The document below is the Framework agreed to on Friday, April 14 by Rutgers management and our unions—Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (AAUP-BHSNJ). Together, our unions represent graduate workers (including Teaching Assistants, Graduate Assistants, and Graduate Fellows), Postdoctoral Associates and Fellows, adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Counselors, and biomedical faculty.

Crucially, this Framework is not a full “Tentative Agreement”—the term for the full agreement on contract changes covering wages, benefits, and working conditions, subject to the up-or-down vote of union membership. Rather, it is a set of 18 Tentative Agreements on select union contract provisions, covering many of our core issues.

In return for this Framework, the three Rutgers union leadership bodies agreed to suspend our five-day strike and return to work immediately. However, a suspension of our strike is not a cancellation. There are still crucial outstanding articles addressing core issues that have not yet been tentatively agreed to between the unions and management, and so bargaining and the fight continues. These articles are indicated at the bottom of the document, below the Framework.

If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issues through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will resume our work stoppage. In addition, biomedical faculty in AAUP-BHSNJ have a lot of open items specific to them within our new unified contract, and graduate workers do as well. We need to focus pressure on the administration during bargaining this week, so please stay tuned for ways to stay involved. Your support and action has meant everything up to this point.

Please see the previous union contracts for the full-time faculty and grad workers, the adjunct faculty union, postdoctoral associates, EOF counselors, and biomedical faculty for the sake of comparison.

Further details and explanations of these articles will soon follow. In addition, union meetings to discuss the framework and outstanding articles will be announced soon.

Framework for Agreement

Agreed-to Provision on Compensation

Full-time faculty:

• Year 1: Approx. $5,000 flat | Year 2: 3.5% | Year 3: 3.25% (merit) | Year 4: 3.5%

TAs/GAs:

• Year 1 (2022) $34,678 ($33,178 in base + $1,500 one-time lump sum)
• Year 2 (2023) $35,335
• Year 3 (2024) $36,395
• Year 4 (2025) $40,000

PTLs:

• Year 1 (2022) $7,530 for a three-credit class
• Year 2 (2023) $7,788 for a three-credit class
• Year 3 (2024) $8,055 for a three-credit class
• Year 4 (2025) $8,331 for a three-credit class

Postdocs:

• Year 1: 5% | Year 2: 8.5% | Year 3: 8.5% | Year 4: 3.5%

EOF counselors:

• Year 1: Approx. $5,000 flat | Year 2: 3.5% | Year 3: 3.5% | Year 4: 3.5%

Winter-Summer Instructors:

• Same higher minimums as for PTLs; an increase of $1,830 per three-credit course for Winter (retro pay) and Summer 2023; remove campus cap on pay for full-time faculty teaching winter or summer courses.

All raises are retroactive for all union-represented workers to the academic year of 2022-23, and increases will be paid centrally by the Rutgers administration and New Jersey State funds, rather than departmental budgets or previously allocated grants.

Other Agreed-to Provisions

• Article 4 Side Letter: Creation of a Caste Task Force and ability of members to file discrimination claims alleging caste discrimination based on ancestry, nationality, gender, religion
• Article 7: Designation of Union Representation (Enhanced union leave and other union rights)
• Article 9: Grievance/Arbitration (including new enforceable anti-harassment language)
• Article 10: TT Faculty Grievance Procedure (including release language)
• Article 11: NTT Faculty Grievance Procedure
• Article 12:
  • Agreement that Graduate Fellows performing union work shall be reclassified as TAs or GAs. Creates a new process for Fellows gaining union representation, with full TA/GA pay and healthcare.
  • Administration commitment to guaranteed five years of funding for TAs and GAs, with terms, timelines, and funding sources to be negotiated.
  • Additional one-year appointment for any TA/GA who is unable to complete their degree due to pandemic delays, to be funded by the central admin, so it is not at the expense of the department or programs; to be negotiated.
• Article 13: Expedited Appeal of Tenure Denial
• Article 17: Leaves of Absence without Pay
• Article 19: Misc. (carpooling; daily passes; parking fees spread over 26 pay periods)
• Article 21: University Policies (strengthened language on the right to negotiate changes in University policies)
• Article 22: Vacation Carryover Maintained for Librarians
• Article 27: NTTs – presumptively renewable and longer appointments
• Appendix E: Grievances alleging that Reappointment etc. based on discrimination
• Infosilem: Tentative Memorandum of Agreement that brings back faculty participation in scheduling.
  • Before scheduling, faculty can block off times for a variety of university, school, departmental, and other professional obligations; accommodation for a qualifying disability or religious belief or practice; and approved leaves ranging from personal illness to parenting and caregiving.
  • Chairs will have the ability to make changes to the schedule. The Chairs’ changes will be approved unless no room is available at the requested time/day.
  • Establishes a process for faculty members who object to their schedule.
• Indemnification Side Letter
• PTLFC: Article 11 – Professional Development
• PTLFC: Article 7 – Department Provisions – access to office space
• PTLFC: Article 8 – Personnel Files
• PTLFC: Article 5 – Strengthened Grievance Procedure
• PTLFC: Article 6 – Appointments – establishes two-semester appointments for PTLs teaching 2-2 for two years and for PTL 2, 3, 4, and 5; and four-semester appointments for those teaching at Rutgers for 12 years or longer; and establishes for the first time an enforceable standard for the renewal of appointments
• PTLFC: Article 9 – Advancements – adds two new advancement levels – levels 1-5m – with a 12% increase for advancement to a higher level. For example, by the last year of the contract, a Level 3 will receive $10,330.44 for a 3-credit course;
• PTLFC: Article 12 – Evaluations – peer reviewed evaluations with decreased reliance on student evaluations
• PTLFC: Article 11 – Professional Development
• Bargaining for the Common Good:
  • $600,000 in recurring funding for Community Fund
  • University will formalize a policy to not prevent registration or access to transcripts or diplomas due to unpaid fines and fees;
  • Commitment to a Union-University-Community table.

CRU Table (below articles essentially finalized for AAUP-AFT issues)

• Article 8: Healthcare (finalize via joint Coalition of Rutgers Unions bargaining table)
• Article 20: Health and Safety (finalize via joint Coalition of Rutgers Unions bargaining table)

Not yet tentatively agreed to

The below articles are not yet tentatively agreed to by our Rutgers unions and Rutgers management, and remain subject to bargaining. See the summary of our original proposals on these items here.

In process of being finalized:

• Article 2: Academic Freedom (Legacy BHSNJ faculty 60.5.1)
• Article 3: Recognition (WSI)
• Article 6: Diversity (course releases and EOF and Diversity Assistantships)
• Article 8: Pay Equity; Fiscal Emergency
• Article 12: TA/GA – finalize five-year funding agreement; pay for work over 15 hours; funding extensions related to pandemic; information on fellows
• Article 16: Parental Leaves etc.
• Article 25: Terminal Sabbaticals
• BHSNJ: Compensation (minimum salaries); Fringe; Protected time etc.; 2-year appointments for Assistants; SON and SHP workload; Barnabas MOA; process for challenging removal unit members
• Postdocs: Visa support side letter; appointment length of two years; 22 paid days off per year; inclusion of RBHS fellows in the union
• Bridge Funding Side letter