It’s Up to Us to build a better university for all

Our collective bargaining agreement expires on June 30, and our contract campaign has kicked into full gear! We are doing everything we can to build our power to win a fair contract. But what does a fair contract look like?

In our contract survey, our members voted overwhelmingly for these priorities: Pay Parity. Job Security. Health Care. These demands are reasonable and fair. They will also make Rutgers a better university for everyone.

• Pay Parity: Adjunct faculty should be paid according to the principle of equal pay for equal work. Pay parity means that part-time workers’ compensation is proportional to the compensation (including benefits) for a comparable full-time position. More specifically, adjunct faculty pay per course should be tied to that of non-tenure track (NTT) teaching faculty at Rutgers. We teach the exact same courses as full-time faculty. Rutgers should pay us the same rate for this work. By doing so, it will end the incentive to replace NTT positions with part-time faculty, an incentive that has harmed PTLs across the university. Help us draft our contract language by emailing amyhiger@gmail.com to join our Salaries Article Committee. (An “Article Committee” is a small team of PTLs working together to formulate our contract demands for each section of our collective bargaining agreement). 

• Job Security: Pay parity must go hand-in-hand with job security. What do we need? PTLs deserve to know they’ll have a job beyond the current semester. (In what other industry do employees have to reapply for their jobs every 4 months?) We demand presumptively renewable long-term contracts. We demand a path to full employment for long-serving PTLs who seek full-time work. We demand that no new PTLs be hired to fill vacancies until those presently teaching have been offered these courses. Help us draft our current contract language by emailing matthew.midgett@yahoo.com to join our Appointments Article Committee.

• Health Care: No one in Rutgers’ beloved community should go without health care. Adjunct faculty teaching two or more courses per semester, including those teaching at other colleges and universities in NJ, should be given access to affordable health care plans. Rutgers should work with the state on our behalf to make sure that all PTLs employed by the University are covered. Help us fight for health care coverage by emailing kevinkeogan@gmail.com to join our Research and Legislative Committee.

We understand that these are big demands. We know that they would transform the University. But the way Rutgers now functions is on the backs of our cheap, exploitable labor, and by treating students and their education as an afterthought. This is not how a public university should function.

Faculty unions around the country are fighting back. They are winning fair contracts that provide adjunct faculty with better pay, long-term appointments, and health care. It’s our turn now. The only way to win is to join together and demand better. We have the full support of the full-time faculty/graduate worker union. Let’s join our bargaining units into One Big Faculty Union and fight together to make Rutgers a better university. Click here to sign our Merger Card.