Three Rutgers Educators Unions Approve Tentative Agreements

Union Members Must Ratify the Agreements Before They Are Final

For Immediate Release: April 30, 2023

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—The three unions representing 9,000 educators, researchers, clinicians, and counselors at Rutgers University approved Tentative Agreements after nearly a year of negotiations. Elected representative bodies of the three unions met tonight to approve the agreements and recommend them to members for ratification.

Members of the three unions will decide whether the Tentative Agreements are ratified as contracts running through the end of June 2026. Members will read and discuss the agreements at town hall meetings in the coming days and will cast ballots in a ratification vote that is expected to begin later this week run through Monday at 12 p.m. (not the end of June, as written last evening).

The three unions are Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and counselors; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents adjunct faculty; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents health science faculty in Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences facilities.

The complete text of the Tentative Agreements will be shared with members when they are finalized and signed off by all three unions and the Rutgers administration. Click here for a summary of the highlights of the Tentative Agreement.

“We are a democratic union, and our members will have the final say on whether these TAs are ratified,” the three unions said in a statement to members tonight. “We’re proud of what we achieved by going on strike and joining together for the Rutgers we and our students deserve. We believe these are strong contracts that make numerous advances for our members. We didn’t win everything we asked for and deserve, but no labor contract ever does. We will continue fighting for a better Rutgers starting the day after we have a ratified contract.”

For background information on negotiations, the five-day strike earlier this month, and the issues in the strike, see these previous media statements:

• Rutgers Educators Unions Win Framework for New Contracts
• Rutgers Unions to Picket Outside Board of Governors Meeting to Demand Fair Contracts Now
• Support for Rutgers Strike Spreads as Negotiations Continue in Trenton
• Rutgers Educators On Strike Today for a Fair Contract

# # #