Boards of Rutgers’ faculty unions vote to put a tentative agreement before members for ratification

Educators, researchers, and clinicians at Rutgers got a step closer to a new contract Sunday when their union executive board and councils voted to endorse a tentative agreement.

The agreement, which includes pay raises and better job security and which won support from union bargaining teams last week, will now be put before the 9,000 members in the three unions for ratification, likely later this week.

“I’m very proud of what we accomplished,” said Jim Brown, president of the Rutgers-Camden chapter of the AAUP-AFT union, who noted the unprecedented work of three unions bargaining together for new contracts. “I think it’s historic.”

Jonathan Holloway, Rutgers president, said in a message to the campus community that in addition to substantial salary increases, the agreement means “new compensation programs for our medical school faculty and provides both salary increases and job security for our part-time lecturers, who will be referred to as ‘Lecturers’ upon ratification.

“Reaching this point today is a recognition that we all can come together and work through our differences for the good of the university.”

If ratified, it would bring to an end lengthy negotiations that started nearly a year ago and included a one-week strike in April — the first in the unions’ history — during which the administration and union representatives engaged in marathon bargaining at the state capitol, with personal attention from Gov. Phil Murphy.

» READ MORE: Rutgers teaching force is nearing tentative agreements on a new contract

Members agreed to return to work with a framework for new contracts, but it took two more weeks of bargaining to reach the tentative agreement. Classes for Rutgers’ 67,000 students, however, went on during that time, which was a critical point in the semester with only a couple weeks left and exams and commencement looming.

“We were frustrated that things didn’t move more quickly in the last couple of weeks,” said Rebecca Givan, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. “But late last week management really saw the urgency of finishing these contracts and the pace picked up quickly.”

Driving that urgency at least in part could have been the university senate’s move on Friday to discuss holding a vote of no confidence against Holloway if a tentative agreement hadn’t been reached by Tuesday of this week. The authorization to discuss the vote passed. If a tentative agreement had not been reached, the no-confidence vote would have been held before finals.

Though the strike was disruptive for a week, commencement and exams are on track.

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

“We were very aware that we were striking for something that was about the long-term for our students, but none of us were interested in hurting our students in the short term either,” Givan said. “We demonstrated that with very high participation you can win a lot by being willing to go on strike.”

Both Givan and Holloway gave a shout out to Gov. Murphy for his help.

“It is ... a testament to the leadership of Gov. Murphy, who brought all sides together when progress had stalled,” Holloway said.

Under the new four-year contracts, raises will be retroactive to July 1, 2022. For full-time faculty, the new contract includes a 14% increase over the life of the contract. In the first year, they will get a 3.75% increase, which the union said would be paid as a flat dollar amount of $5,035 to benefit lower-paid faculty. That means those who earn less will see an even bigger boost when they get percentage increases on top of that dollar amount this July, Brown explained.

In year three, the average increase of 3.25% will vary among members, according to merit.

Under the old contract, starting pay for full-time faculty ranged from $62,912 for an assistant instructor to $137,573 for a distinguished law professor, level II.

Current median annual salaries for tenure and tenure-track arts and sciences faculty at the lowest and highest ranks vary by campus. 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.

All those numbers would rise if the new agreement is approved.

Also under the tentative agreement, teaching assistants and graduate assistants will get a 32.6% increase by the final year, raising their salary to $40,000. Adjunct faculty will receive a 43.7% increase over the life of the contract; by year four, they will be paid $8,331 for a three-credit class at level one.

Meanwhile, postdoctoral workers will get a 27.9% boost over the contract, rising their minimum annual salary to $63,968 in year four.

» READ MORE: Rutgers professors say they were shortchanged in salary equity adjustments, especially those who work in Camden

There also are clauses that address equity among the three primary campuses in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick, long a concern among faculty in Camden. It includes an improved appeals process for pay equity that will include faculty involvement, as well as more transparency.

“We made some big gains on campus equity,” Brown said.

A key provision won during the last two weeks of bargaining, said union officials, was an extension of funding for graduate students whose work was disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. They can apply for an additional year of funding of no less than $25,000.

They also will be guaranteed five years of funding when they start at Rutgers, Brown said. Currently, it varies by college or department, he said.

Also included in the new agreement is parental leave for biomedical faculty, who previously did not have that benefit. Their union includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, and biomedical researchers.

For adjuncts teaching at Rutgers longer than 12 years, they will get four-semester appointments, improving job security. For those teaching less than 12 but more than two years, they will get two-semester appointments.

One thing union negotiators weren’t able to get was child-care subsidies, but that’s something they said they will continue to work on during the next negotiations.