Yesterday, the New Jersey State AFL-CIO stood with over 300 union members and students at all three main campuses to put pressure on the Rutgers Administration and Board of Governors to negotiate with Rutgers faculty and staff unions for a new contract.
Our brothers and sisters have been working under an expired contract for six months. They are fed up with the pace of negotiations and demand that Rutgers negotiate in good faith to reach a fair contract.
At a time when Rutgers is flush with money, it is unacceptable that the State University has laid off over 1,000 workers, cut budgets, replaced union staff with non-union staff, increased staff workloads without additional compensation and raised tuition on our students.
The University is flush with federal COVID relief dollars, a generous allotment from our state budget and a nearly $2 billion endowment. It has more than enough resources to negotiate a fair contract for the people whose labor it depends on for its continued success.
We stand with the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT, the AAUP-AFT, AAUP-PTLFC Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR), and HPAE, and join their call for a new four-year contract to cover salaries, benefits, and working conditions.