Why higher-education workers at Rutgers and beyond are striking, according to a Philly labor lawyer
Labor lawyer Melissa Atkins discusses strikes at universities across the U.S. and what she recommends to her employer clients.
As the unions representing 9,000 academic workers at Rutgers University went on strike this week, theirs became one of several local universities tied up in contentious labor disputes, which are increasingly reaching a boiling point across the U.S.
The strike has led to class cancellations just a few weeks before the end of the semester, and while the university has assured students that graduation won’t be canceled, some students are worried about the consequences of missing instruction if the strike continues for too long. When a strike was announced, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy requested that both sides continue negotiations under supervision from his office and asked the university not to take legal action to get strikers back to work.
Melissa Atkins, a labor and employment lawyer at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel in Philadelphia, represents universities and other public employers in collective bargaining with unions. While it’s impossible for schools to give their employees everything they ask for, she said, employers need to come to the table willing to make concessions. Her frequent advice to employers is to try to work out their disagreements with workers before getting lawyers involved.
As the Rutgers strike continued Wednesday, Atkins spoke with The Inquirer to discuss the employer’s perspective.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
You were quoted in a January article from the Los Angeles Times saying that you thought we would see more organizing and striking among higher-education workers, and we’ve seen that play out. What’s behind this trend?
It’s a perfect storm between COVID-19 [recently causing particularly difficult work conditions] and employees generally wanting more benefits surrounding sick time and livable wages. At the same time, [President Joe] Biden did say that he’s pro-union and the National Labor Relations Board is more liberal than it’s been in the past. It’s really across all industries.
For the colleges and universities that are negotiating with workers now, what are the potential consequences for them?
Canceled classes ... major research could be stopped. Hopefully it doesn’t disrupt kids graduating. These are the same kids that started college during COVID — 2019 going on 2020 — so they’ve had a pretty disruptive four years, and you would hope that this doesn’t disrupt it even more.
What should universities be thinking about as they go into bargaining, given the national climate around higher-education working conditions?
You have to be prepared to concede some things for the better of your university. These negotiations are long, long processes, especially when there’s no current contract [in the case of a new union]. When you’re creating a contract from basically nothing, these negotiations can take years. You just have to be able to try to try to work it out.
What have we seen historically in higher-education strikes? What might be different in the current climate?
[Historically] we don’t typically see [strikes in higher education].
It just goes with the trend that people want livable wages. I think COVID really accelerated that. You would expect your employer to recognize that a dollar is not what it was in 2019. If you’re an employer and you’re not giving your employees the benefits that they think that they’re entitled to, this is what you see — you see organizing.
Employees organize because they’re not happy and they want change, so if you can find a way to keep your employees happy — i.e. negotiate with them before it gets to a union — and if you can give it to them or make some concessions, it works out better for the employer in the long run.
What are some of the economic forces at play here that could complicate that?
Well, the money has to come from somewhere, right? So if employees seek higher pay, then ... it likely will be passed down to students, which is unfortunate. It’s a bad recipe because higher education is already so expensive. Unless the state can fund it more and have a higher number in their budget for the universities, then I don’t see it coming from anywhere else but the students.
Do you think the organizing we’re seeing now at universities could lead to systemic changes in higher education?
I would hope so. You know, at the end of the day, management does want the best for their employees but sometimes they’re stuck. ... Student enrollment isn’t as high as it used to be, so they’re losing money. And they realize the cost of education is already expensive. You don’t want to see enrollment numbers continue to drop, but if tuition goes up I think that’s the end result. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place, trying to appeal to their employees and appeal to the consumer, which would be the student.
Why don’t the universities just give their unions everything they are asking for?
Because it’s impossible. I represent a lot of public municipalities and counties across Pennsylvania, and when I’m negotiating contracts I sometimes say to them, “When you get lawyers involved, things get complicated. Try to work out as much as you can between each other before we get involved because you guys have the best relationship.”
This is an employer-employee relationship. People’s backs go up when attorneys walk into the room, but it doesn’t have to be like that. I get along with my adversaries. Most of the union attorneys and labor attorneys know each other because it’s not the first time we’re sitting at the table with each other.
Sometimes neither side can get everything they want, and the quicker both sides realize that, the quicker you can get [to an agreement]. The longer it takes for both sides to realize that there’s things to concede, then the longer negotiations are going to take and the more contentious they’re going to be.