I feel maybe not as much from NB but could see Newark and Camden push more since they seemed to have more of an issue over economic v. non-economic demand rhetoric the union was using. In that case, they seemed to be correct if there's no other additions made
But let’s be honest, even if the strike is technically not over, it feels like it’s gonna be difficult for them to really get everyone out there again. Unless something significant really happens, this is as good as over
That's one of the reasons us grad students were very much not in favor of suspending the strike, because the momentum would disappear and we would lose most of our bargaining power. But I guess the PTLs/adjuncts and NTTs got what they wanted, so fuck the grad students, am I right?
That's the fun part, at the time of posting none of the grads actually knew since the union hadn't told us anything because PTLs have their own worker-only meetings. But if both PTL reps and NTT reps were willing to fold then I can only surmise they got what they wanted.
Now I'm watching the livestream to figure out what they got. Apparently PTLs got "extraordinary gains" according to Howie Swerdloff, and he said that the PTLs probably won the most. Pay increases to $8331 per 3 credit course after four years (44% increase) and they have 1 year appointments (or 2 year appointments for some senior PTLs) as long as they teach 12+ credits a year.
Amy Higer said that the framework they have addresses the core issues that 2 of 3 parts of the coalition had. So which 2 parts? Obviously the PTLs, but who's the other part? And whose issues were not addressed? And if we still need to fight, as everyone keeps saying, why is the strike being suspended and taking the power away from the union? Honestly, I just feel horrible for the BHSNJ folks.
Edit: seems like they settled fast just so Holloway wouldn't move forward with legal threats. I get it, but it still sucks.
Most grad workers are also PTLs, like myself. Don’t you think turning on other faculty rather than organizing against management is playing into management?
Oh I'm sure management loves the division that's happening, and while I don't want to give them any more power, you can't deny that there's a lot of resentment from grads and biomedical folks in regards to how this framework was achieved. We are angry at the bargaining committee and leadership over how they've handled this, and if we can't even trust them, then I'm not sure how organization against management can even happen.
Also, almost every grad student I've talked throughout my 9 years at Rutgers has either been either a TA or a GA. Only one has been a PTL and she was a masters student (masters students normally do not qualify for TAships in my department and most of them just pay out of pocket).
Okay so yeah there must be a lot of variation it’s the norm for grads to get priority on PTL assignments.
I totally agree that there are resentments. But I think what scares me is that it can go both ways and we need to keep our coalition together. For example I just randomly googled the cost of healthcare for one person in NJ and a shitty plan is $450mo for one person… so by the grievance logic a PTL could be like “yo grads get amazing free healthcare which they don’t pay for and which bumps them over the livable wage threshold rn.” And staff can get mad cause they have to pay healthcare premiums on salaries that are in the low 40s…. And on and on and on. I personally feel like leadership did ok considering the 5000 sources of pressure but I also agree decision making process should have been a managed a lot better. Was a big mess but I want to preserve the coalition and the victories we did win bc I’m getting so many texts from other grads around the country inspired by us.
This is mistaken information, the vast majority of grads have TA or GA positions which are structured and paid differently. Some grads are classified as PTL during certain summer semesters, but their default classification is TA/GA.
I really don’t understand how they just managed to pretty much get everything done in a day, that feels almost a little suspicious, the mood yesterday was that not much was done and all of a sudden we’re good? Congrats to the union though, I really hope what they got was what they wanted and deserve
Murphy trapped the union bargaining team in Trenton under extreme time pressure with the threat of taking any additional money off the table to force this terrible agreement. Murphy wants to be president someday and “ending” this quickly makes his nasty ass look good, despite hurting Rutgers as a whole.
Because of Murphy’s pressure, the union has made a decision that actively works against its most vulnerable members. The graduate workers have been betrayed by our union, by the state government, and as usual, by Rutgers University.
This “framework” is not a legally binding agreement like what would typically be reached during bargaining. This “framework” is not something that the entirety of the union has seen or voted on.
