In big news out of Rutgers this morning, the three unions on strike–AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ–have agreed in principle to a framework for their new contracts with the university. They should return to work on Monday as a sign of good faith, putting the strike on pause for the time being as the framework is completed and a tentative agreement is hashed out to be put before members.
The framework, although not complete, is the first step toward a full agreement with the university. Based on what has been reported on Twitter and in the media so far, the framework appears to be quite good. In the statement seen above, the unions list:
[...]significant pay increases for adjuncts; substantial raises for grad workers, moving them toward a living wage; structural job security improvements for adjuncts and non-tenure-track faculty; union representation for graduate fellows; pay increases for postdocs; our first common good demands to center our students and communities; full-time faculty control over teaching conditions, including scheduling; and more.
According to Eric Blanc, specific concessions to the unions currently include "a 48% pay increase for adjunct faculty by 2025; a 33% increase for TAs/GAs - $40,000 salary (in 25-26); presumptively renewable contracts for non-tenure track faculty; [and] job security for adjunct faculty". From Paul O'Keefe, the non-tenure track faculty wins could make as many as 1,000 jobs effectively permanent. R. Givan also adds that caste discrimination will be also banned under the new framework. According to POLITICO, the contracts under the new deal would be retroactive to July 1, 2022.
I will caution that this should not be read as a sign the strike is over, although good progress has clearly been made and this makes a continuation substantially less likely. As noted, the strike is officially on pause, not fully called off. If the outstanding questions of the framework are not resolved (or final details are not to the satisfaction of members) each of the unions will have the option of rejecting any negotiated, tentative agreement, which would effectively continue the strike. As seen in the above statement, the three also unions intend to continue informational picketing regardless of the direction of negotiations.
Regardless of if they continue to strike or not, however: the unions have won pretty big here after just 5 days, and what's on the table will already be genuinely transformative at the university. Anything else they win is, in a sense, just a bonus on top of what Rutgers has already caved to. Striking gets the goods!
