Rutgers faculty union leaders approve landmark contract to take to their members

Rutgers faculty union leaders voted Sunday, approving language for a contract that if ratified by nearly 9,000 members would end 10 months of negotiations with the university that turned into an impasse and the first-ever faculty strike on its three campuses.

Between 45 and 50 members who sit on the executive council of the AAUP-AFT union, representing full-time faculty, graduate workers and postdoctoral students, and a smaller group comprising the executive boards of two other unions representing part-time lecturers and medical school faculty voted in favor of contract language late Sunday afternoon. That triggers a next step of voting by the entire union membership in the coming days to make the agreement final.

"Members of the three unions will decide whether the tentative agreements are ratified as contracts running through the end of June 2026," said Alan Maass, a union representative.

The vote signals an initial but critical stamp of approval for a contract that could set a precedent for public higher education hiring nationwide. Longer contracts, raises and job security for part-time lecturers; raises and five years of funding for future graduate workers; health benefits and higher salary eligibility for graduate fellows; parental leave and terms that give medical faculty enough time to be with students and research as opposed to driving patient numbers; and a common-good proposal for the wider Rutgers community with the creation of a "Beloved Community Fund" are part of this game-changing contract.

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These "equity-driven" victories, hailed by union leaders as benefiting the most vulnerable and low-paid educators, were won mostly in a fast-tracked week of negotiations in Trenton under the supervision of Gov. Phil Murphy's staff and mediators after the strike began. That was followed by two more weeks of bargaining on the New Brunswick campus, all under the ticking clock of final exams, which start Thursday and will draw the spring semester to a close.

"I am happy to let you know that a tentative agreement on new contracts has been reached between the university and its faculty unions," Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said in a message to the university. The agreement "still requires ratification from the broader union membership," he said. "Reaching this point today is a recognition that we all can come together and work through our differences for the good of the university ... I look forward to resolving all outstanding non-faculty contracts as quickly as possible." He also thanked Murphy, for bringing the parties together when they "stalled."

Union leaders declined to comment on whether they think the strike, which is still only suspended, will end after the members' ratification vote in coming weeks. However, the vote to authorize the strike is moot, said Maass, because a strike will not be resumed as long as a tentative agreement is in place. If union members ratify the contract, that will end the strike threat.

Union leaders call these the biggest wins

The tentative agreements approved Sunday are expected to be ratified by thousands of faculty members who will begin voting on them later this week. Leaders would not take a position on what the outcome of the members' vote will be. Members will read and discuss the agreements at town hall meetings and will cast ballots in a ratification vote that will start later this week and is expected to end Monday afternoon, Maass said.

The executive board of the medical faculty union, AAUP-BHSNJ, representing clinicians at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences voted unanimously to send the deal to its membership for ratification Sunday, said the union's executive director, Diomedes Tsitouras. "We are proud of the work we did," Tsitouras said. The union's biggest win was tenure-like language in the contract that gives medical faculty more time with their students and with their research and scholarship, a key demand for clinicians who train medical students.

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"I would say we finally got a commitment for minimal job security for adjunct faculty with multi-semester appointments," said adjunct faculty union President Amy Higer, speaking for herself. Higer is a political science lecturer at the university's Division of Global Affairs in New Brunswick and was part of the bargaining negotiations with Rutgers' administration.

"The biggest win was the solidarity across ranks — we went on strike to win improvements for our adjunct colleagues, our grad workers and our postdocs. Full-time faculty understood that we need to stand together if we are truly going to build a better Rutgers," said Rebecca Givan, president of the AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time professors and graduate workers.

Adjunct union leaders and clinicians' leaders voted unanimously to approve contract language, but the largest faculty union representing full-time professors and graduate workers did not. They approved it "with a wide margin," said Maass, who did not disclose the split in voting.

Graduate workers won a pay hike that amounts to a 33% increase over four years, which would bring annual pay to $40,000 by the end of the contract. They also secured five years of funding for students entering graduate programs in fall 2024, and extensions in funding for doctoral students directly affected by COVID. Several union members at a town hall meeting held before the leadership vote expressed frustration at ambiguous language in the contracts that made it unclear how departments would fund the graduate raises.

There was widespread support for most of the contract terms negotiated by the unions, but among the least satisfied appeared to be doctoral students, who also work as graduate and teaching assistants. Liana Katz, vice president for graduate workers and a fourth-year geography doctoral student, did not comment on what she thought was the biggest win for graduate workers.

Graduate workers had wanted higher raises earlier in the life of their contracts and a child-care subsidy for parents — demands that did not make the approved language. The graduate workers' union leaders at the town hall said they would vote by "conscience" on contract language Sunday, despite voting as a bloc during earlier negotiations. However, their steering committee had no plans to organize a no vote, graduate student Mich Ling told union members, taking into account their own “exhaustion” and because there was no version available going forward of the tentative agreement that would be not be approved.

Only 29 of 59 participants in the graduate workers' town hall meeting Sunday voted yes to approving the contract terms (36%) as part of a casual poll and "thought experiment," asking meeting participants to put themselves in the shoes of steering committee members and indicate how they would vote on the tentative agreements. The others either abstained from voting or did not vote in favor.

Graduate workers, medical faculty, postdoctoral students and Economic Opportunity Fund counselors won improved vacation, parental leave and bereavement leave in non-economic contract terms. The university also agreed to set up a task force to examine issues of discrimination. A "Beloved Community Fund" to improve and address community needs could receive $600,000 in state funds, according to a slide-show presentation made at a graduate workers' town hall meeting Sunday, a win for local labor advocacy organizations and R1, a Rutgers-student coalition that presented "common-good" proposals with the unions.

Some graduate students meeting before Sunday's leadership vote joked about "Murphy's mystery millions," indicating that little information is available even to union members. The Murphy administration has refused to disclose how much the unions' economic gains will cost New Jersey taxpayers, after it announced a framework deal two weeks ago at the end of negotiations in Trenton. Murphy's office has said it is working with Rutgers and other institutions of higher education during the budget process.

The Rutgers union wins come during a time of tight budgets and fiscal crises at some state-funded universities. New Jersey City University and William Paterson University testified earlier this year to the state Legislature about their financial challenges.

“We are a democratic union, and our members will have the final say on whether these TAs are ratified,” the three Rutgers unions said in a statement to members Sunday night, referring to the tentative agreements.

“We’re proud of what we achieved by going on strike and joining together for the Rutgers we and our students deserve. We believe these are strong contracts that make numerous advances for our members," the statement said. "We didn’t win everything we asked for and deserve, but no labor contract ever does. We will continue fighting for a better Rutgers starting the day after we have a ratified contract."