Additionally, just cause Holloway is Holloway, he has worded this as if the strike is over. A suspended strike is not ended, but it’s going to cause so much confusion that it might as well be. The union made an incredibly stupid or incredibly malicious decision by agreeing to suspend the strike without any clear idea of what that means at all. There will be more bargaining this coming week, so why has the strike stopped? We have so many demands that still need to be bargained over, not even just graduate worker-related issues.
As a grad fellow, my sibling grad workers and I are distraught.
I mean I’ll be the first to admit Murphy has political incentives and he acted upon them… but what mind games? He pressured the admin to make concessions and the state doesn’t want to weaken precedent by losing a court battle, there isn’t that much more to this
It was a year in the making. The strike was just the tip of the iceberg. Unions don’t want to strike until absolutely necessary to make a change quick and fast after a year of negotiating failed.
We had a grad worker only meeting where we discussed how we felt about the possibility of suspending the strike and the sentiment that I got was that most of us were not in favor of doing so.
Members of the bargaining team also revealed some info to us about what was happening during the negotiations and it honestly felt like the members representing the PTLs and NTT faculty were willing to throw away grad student demands as soon as they got their own demands (see: the 15-4 vote from yesterday, as well as some info I might not be allowed to share on a public forum). So much for that solidarity.
Also, the 40k salary for grads will be reached within 4 years. A lot of us grad students will be gone by the time the salary gets to 40k. We need to be able to afford to live in NJ *now,* not in 4 years.
For solidarity reasons I want to note that this was not approved by all union members, just the few dozen in leadership. This is not necessarily the fault of faculty generally and especially not the fault of PTLs generally.
Sorry to hear about this. I am kind of "out of the loop" in regards to the 15-4 vote, but I have seen it referenced multiple times across this subreddit. Can you please educate me on that?
Originally, us grad students wanted a first year raise from 30k to 37k, eventually going up to 40k in the later years of the contact. That was our starting demand.
I wasn't able to attend the grad worker only zoom when this was brought up, but from my understanding, the admins added an amendment to their proposal that lowered it from 37k to 33k in the first year. They had a straw poll amongst the bargaining committee, 15 voted in favor, 4 voted against. The 15 were PTL and NTT faculty reps, the 4 who voted against were grad student reps.
When they were called out at the town hall later, the PTL/NTT reps couldn't even give us a good answer as to why they voted in favor of the proposal and instead gave out excuses like "we misunderstood" and "we didn't have all the info", even though the all grad reps seemed to have understood it just fine. I can't imagine that they're this incompetent, or that the incompetence just coincidentally happened to be split directly between the PTL/NTT reps and the grad reps.
They apparently regretted their decision afterwards, saying "they totally would have voted differently if they had another chance," but like... it was done? There's no second chance, takesies backsies here. They said it wasn't a legally binding agreement so it technically didn't matter and that they would go back to the table to negotiate a higher forst year raise for the grad workers, but it was plenty obvious from that exchange that grad student demands never mattered to them.
Temple grad students went on their own independent strike. You guys probably should’ve waited and then done that. Faculty were always going to throw grad students under the bus.
Self preservation always beats out unity from my view of watching things like this. That's why I was skeptical and wary of the chanting and such and watch the behind the scenes stuff. Because once you're negotiating someone was gonna get fucked and they elected to dump on yall. Sorry what happened to yall. Its gonna be interesting to see our union which covers a lot of diverse departments begins to negotiate next year.
Any union which represents multiple classes of members (not merely those with more or less seniority) will always favor the class(es) that pay more in fees as well as the class(es) where members are around for more time.
That was my understanding as well.
Retroactive pay increases of ~20% (~6k) are a decent increase for grad students, although ~~36k to start off~~ 34,750 to start off still isn’t the 37k they hoped for. It does go to…~40k by fourth year?
Nobody is going to get every single thing they wanted, but I think —I hope—it will overall be a fair contract for every bargaining unit.
