Regarding the Faculty Unions' Strike

April 9, 2023
 
Dear Members of the Rutgers Community,

As you may know, after several months of trying to negotiate new contracts with several of our employee unions, the leadership of our faculty/academic unions have called for a strike at Rutgers, beginning on Monday morning, April 10, 2023.

To say that this is deeply disappointing would be an understatement, especially given that just two days ago, both sides agreed in good faith to the appointment of a mediator to help us reach agreements. We have all been hard at work trying to resolve issues around compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment. For the past several weeks, negotiations have been constant and continuous. Significant and substantial progress has been made, as I have noted, and I believe that there are only a few outstanding issues. We will, of course, negotiate for as long as it takes to reach agreements and will not engage in personal attacks or misinformation.

In the interests of our more than 67,000 students, many of whom are mere weeks away from graduation, we have posted guidelines for students, as well as for faculty and staff, about what to know during a strike. 

The continued academic progress of our students is our number one concern, and we will do all that we can so that their progress is not impeded by a strike.

As you may know, among the many things we have offered as part of the faculty union negotiations are enhanced compensation programs that would increase salaries across-the-board for full-time faculty by 12 percent by July 1, 2025. Additionally, we have proposed 3 percent in lump-sum payments to all the faculty unions to be paid out over the first two years of the new contract. 
 
Further, we have proposed increases of approximately 20 percent in the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers and for winter/summer instructors over the four years of the contract. Additionally, we have proposed raising the minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates in the faculty union by more than 20 percent over the contract period. Importantly, we have offered similar enhancements in wages as well as a commitment to multi-year university support for our TAs and GAs. We believe these improvements will support our graduate students through their doctoral programs. 

All these wage packages would commence from the start of these contracts in July or August 2022, and increases would be paid retroactive (where appropriate) to those contracts’ start dates for all eligible employees.

Again, we will continue to negotiate, and I remain cautiously optimistic that we will quickly reach agreements with our employee unions.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor