As Rutgers strike begins and classes are canceled, negotiations continue with Gov. Murphy’s oversight

As hundreds of faculty took to the picket lines Monday at Rutgers University’s three New Jersey campuses, union and administration negotiators were on their way to the governor’s office to resume talks, with both sides suggesting that a deal could be reached quickly.

Speaking from a picket line at the New Brunswick campus, Rebecca Givan, president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said she was optimistic the strike could be resolved in a day or two, now that Gov. Phil Murphy is involved.

“The governor has made it clear that he wants us to get a strong contract and a fair deal, and we think we can get this done,” she said. “We could close it in a day or two.”

Bargaining in the governor’s office began at noon, and is expected to continue there until a contract is reached.

“We are encouraged and welcome his leadership and are hopeful that we can quickly come to a resolution of the remaining outstanding issues,” Rutgers spokesperson Dory Devlin said.

On the first day of the academic workers’ strike at Rutgers — the first in the university’s 257-year history for unions representing about 9,000 adjunct instructors; full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and counselors; and health science faculty — a robust picket line formed outside the Campus Center at the university’s Camden campus. Their chants could be heard from inside the building and across the nearby grounds.

» READ MORE: Nearly all of Rutgers’ academic workforce is on strike. Here’s what to know

Students grabbing coffee or passing by the Campus Center compared with one another which of their classes were canceled, and some expressed worry that prolonged negotiations would disrupt their academic progress, with just three weeks of classes left before final exams. Others joined the picket line.

Neither union officials nor the university provided estimates Monday on the percentage of classes canceled or the percentage of academic faculty honoring the picket lines. But it was clear that class disruption was widespread on the three campuses of New Jersey’s public flagship university, which enrolls about 67,000 students.

Earlier this month, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway had hinted that the university might seek a court injunction to bring a strike to an end if one occurred, which drew a backlash from the unions. It also elicited a letter from some academics who describe themselves as “scholars of labor, social justice, and the Black Freedom Struggle” from around the country, who urged the university not to take such a step in a letter to Holloway. They noted in the letter that Holloway, as an expert in African American history, must have “thought deeply about how struggles for racial justice have consistently been aligned with the demands for jobs, labor rights, and democracy in the workplace.”

But Devlin, the Rutgers spokesperson, said Monday afternoon that the university would not pursue an injunction at this point at the governor’s request.

“The governor ... asked us to delay taking legal action asking the courts to order strikers back to work so that no further irreparable harm is caused to our students and to their continued academic progress,” she said. “We agreed to his request to refrain from seeking an injunction while it appears that progress can be made.”

Jim Brown, president of the Rutgers-Camden chapter of the AAUP-AFT, said he hopes Murphy’s presence will facilitate better bargaining.

“My hope is that the governor can help push management to move more quickly and to move off of positions that they haven’t moved from,” Brown said. “I think he supports us.”

Bargaining sessions had continued over the weekend ahead of Sunday night’s strike announcement. For the union leaders, Brown said, it was a lot of waiting around for proposals from the university, and management was rarely in the room during those sessions.

“We just wait,” he said. “We wait for hours at a time, and I don’t think that can happen anymore” with the governor’s office overseeing negotiations.

Devlin, the university spokesperson, declined to comment on the pace of negotiations in recent days.

Students at Rutgers-Camden on Monday said many if not all of their classes were canceled. From what they understood, the classes that were set to continue as scheduled were taught by nonunion instructors.

On its website, the university stated that many classes would continue to be held, though it didn’t say how, and directed students to check with their school or instructor or on Canvas or one of its other learning management systems. The site also says commencement and convocation ceremonies will still be held on all campuses.

“Our students’ ability to complete their coursework and earn their degrees is the university’s highest priority,” the university stated.

Gabriella Massa, a freshman management major, said all three of her classes were canceled Monday, but communication about their status was inconsistent. One professor had notified students in prior classes he would be canceling if a strike was called. Another just didn’t show up to teach.

