On April 10, 9,000 graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and counselors, and faculty at Rutgers University went on an indefinite strike in all three campuses of the public university throughout New Jersey. The workers are organized under three unions: the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT), the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and American Association of University Professors-Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (AAUP-BHSNJ). Key demands include raises, job security, and health insurance subsidies.
Rutgers workers saw their contract expire on June 30. At this point, the University administration has dragged workers through ten months of unsuccessful negotiations. AAUP-AFT and Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union workers began voting on a strike authorization on February 28. 80% of workers turned out to vote, and 94% voted for a strike. 95% of AAUP-BHSNJ workers voted to strike on March 9.
This latest strike comes at a time when more and more workers in higher education, viewed by some as an “elite” profession that is detached from the labor struggles of the many, are fighting and winning demands.
It is no surprise, however, that higher education workers are increasingly connecting their exploitation to that of the rest of the working class. Workers with college degrees, despite the popular assumption that they will have access to elite spaces with better jobs, have increasing difficulty finding well-paying jobs. Unemployment rates for recent graduates now surpass the national average for all workers. Tuition has climbed to astronomical levels with a 134% increase in the past 20 years. And universities are finding creative ways to pay their workers less through a “gig economy” of adjunct workers.
Rutgers workers have pointed to recent victories on campuses such as Temple University, where graduate workers won 30% to 40% increases in minimum pay in March after a six-week strike, as the reason they are demanding these raises.
Demands
Rutgers workers’ demands include higher salaries, full funding and support for graduate workers, “equal pay for equal work” for adjuncts, greater job security and a path to tenure for non-tenure-track faculty, and a right to negotiate over teaching and research conditions.
Demands for salary increases include bringing graduate workers’ salaries to a minimum of USD 37,000, especially given that the median household income for New Jersey is USD 89,703. Workers’ demands also include higher raises if the rate of inflation surpasses 5%.
This demand is especially salient considering the current economic crisis devastating workers in the US. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has increased 5% over the last 12 months. In March of this year, almost half of the entire United States population reported having trouble paying basic household expenses each week.
Rutgers workers are also demanding “equal pay for equal work.” Universities across the US hire underpaid adjunct faculty to do much of the teaching work, while shrinking the amount of tenured positions available. This is a cost-cutting measure that arose during the era of neoliberalism in the 1980s, writes AAUP-AFT member Sudip Bhattacharya.
“Full-time faculty are paid for work that is allocated between teaching, research, and service,” write AAUP-AFT members Amy Higer and Rebecca Givan. “Adjunct faculty are only paid for teaching, yet many of them perform significant and essential service work, such as advising and mentoring students and writing letters of recommendation.” Adjunct faculty at Rutgers make half of what non-tenure-track faculty are paid for the same number of classes. The union wants to change this, and demands that the University compensate adjunct faculty on the same criteria as non-adjunct faculty.
According to the union, the University has given this demand no response. This is while the University continues to pay its coaches millions of dollars each year. AAUP-AFT has calculated that after joining the Big Ten collegiate athletic conference in 2014, Rutgers has sunk over half a billion dollars into its athletic program.
Union members that the union’s “equal pay for equal work” principle would cost less than USD 20 million a year—less than 0.5% of the Rutgers University budget and at least USD 5.5 million less than what Rutgers spends on coach salaries alone.
Despite all of this, the University has sowed fear about budget problems and deficits that don’t exist, says AAUP-AFT. Union members claim that University President Jonathan Holloway’s prediction of “deficit budgets are on the horizon” are meant to discourage workers from fighting for a better contract, and the union points out that Rutgers has incorrectly predicted budget deficits for many years in a row. After years of budget surpluses, University reserves have grown to a whopping USD 818.6 million, says the union.
There is still no expected timeline for the strike. Rutgers workers have indicated a willingness to strike until a tentative agreement is reached.
