Passed at GUCU Branch Meeting, Monday 19 April, 2023
This branch notes that staff at Rutgers University in New Jersey – including permanent faculty, teaching assistants, graduate assistants, counselors and post-docs – have been on strike since Monday 10 April. They have been working without an agreed contract since July 2022 and members of the AAUP-AFT voted 94% in favour of authorising strike action in their recent ballot.
Meanwhile, the University’s reserves have increased from $505m in 2020 to $818m in the most recent report and its operating surplus in the last reported fiscal year was $156m.
The union is now demanding equal pay for equal work, a fair salary to make up for rising inflation, job security, guaranteed graduate funding, affordable housing for students and control over scheduling.
Rutgers is a large multi-site public university offering high quality education to its students. At a time when higher education workers in the UK are taking action in pursuit of similar issues, a victory for our sisters and brothers in the US would be a huge tonic for our cause.
This branch agrees to send solidarity greetings to Rutgers AAUP-AFT, to invite a speaker from Rutgers AAUP-AFT to a branch meeting and to donate £500 to the strike fund.
Members can find out more at https://rutgersaaup.org/