Rutgers strike suspended, but unions say unresolved issues remain

News of a framework deal between Rutgers University and its striking faculty unions broke overnight Saturday, but labor leaders warn the strike may not be over.

While faculty and staff are expected to return to the classroom Monday — after a weeklong standstill at New Jersey’s largest university — unions said Saturday that some major issues remain unresolved, particularly for 1,300 unionized doctors, medical researchers, dentists and nurses under the employ of Rutgers.

Here are some highlights from what we know about the deal:

Big moves on job security

Adjunct faculty gained some of the biggest wins out of the deal.

Amy Higer, president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, said the framework agreement included a deal that provides adjunct faculty who meet a range of minimum credit thresholds with longer contracts that renew automatically, barring cause for termination. Previously, adjuncts had to re-apply for their jobs each semester.

“We are finally getting yearlong contracts for a good number of us, and two-year contracts for those teaching for a long time,” Higer said before the meeting Saturday. “Which is transformative.”

Adjuncts and part-time faculty with less seniority who have accumulated at least 12 credits in the fall and spring semesters of an academic year — for two consecutive years — would be eligible for a yearlong contract.

Adjuncts with more seniority who amassed at least six credits per academic year under the same timeframe would also be eligible for a yearlong contract. Meanwhile, those who have taught for 12 years, consecutive or otherwise, will be eligible for two-year contracts, according to Bryan Sacks, vice president of the adjunct union and head of its bargaining committee.

The terms bestow a sense of certainty on adjunct faculty and part-time lecturers traditionally excluded from the security enjoyed by tenured professors — not only at Rutgers, but across academia in the United States.

“For the very first time in the history of Rutgers, we now have a measure of job security,” said Howie Swerdloff, secretary of the adjunct union. “We have one year appointments for hundreds of adjuncts and even two year appointments for long serving adjuncts. It's real. It's also a ladder for the future.”

Raises for a range of positions — from full-time to part-time faculty and postdoctoral fellows — were also announced as part of the framework deal Saturday.

Sticking points for medical faculty

Cathy Monteleone, president of the American Association of University Professors-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey, said medical faculty have not been as successful as their union peers in gaining their demands so far.

“Unfortunately, we didn't have as much luck as all of you,” Monteleone said on the call with members Saturday. Family leave remained an outstanding issue, which Monteleone called “terribly insulting.”

“Unbelievably, they won't give doctors, researchers, health care professionals parental leave,” she said. “They did offer to give us parental leave and take away much of our sick time. That is an insult to doctors who were on the line in Covid.”

Other issues for medical faculty have remained unresolved, including similar terms awarded to adjuncts for longer contracts, according to the unions.

"There are still some outstanding issues, including with our medical faculty," said Rutgers spokesperson Dory Devlin in an email. "However, given the consensus reached last night, we are optimistic that the membership will vote to ratify the contracts when fully completed."

Where’s the money, Murphy?

Another open question is if Gov. Phil Murphy offered Rutgers additional state funding to sweeten the pot for negotiations. Murphy suggested on WNYC’s “Ask Governor Murphy” this week that more funding may be available, but state legislators sounded wary of awarding a special carveout for Rutgers when other colleges in the state are also in need of money.

“How do you start picking one over the other? How do you make it that one deserves more attention than the other?” asked Assembly budget chair Eliana Pintor-Marin this week, according to a report in NJ Monitor.

Changes to the budget would have to be approved by the state Assembly and Senate.

Murphy’s office declined to answer questions around new money for Rutgers. Pintor-Marin did not respond to a request for comment.

This story has been updated with a statement from Rutgers.