About 9,000 workers at New Jersey State University, Rutgers University, including professors, part-time lecturers and graduate students, have been on strike since April 10. This is the first time in the university’s 257-year history that industrial action of such magnitude has taken place. The strike is now in its third day and spans the university’s multiple campuses across the state, where more than 67,000 students are enrolled.
Despite picket lines at three of Rutgers’ campuses — its main center in New Brunswick as well as campuses in Newark and Camden — classes are still taking place according to the school’s website. However, several media reported that some classes had been canceled. The strike comes after nearly 11 months of contract negotiations between university management and three unions representing its employees.
“The picket has brought teachers and students together, standing together, fighting for what is right! The picket has tons of positivity,” says Tom Raggio, visual arts professor at the university’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. “It’s a very creative and fun time, colleagues talking to each other (some for the first time), debunking misleading information, explaining how we got here and having important discussions that will unite us forever.”
A university spokesperson Zimmerli Art Museum, located on the New Brunswick campus, had not responded to a request for comment at press time, but the museum appears to be open despite the strike. The university’s administrative offices, buildings, laboratories and libraries also remain open.
“We also fight for students and the community in the form of housing justice and a beloved community fund supported by Rutgers for local residents who are experiencing or have experienced financial and other hardship and have excluded from other state or federal aid programs,” says David Letwin, a professor at the Mason Gross School of the Arts and a member of the executive board of the American Association of University Teachers and the American Federation of teachers (AAUP-AFT), which was part of the denials.
Current faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts includes visual artist Didier Guillaume, photographer Mark McKnight and concept artist Park McArthur, among others. The decision to strike was made official on the night of April 9 after a 94% majority vote was reached with the three unions that represent academic staff at the university. Unions include the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which is made up of full-time faculty, postdoctoral associate graduate workers, and other workers; the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union is made up of part-time faculty, and the American Association of University Teachers – Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (AAUP-BHSNJ) represents faculty from the schools of medicine, dentistry, d nursing and public health at the university.
On the evening of April 11, union representatives were still negotiating with school principals. The two sides remain distant on many issues, including equal pay for equal work for adjunct faculty, guaranteed funding and a living wage for graduates, job security for all faculty, a commensurate fair pay increase inflation, affordable student housing, and forgiveness for late fees and student fines.
Since Rutgers is New Jersey’s state university, Governor Phil Murphy’s office is also pushing to quickly resolve the strike. According to a university spokesperson, Murphy called on all parties to meet at Trenton State House yesterday (April 11).
“We are encouraged and welcome his leadership and hope that we can quickly resolve the remaining outstanding issues,” the spokesperson said. “This is all very fluid and we expect evolving proposals as we negotiate at the Statehouse over the next few days. The Governor has also asked us to delay the legal action asking the courts to order the strikers to resume work so that no further irreparable harm is caused to our students and their continued academic progress.
Last week the school released guidance for students in anticipation of the strike, including considering the possibility of the state taking legal action to end the strike. “The university may take legal action to maintain university operations and protect our students, patients, and staff from disruptions to their education, clinical care, and workplace,” the FAQ page reads. Rutgers. “The university can seek an injunction from the court to compel a return to normal activities.”
The strike comes amid a wave of labor organizing at art schools and universities across the United States, as well as museums and other cultural institutions. Last December, nearly 48,000 unionized workers at the University of California began a strike that lasted almost 6 weeks. It also coincided with a strike at the New School and the Parsons School of Design in New York, which became the longest of its kind organized by adjunct professors in United States history. The New School strike, which lasted three weeksvirtually shut down the school as nearly 90% of the school’s faculty are non-tenured teachers and professors.
“The broader context of the strike is the growth of the corporate university and the exploitation, precariousness and contingency that comes with it,” Letwin says. “These issues go far beyond Rutgers. Whether it’s other college and K-12 strikes or organizing efforts at Starbucks and Amazon, our fight is part of the larger fight for economic and jobs justice.
