Union officials representing Rutgers faculty at three campuses decided Sunday night that they would strike indefinitely starting Monday morning, after reaching a stalemate in contract negotiations with Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway's administration that had dragged on since July, Howard Swerdloff, secretary of the adjunct faculty union, told NorthJersey.com.þþThe move will shut down classes for the first time in the state university's 256-year history.þþThe three unions representing educators, researchers, and clinicians will start their strike Monday at 9 a.m. ÿWe ask you to join the picket lines and refuse to conduct teaching, research, and other business as usual at Rutgers,ÿ said an official email from union leadership sent to over 8,000 faculty members.þþSome 94% of faculty members belonging to three unions voted to authorize a strike last month, effectively warning the university that they were serious about carrying out their intentions after negotiations failed to produce substantive counterproposals addressing their core demands — to raise wages for graduate workers and secure longer contracts with benefits for part-time professors.þþHolloway has indicated that he will seek a court order to stop the strike. The university ÿwould have no choiceÿ other than seeking legal methods to ÿensure that any job action does not affect our students' academic progress,ÿ Holloway said in a letter to students last week.þþHolloway also told students that strikes by public employees are ÿunlawful,ÿ to which dismayed faculty members responded by saying that there is no statute or law making it illegal for public workers to strike. Union leaders sent out information expressing their disappointment that Holloway, a fellow professor, ÿchose to misinformÿ the community. A strike would be illegal only if a court order is issued forbidding them from stopping work, they said.þþMediators from the Public Employment Relations Commission joined the negotiating groups Saturday, in what appeared to be a last-minute move from the Murphy administration, which has been mostly silent about its position other than an official statement saying that ÿthe governor firmly believes the hardworking educators of Rutgers deserve a seat at the table.ÿþþÿA governor who takes pride in calling himself a champion of labor has a role to play here, in helping to come up with a fair and just settlement,ÿ said Tim Raphael, a professor and union representative for the Department of Arts, Culture and Media at Rutgers-Newark. ÿThe two people who could step in and have an impact are the president of Rutgers and the governor — and neither of them have done that.ÿ
Source: northjersey.com