“People are fighting for what they want, and they should, but it kind of feels weird,” Massa said.

Students said they’ve known for a while that a strike may happen. Several said they believe their instructors are often underpaid, and some expressed frustration about pay inequities between campuses and departments.

The university has made attempts to even out compensation in recent years, but many professors have remained unsatisfied with those efforts.

“I’m glad that students are showing the administration that if you are not going to treat the teachers with respect, then the students are not going to treat you with respect,” said Briannah Shaw, a freshman psychology major who made a poster and joined the picket line on Monday morning. “I’m glad that we hold a lot of power and that we can do something about it because it’s clearly need[ed].”

“I think it’s ridiculous how little the professors are making, especially considering what they have to go through to actually get a job here in the first place,” said Arcadia Giza, a freshman animation major who went to the picket line with Shaw. Still, Giza expressed some concern that paid-for classes would not be held for a prolonged period, and wondered if the university would give refunds for that instruction.

Several law school students who spoke with The Inquirer, most of whom were supportive of the striking union members, said they worried about how any missed classes would affect them academically. Specifically, some wondered if the American Bar Association might deem their second year of school insufficient if too many classes were missed.

“It’s surprising that [the university] would let it get to this point instead of just compensating people the way that they’re supposed to be compensated,” said Rachel Savage, a second-year law student.

Speaking from the picket line in Camden, history professor Andrew Shankman and English professor Rafey Habib said their own pay is comfortable because they are full professors, but an increasing number of faculty members are making insufficient wages.

“For Rutgers to keep its best faculty, they need to give us a fair contract … [and] they also need to take care of the most vulnerable people — the part-timers, the graduate students, the TAs,” Habib said. “The strike is a powerful demonstration of solidarity.”

Habib and Shankman said recruiting graduate student workers is difficult because they can make more at other universities, and adjunct professors often don’t know until the last minute whether they’ll have a teaching position the next semester. Adjuncts also don’t make much money, so they have to teach many classes to make ends meet, Shankman said, which could take away from the quality of instruction.

The university most recently offered 12% increases for full-time faculty and teaching and graduate assistants by July 1, 2026, (roughly 3% a year) and a 3% lump-sum payment to all faculty union members to be paid over the first two years of the contract. For part-time lecturers and winter and summer term instructors, the university offered an approximate 20% bump in the per-credit salary rate and it has proposed raising the minimum salary for postdoctoral associates and fellows by more than 20% over the contract period.

The union, however, has been seeking 5% annual wage hikes over the four-year contract for full-time faculty, plus more if inflation is higher. But most acutely, the unions have been pushing for better pay for those lowest in their pay ranks, including graduate workers and adjuncts, and that has emerged as a major sticking point. The unions are demanding significant upgrades in their salaries, which for too long have been woefully inadequate to live on, union members say.

Teaching assistants and graduate assistants covered by the union contract get a minimum salary of $30,162 ($33,999 if their appointment is for the full academic year). The union wants to see the minimum raised to $36,000.

The union also wants pay for adjuncts that’s equivalent to full-time teaching faculty on the nontenured track, as well as multisemester and multiyear contracts and some job protection so that the administration can’t just cut them at will. Adjunct faculty make less than $6,000 for a standard three-credit class, the union said.

Starting pay for full-time faculty ranges from $62,912 for an assistant instructor to $137,573 for a distinguished law professor, level II, according to the most recent contract.

The union also provided median annual salaries for tenure and tenure-track arts and sciences faculty at the lowest and highest ranks on both the New Brunswick and Camden campuses. In New Brunswick, an assistant professor earns $105,859, compared to $76,822 in Camden. At the highest level of professor II, they earn $215,607 in New Brunswick and $173,700 in Camden.

The union noted that only a little over a quarter of the faculty in the Rutgers system are tenure and tenure-track.

“I’m sad that it’s come to this,” Shankman said. “Everybody would rather be doing our jobs.”