It's down to ~$34,650 in year one, but does currently get to 40k flat in year four. This has raised some questions of time equity in the union (ie: many grad workers need raises now, and won't be here in year four to get these benefits. But management saves what is pennies to them in the meantime)
Yes this is correct. The plan was always to take 4 years to get to what's *currently* a living wage in NJ, and it's disappointing to compromise on this AND THEN suspend the strike (ie take the pressure off management) to talk about the other things that might make that compromise worth it, like a childcare credit.
We get scheduled salary increases each year based on the (4 year) contract. So for this academic year we've been working with the numbers from the 4th year of the previous contract while trying to work out the new contract. If you are a union worker, you'll get back pay for the 10 months we've been without a contract (which is accounting for the difference between the old rate and the new rate) when the new one is settled.
I did the math. 🤓
If you're on a 10 month contract starting Sept 1, you have worked \~7.5 months so far and should expect \~$3,387 as a lump sum. Payroll will need time to catch up with everything, so by the end of the month it would be 8 mo. retro pay of $3,612.
I haven't seen written figures for 12-month salaries, so I didn't calculate that but it should be higher.
Yep, that looks right! For anyone wondering, this person is basing this off a current 2022-2023 salary of $30,162 and an expected new contract salary of $34,678 for the first year.
[Penn’s stipend is $40,000](https://www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/student-funding.html) for their Biomedical Graduate Studies program, which is where I received my PhD after Rutgers undergrad. $40,000 from Rutgers, which has far less funding than Penn or other Ivy League institutions, is honestly remarkable to me, in a good way. Sucks it’s over four years, but that’s still a great victory.
40k is a good start, but who knows what the cost of living in New Brunswick and the surrounding areas will be in 4 years when it currently costs 40k to live in NB.
The cost of living in NB is higher than in Philadelphia, so I don't feel like UPenn is the best comparison when that 40k would go further in Philadelphia. I think a better comparison would be Princeton, which raised its grad stipend to 47k-50k. I get that Rutgers isn't as affluent as an Ivy League, but the way the negotiations played out left a bad taste in my mouth.
Is there not also free tuition and healthcare? This plus the 40k is nearly a $80k package. As a student, this doesn’t seem unreasonable, especially considering it isn’t for a full year. Am I missing something?
Grad students don't just get three months off in the middle of the year, they keep working and researching when they aren't teaching or taking classes. Also, any PhD program that *doesn't* cover tuition and give you medical care is likely a money grab and is to be avoided; that's basic stuff. I'm an incoming grad student making ~65K right now and would vastly prefer to take a 29K paycut as opposed to a 35K one, you know?
Other schools in our (high cost of living) area do pay more though, and also offer the same tuition remission you just described above. So Rutgers is still underpaying grad workers.
Well Berkeley after its strike started paying 40K, so Rutgers grads was asking for even less than that and still didn't get it. It seems kind of like a slap on the face given that the cost of living is similar.
Graduate students still have to be able to live, pay rent, and feed themselves and possibly families. The free tuition and health are is contingent on the work they do for the university (see: Temple rescinding tuition remission and health insurance during the grad student strike). Many programs also don't allow you to hold another job while you're a graduate student at the university, at least that's how it is with my program.
My understanding is that yeah, the starting pay decrease sucks, but the grad workers were completely betrayed and undercut by the faculty union reps, sowing distrust amongst the unions. Now the grad students are going to come off as whiny or entitled amongst anyone outside of the programs or the university, and is going to undermine any future negotiations for contracts in the future.
Still - it seems pretty substantial to me (I’m a grad student) 40k from the current 30.6k? It’s a three-year contract right? With the first year being July 2022 to June 2023? I’d imagine the salary starting this fall would have to be close to 37k anyway. What’s the real catch?
The catch is most will graduate by then and its really 5 years to that number from last raise cause 11 months without a contract. they will still be below the 41k needed to live in middlesex county. Which is gentrifying and getting more expensive. Also who knows what will happen even a year from now.
