Posts tagged AAUP-AFT
Rutgers faculty suspend strike after reaching tentative deal
April 17, 2023 // Striking faculty at New Jersey's Rutgers University returned to classrooms Monday after reaching a tentative agreement on a new contract to boost wages and provide other benefits. On Saturday, the three striking unions representing more than 9,000 faculty members announced they had reached a "framework" agreement with Rutgers administration on new contracts, allowing more than 67,000 students to return to classes. The unions have been on strike since last Monday. The Rutgers' unions — AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and the Rutgers AAUP-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey — said the tentative deal includes "major victories" but said there are still "open issues" that have to be resolved before they put the contracts before their membership for a vote. "We have only suspended the strike, not canceled it," they said in a joint statement. "If we don’t win what we need on these open issues, we can and will continue with the work stoppage."
National Right to Work Foundation Issues Special Legal Notice to Rutgers Professors Impacted by Union Officials’ Strike Order
April 13, 2023 // In regards to union members, the Foundation’s notice informs workers that they maintain the right to resign from union membership at any time. The notice also suggests, if employees wish to continue working during the strike and avoid union discipline such as fines, that current union members resign their union membership at least one full day before returning to work. “It is Foundation attorneys’ best legal opinion that public sector employees have the right to resign their membership in a union at any time. At least two federal district courts have reached that conclusion,” mentions the notice. “If you are now a union member and want to work during the strike, you should seriously consider resigning your union membership at least one day, if not more, BEFORE you return to work during the strike.” “By initiating a strike that affects thousands of Rutgers employees, these union bosses are not only threatening the education of students, but are also potentially upending the livelihoods of countless families,” commented National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation President Mark Mix. “Rutgers professors should know that they have the right to reject union boss strike orders and can continue working.”
Rutgers president won’t rule out legal action to block strike
April 12, 2023 // Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway won’t rule out the possibility of legal action to block the ongoing strike from Rutgers University’s faculty unions. In a Monday evening email addressed to “Members of the Rutgers Community,” Holloway said that the university “will have no choice but to take legal action” if “there is no movement towards an agreement.” Gov. Phil Murphy personally intervened earlier to delay Rutgers from taking legal action to block the three unions from their ongoing strike. Holloway also alleged in the Monday evening email that protestors entered and disrupted a class where there was a “critical exam” that was underway. A university spokesperson did not respond to questions for more details on the incident.
Thousands of Rutgers University faculty and staff walk out Monday in historic strike
April 10, 2023 // Thousands of Rutgers University employees are walking off the job Monday. They voted to strike first time in the school's 257-year history.
Graduate Unions: Why Student Workers at University of California, Temple, More Are Striking
March 27, 2023 // HELU was founded in 2021 in an effort to fill those shoes. At a digital summit that July, members of 75 unions and labor organizations convened to draft a “vision platform” laying out everything from their legislative commitments (like Sen. Bernie Sanders’s College for All Act) to their support of student debt cancelation. The endgame is a unified academic labor movement capable of securing public investment and reorienting higher ed to “prioritize people and the common good over profit and prestige.” To date, 130 unions and affiliated groups representing over half a million workers have endorsed the platform. The first step in realizing this vision, says Jaime, who attended the 2021 summit, is to build union density. “Transforming academia is not going to happen in one single contract campaign. We have to organize workers in every single university in order to achieve real change,” he says.
Rutgers faculty authorizes a strike as negotiations continue
March 15, 2023 // Members of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union voted Friday to authorize a strike following a 10-day vote. Rutgers AAUP-AFT represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and counselors, while the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union represents part-time lecturers. A strike authorization does not mean that the educators will walk from the classroom. While students are on spring break this week, the two sides will be at the negotiating table. If the educators strike, it would affect all three campuses – Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick – and be the first faculty strike in the school’s 256-year history.
Judge denies EMU administration’s request to order striking faculty back to class now
September 9, 2022 // EMU administration filed a suit in Washtenaw County Circuit Court on Wednesday, Sept. 7, asking the court to bar the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors from continuing its strike that began on Wednesday. The university claims the strike is illegal under Michigan law.