Third Update on Labor Negotiations

April 3, 2023

Members of the Rutgers Community,

As you know, the university and the unions representing our faculty and staff are in the process of negotiating new labor contracts. Although we have not yet come to agreement, progress has been made, and I am hopeful that we will continue down that path. Many issues have already been resolved, and we are negotiating in good faith on the outstanding items. Indeed, the university and the faculty unions have held all-day negotiation sessions over the last two weeks, and we have committed to continue negotiations with our faculty unions every day this week.  

There has been significant movement toward agreement in the past few days, and we are cautiously optimistic that a strike or other job action will not be called by our faculty unions. Our students have already had to navigate all the disruptions that the COVID pandemic caused, and I am deeply committed to minimizing any further disruptions on the path toward the degrees they are pursuing. Our students and their academic progress are everyone’s top priority.

Among the things we have offered as part of the faculty union negotiations are enhanced compensation programs that would increase salaries across-the-board for full-time faculty and TAs/GAs by 12 percent by July 1, 2025. Additionally, we have proposed 3 percent in lump-sum payments to all the faculty unions to be paid out over the first two years of the new contract. 

Further, we have proposed increases of approximately 20 percent in the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers and for winter/summer instructors over the four years of the contract. Additionally, we have proposed raising the minimum salary for postdoctoral associates and fellows in the faculty union by more than 20 percent over the contract period.  

All these new wage packages would commence from the start of these contracts in July or August 2022, and increases would be paid retroactive (where appropriate) to those contract start dates for all eligible employees.

Again, I believe that we are making progress. I am confident that we can reach agreement with all our unions by continuing these conversations in a spirit of goodwill in the days ahead. To be clear, if a strike were to be called, the university would have no choice but to make every legal effort to ensure that any job action does not affect our students’ academic progress. 

Finally, in an effort to address any uncertainty that students may have about what would happen if a strike were to be called, and, again, we are hopeful that that will not happen, a set of FAQs have been posted on the Rutgers website’s Information for Current Students page. The FAQs will be updated as the situation warrants.  

Sincerely,

Jonathan Holloway
President and University Professor