(CNN) Three unions representing about 9,000 faculty and staff at Rutgers University will go on strike Monday morning after nearly a year of gridlocked contract negotiations, marking the first teacher strike in its nearly 257-year history. at the university, according to the unions.
Union members will form picket lines at Rutgers’ three main campuses in New Brunswick, Newark and Camden, New Jersey, to demand higher pay, improved job security for faculty members and guaranteed funding for graduate students, among other demands, union representatives said in a joint statement. release.
“Those closest to our learning and the university’s mission of teaching, research and service deserve more than just staying and scraping by,” said Rutgers master’s student Michelle O’Malley in a virtual town hall on Sunday night.
Union leaders expect the action to stop instruction and “non-critical research,” because the clinics at university health facilities “will continue to perform duties of patient care and critical research, while suppressing voluntary work,” the union release said.
However, the university insisted that “classes are expected to continue as normal,” spokeswoman Dory Devlin Sr. told CNN on Sunday night. “The university is open and functioning, and classes are continuing on a normal schedule,” the school’s website read early Monday, although one page said: “Many classes will continue to meet during strike.”
In guidelines posted in the event of a strike, the university advised students to continue attending classes and completing assignments as usual. It also emphasized that “it is the university’s expectation that all faculty and staff continue to report to work to fulfill their duties and responsibilities at work.”
The union action comes just weeks after a major three-day strike by Los Angeles public school workers demanding higher wages and better working conditions and amid a spate of short-term strikes in workers across the country.
It’s unclear how long the Rutgers strike will last.
The university said it may seek a court order to end the strike and “force a return to normal activities,” although union leaders have strongly contested the university’s claims that the strike is illegal.
“To say that this is deeply disappointing would be an understatement,” Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway said in a letter to the community, announcing that the two sides agreed to appoint a mediator just two days later. before announcing the strike.
“For the past weeks, the negotiations have been constant and ongoing,” the president said. “Significant and substantial progress has been made, as I have noted, and I believe that there are only a few outstanding issues. We will, of course, negotiate as long as necessary to reach agreements and not engage in personal attacks or misinformation.”
Union representatives, however, insisted that the university refused to meet their central demands.
“After sitting at the bargaining table for 10 months trying to win what we believe are fair and reasonable things, like equal pay, job security, and access to affordable health care health, and getting nowhere with these basic demands, we have no choice. but to vote to strike,” Amy Higer, a part-time lecturer at Rutgers and president of the Adjunct Faculty Union, said in a statement.
“We heard that the management said that a strike would harm the students,” he continued. “But you know what really hurts students? The high turnover that results from not paying teachers well and making them reapply for their jobs every semester.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy asked representatives of the university’s bargaining committee and union to meet in his office on Monday “to have a productive dialogue,” according to a statement.
The striking unions are Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral researchers and advisors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time lecturers; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents faculty who teach in the university’s medical and public health facilities.
Nine other unions are seeking a new contract with the university, according to a union release.
Where the negotiations stand
Unions and university representatives have been negotiating since previous contracts expired last summer, a union release said. But while both sides acknowledged some progress in recent days, union leadership said Sunday that their key demands are far from being met.
Rutgers AAUP-AFT and AAUP-BHSNJ united their bargaining efforts and jointly negotiated a contract for all full-time faculty at the university, while the Adjunct Faculty Union independently negotiated a new contract for of part-time lecturers who must be reassigned to their teaching positions after a specified number of semesters or years.
Here are some of the demands of the unions:
AAUP-AFT and AAUP-BHSNJ
• A university-sponsored affordable housing program and freeze on campus housing rates
• Salary increases for full-time faculty, graduate and postdoctoral workers
• More protections for immigrants and international workers
• Up to five years of guaranteed funding for graduate workers
• Childcare subsidies for graduate and postdoctoral workers
• Additional paths to teaching tenure for professors and librarians
Adjunct Faculty Union
• Health care eligibility for members teaching 50% of the full-time equivalent
• Longer contracts and more advanced notice of appointments
• Size caps on write-intensive classes
• Promotions based on years of service
In response, Holloway said that the offered by the universityin part:
• 12% salary increase for full-time teachers by July 2025
• Approximately 20% increase in the per-credit pay rate for part-time teachers
• More than 20% increase in the minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates during the contract period
• Commitment to “multi-year university support” for graduate assistant teaching
“To say it’s just about the salary is an understatement,” O’Malley, the master’s student, said Sunday. “This fight is the fight between the mission of our university, between its promises and its reality. This is why this fight is central to the students and the community.”
The university has threatened legal action
Faced with a possible strike, Holloway said in a letter last week that the action would leave management “no choice but to make every legal effort to ensure that any job action does not affect the academic progress of our students.”
In posted strike guidance for faculty, staff and students, Rutgers said it would consider seeking a court order to force a return to instruction and work.
“The university may go to court to maintain university operations and protect our students, patients, and staff from disruptions in their education, clinical care, and workplace,” the guidance said.
University and union leaders are at odds over the legality of the strike, as Rutgers has warned its workers that it is illegal for them to participate in the action as public employees.
In a note advising participants of their “right to strike,” the unions denied the university’s claim, saying, “The NJ Constitution and laws are silent on whether strikes by workers in public sector legal. In some instances, courts have issued injunctions against striking public employees.”
If Rutgers administrators petition the court for an injunction, the unions said, “It will signal the beginning, and not the end, of a legal process.”
CNN’s Rebekah Riess contributed to this report.
