unions.
As members of the union, we encourage you to approve this agreement when you receive your contract ratification ballot from Election Runner. Voting will open this Friday, June 11, and close at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, June 16. We will hold two information sessions on the tentative agreement next week—the first on Monday, June 14, at 5 p.m., and the second on Tuesday, June 15, at 2 p.m.. You can join either session at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2724782365. In the meantime, you can write to us at aaup@rutgersaaup.org with any questions.
If you know a postdoc who didn’t receive this email because they are not yet a union member, please share it, along with this link to join the union: https://rutgersaaup.org/join. Only union members are eligible to vote in the contract ratification ballot.
In solidarity,
Todd, Althea, Andrés, Jenni, Mateo, Skye, and Joanna
The Postdoc Union Negotiating Team
*Note: the highlighting, bolds, and strikethroughs in the tentative agreement represent the last round of changes in the back and forth between our postdoc bargaining team and management. For example, you will see $1,500 crossed out and replaced by $1,400—that signals the union had last offered $1,500, and management rejected it, coming back with an offer of $1,400. Anything in bold is new language added by management in the last round, and strikethroughs are words that management wanted to remove.