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VICTORY! Postdocs Ratify a Strong New Contract

June 16, 2021

Dear colleague,

We’re proud to announce that postdoctoral associates finally have a new contract. We won important gains in this agreement, especially for the lowest-paid postdocs, and we will go into bargaining for our next contract united with the rest of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. Stronger together!

Here are some of the highlights of the new contract, which was ratified unanimously by a majority of postdoc members:

  • 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 retroactive payment of $1,275 for each year. Postdocs who are leaving Rutgers soon but are still employed as of the date of ratification yesterday will receive these retroactive payments in full.
  • The newly negotiated contract terms also make clear that postdocs can receive salaries above the minimum and raises above those negotiated.

The new contract expires 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, as we have for the past two years, we will be part of a coalition bargaining for nearly 20,000 workers and a dozen contracts.

We also have an agreement with management to continue bargaining for union membership for those RBHS postdocs who are not yet represented by our union. Negotiations on this issue will resume immediately.

We need to win more in the future. We are eager to get to work unionizing RBHS postdocs, securing better support for international scholars, further increasing the minimum postdoc salary so we get closer to a living wage, and other items that current postdocs and other bargaining units will bring to our attention.

We want to thank colleagues from other Rutgers unions for their support during this battle. Management didn’t want to agree to our just demands, but thanks to the power of our union, we spoke not with our voices alone but all of yours, too. Our victory is your victory.

In solidarity,
Todd E. Vachon, School of Management and Labor Relations
Althea Pestine-Stevens, School of Social Work
Andrés Morera, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

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