Rutgers University faculty held rallies Dec. 6 at multiple campus locations, advocating for new union contracts, NJ.com reported.
The largest – there were four – was at the College Avenue location in New Brunswick, which saw the participation of hundreds of supporters and some union leaders, such as American Association of University Professors President Dr. Irene Mulvey.
“We made a series of proposals around critical issues and needs that will make a better Rutgers for everyone—our students, staff, grad workers, faculty, our communities, the state of New Jersey,” said Dr. Rebecca Givan, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT. “It’s completely unacceptable that the administration has dragged its feet for months in even addressing our main demands,”
Negotiations are ongoing, Rutgers spokesperson Dory Devlin said.
“We continue to negotiate in good faith and on a regular basis with Rutgers’ unions,” Devlin said. “All mandatorily negotiable issues related to those employee contracts will be discussed at the negotiating table with the appropriate bargaining team representatives from the administration and the unions.”
AAUP-BHSNJ — a union representing 1,500 medical faculty in Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences facilities — is seeking to stop Rutgers from hiring nonunion faculty to replace unionized faculty, according to Catherine Monteleone, president of the AAUP-BHSNJ. And Dr. Amy Higer, president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (PTLFC), said the school has not addressed proposals for increased job security and the same pay for doing the same teaching work as full-time faculty.
