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

The unions representing Rutgers University’s 9,000 academic workers — nearly its entire teaching force — went on strike starting Monday morning. It’s the first faculty strike in the school’s 257-year history.

The striking unions represent three groups at the university: adjunct instructors; full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and counselors; and health science faculty. The unions are picketing at Rutgers’ three campuses, in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick, N.J.

Here’s a timeline of when the unions called a strike and what to know about it.

The unions voted in March to authorize a strike after months of failed contract negotiations. The unions’ previous contract expired last summer.

On Sunday night, the unions called for a work stoppage to begin at 9 a.m. Monday. Union leaders have been negotiating with the university for 10 months, including more than two weeks of full-day sessions.

“We never wanted to have to strike, but we knew that this was a possibility and we organized to prepare for it,” said Jim Brown, president of the Rutgers-Camden chapter of the AAUP-AFT.

» READ MORE: For the first time in its 257-year history, Rutgers’ faculty and grad student unions will go on strike

Weekend bargaining sessions saw little progress, union leaders said.

“We were all watching this and saying, ‘Do they want us to strike?’ ” said Donna Murch, an associate professor of history at Rutgers and president of the faculty union on the New Brunswick campus.

University President Jonathan Holloway in a statement to the Rutgers community called the strike “deeply disappointing.”

“We have all been hard at work trying to resolve issues around compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment,” he wrote. Holloway also noted that “just two days ago, both sides agreed in good faith to the appointment of a mediator to help us reach agreements.”

The strike is happening at a crucial time in the academic calendar with just three weeks of classes left before final exams and commencement on May 14.

Throughout bargaining, the union and administration have remained far apart on three key issues: salary demands, most acutely those for graduate workers, adjuncts, and postdoctoral associates; job security for part-time instructors; and health-care insurance subsidies for both the part-time workers and graduate students.

For years, there have been complaints that Rutgers has not treated its Camden campus fairly and that salaries have been inequitable. The university has made attempts to even out compensation, but many professors have remained unsatisfied with those efforts.

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. It also is pushing to have graduate students paid a living wage. 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 academic year). The union wants to see the minimum raised to $36,000.

The union also seeks pay for adjuncts that is equivalent to full-time faculty on the nontenured track teaching faculty, as well as multisemester and multiyear contracts and some job protection so that the administration can’t just cut them at will.

It’s unclear how long the strike will last. N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy released a statement Sunday night saying he was calling on the university and union bargaining committees to meet in his office Monday “to have productive dialogue.”

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

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 soon, now that 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.”

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. (The university has not commented on whether any classes are being held.)

Organizing efforts on both public and private college campuses have become more common, especially among undergraduate and graduate student workers.

The Rutgers strike comes after a 42-day strike by graduate student workers at Temple University that ended last month. Many in the Rutgers unions cited the Temple University Graduate Student Association’s strike as an inspiration for their own organizing efforts.

Liana Katz, vice president for graduate workers with the AAUP-AFT union at Rutgers, previously said the TUGSA strike set “a really good precedent for us if we need to go on strike.”