Rutgers strike is suspended, sending faculty back to work with a ‘framework’ for new contracts

After five days and the personal attention of Gov. Phil Murphy, the first strike by faculty in Rutgers University’s history appears to be nearing an end.

Faculty union leaders and university administration announced in the wee hours of Saturday morning that they had reached a “framework” for new contracts, following marathon negotiations that took place at the Statehouse in Trenton. While union leaders were clear that they had not reached a full tentative agreement, they are suspending the strike and returning to work.

Open issues remain, the unions said, especially for the union that represents health science faculty, AAUP-BHSNJ. These workers had joined the strike in the last week by curbing voluntary services but continuing to provide patient care and conduct critical research.

“Our historic strike got us to this point. And let us be clear, a suspension of our strike is not a cancellation,” a message from union leaders to their members Saturday said. “If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issues through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will resume our work stoppage.”

Negotiations are expected to resume Monday. The unions will continue to hold informational pickets in the coming week, the unions said. They met with members early Saturday afternoon to discuss the framework.

“The framework that was reached late last night between Rutgers and its faculty unions provides fair and equitable wages, benefits, and work conditions for our faculty as well as our graduate students and part-time lecturers,” university president Jonathan Holloway wrote in a message to campus early Saturday morning. “Reaching consensus comes as a result of the active and engaged leadership of Gov. Murphy, to whom we all are deeply indebted.”

According to university administration, the framework includes a 43.8% increase in the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers over the four years of the contract and improvements to their job security, and a 27.9% increase in the minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates over the same period. Teaching assistants and graduate assistants will see their 10-month salaries increase to $40,000 over the course of the contract, the university said.

Full-time faculty and Educational Opportunity Fund counselors will see salaries increase by at least 14% by July 2025, Holloway wrote. The contracts are retroactive to July 1, 2022, and will provide retroactive salary payments to the employees.

Many of the outstanding issues concern the 1,300 members of the BHSNJ, which represents doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and biomedical researchers at Rutgers, a spokesperson said. Among the unresolved matters: paid family leave and allegations that Rutgers has been using its partnership with RWJBarnabas Health to hire medical professionals outside the union.

Once a tentative agreement is reached, it will be ratified by secret ballot, the unions said.

A suspension of the strike is likely welcomed news to students, especially seniors, who have only two weeks left of classes before exams.

Holloway said the university’s final exam schedule will not be changed, and course registration scheduled to begin Monday will continue as scheduled. Commencement and convocation plans “are proceeding,” he said, without providing further detail. Commencement is scheduled for May 14, 15 and 16.

The strike, which involved 9,000 educators, researchers and clinicians — virtually the entire teaching force of the public flagship university — began Monday after more than 10 months of failed negotiations. It caused widespread disruption for the 67,000 students spread across three primary campuses in New Brunswick, Camden and Newark, though neither the administration nor the unions said they could provide an estimate of what percentage of classes continued despite the strike.

Before the strike, the unions were far apart from the administration on salary demands, especially for graduate workers, adjuncts and postdoctoral associates. The unions demanded significant upgrades in their salaries and wanted better job security for part-time instructors, and health-care insurance subsidies for both the part-time workers and graduate students.

Shortly after the strike was announced last Sunday night, Murphy called both sides to the Statehouse to continue negotiations there. Negotiations went all day into the night each day this last week, as picket lines formed on all three Rutgers campuses and many classes were canceled.