Rutgers University and union representatives announced an agreement on a framework for new contracts with several faculty unions, allowing The five-day strike is off This was the first hiring move in the 257-year history of New Jersey’s flagship university.
Rutgers said early Saturday that with the help of Gov. Phil Murphy, it reached an agreement on the framework late Friday night on economic issues and that closing the framework “will allow our 67,000 students to resume their studies and earn their academic degrees.”
“We do nothing more important than fulfilling the expectations that our students and their families expect from us to fully support them and nurture their academic ambitions and dreams,” the school said in a statement.
Unions representing professors, part-time lecturers and graduate student workers told members they had agreed to suspend the strike and return to work, but more issues needed to be resolved before members could vote on a tentative deal.
“Our historic strike has brought us to this point. And let us be clear, suspending our strike is not a cancellation. If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issue through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will. Resume our work stoppage. Do,” they said, promising informational pickets as classes resume next week.
Seth Wenig/AP
Three unions, representing about 9,000 Rutgers staff members, joined the strike: Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate staff, postdoctoral associates and some consultants; Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time faculty; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which includes the faculty of biomedical and health sciences at Rutgers’ medical, dental, nursing and public health schools.
Unions said the framework includes “significant” salary increases for adjuncts and significant raises for graduate student workers, as well as more job security for adjunct and nontenure-track faculty, union representation for graduate fellows and other improvements.
Rutgers said the agreement, which is retroactive to July, will increase salaries across the board for full-time faculty and EOF consultants by at least 14 percent by July 2025. It would also provide a 43.8 percent pay rate increase for partial-credit. Strengthen tenured lecturers and their job security, increase minimum salaries for postdoctoral fellows and associates, and significantly increase wages and other support for teaching assistants and graduate assistants.
Picket lines grew at New Brunswick, Piscataway, Newark and Camden campuses Monday as students wrapped up their spring semester and prepared for finals and commencement. NJ.com reported that some said they went to class as usual because some professors were still teaching or handing out assignments, while others said classes were canceled or they decided to stay away or even walk picket lines in support of the walkout.