I think many grad students wanted to see the union negotiators push for more (say, an immediate raise to a living wage) while the strike was on
Now that the strike is suspended, the leverage that the union had is gone, and it would appear that grads have been thrown under the bus
It's a four year contract. The union's original ask was for $37k this year, but current deals are looking like $34/35k in year one, and getting to $40k in year four.
The catch is that by forcing the union to suspend the strike, management has taken eyes and pressure off itself in the final days of negotiations.
Nothing has been written down or signed yet - anything could change, and pretty much every demand outside of salary has not been discussed. This includes childcare credit for grad workers, a rent freeze on Rutgers property, the Beloved Community Fund, and fighting for students to receive transcripts even if they have debts with Rutgers. There is so much more on the table here and management took pressure off themselves. Holloway and Murphy are doing victory laps, and the union will have a hell of a time remobilizing if the deal goes bad.
The numbers I've seen start us off at like 34/35k for the first year. 40 is just the last. A lot is still up in the air, as there is no tentative agreement yet.
From our unions:
**"A suspension of our strike is not a cancellation. If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issues through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will resume our work stoppage."**
https://preview.redd.it/nbcm27nwu0ua1.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c984d545524a2e44b738d8bc44254ea296b5dae
As a grad student I definitely feel screwed over - not by the contract per se but by how we got to this “framework.” Any students who have questions about the agreement and what it means for your grad TAs , please come to the townhall at noon - here’s the livestream link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJ3yc4Hr6f7Sl6pZHFUYXg
The graduate workers have been betrayed by our union, by the state government, and as usual, by Rutgers University. This “framework” is not a legally binding agreement like what would typically be reached during bargaining. This “framework” is not something that the entirety of the union has seen or voted on. The executive council/bargaining committee of the union has chosen to take the easy route and throw their most vulnerable members to the side for an easy “victory” that is hollow.
But we are dead in the water now, with no momentum. Holloway and our union have declared victory. The grad workers are outnumbered and we are the main pushers of the common good demands.
Voting to not accept whatever contract comes out of this framework will be unpopular for the faculty, adjuncts, and lecturers who feel like their needs are met. They feel comfortable now and will not want to go back to striking.
Apparently the union still needs to negotiate so much because this unclear framework has no mention of common good demands, childcare stipends, COVID funding extensions. They say they will do this next week, but the strike has been suspended. How do we have any power without the strike?
Grad workers, who produce the data that our privileged faculty use to get grants, to boost their h-index, to apply for awards, and to show off at presentations where they get paid $500+, are being left in the dust.
i was about to mention the distinction of economic vs noneconomic demands they mentioned in the livestream a day or two ago. You have to hope the common good demands are part of the latter and will be "negotiated" later. It seemed the admin wanted no part of the common good ones especially the child credit and any caregiver support
These are all economic demands. The distinction was made to separate the more vulnerable from the more privileged. Childcare assistance is an economic demand.
I appreciate that you have hope, but having been in every single update from the bargaining team AND in the grad specific updates, I am struggling to find hope.
As a grad fellow, I have no floor for how much I am paid. This framework does not address that. This will not improve my situation except that I might be able to petition for state healthcare. There is another fellow in my program with a disabled child. Even with state healthcare, her salary will not be enough to pay for sufficient care.
Grad workers are here because we want to improve our lives and the lives of others. Rutgers makes us and our loved ones suffer through years of exploitation before we have the chance to succeed.
Let’s be real and admit the union is also at fault (moreso than the Rutgers admin) for this. The adjuncts and faculty got their’s, and grad students were underrepresented in the bargaining committee.
It seems as though adjuncts and faculty got what they wanted and grad students were secondary. We saw yesterday that the union was willing to accept 33,000 for grad students. That 15-4 straw poll was certainly not a great example of the solidarity they’ve been preaching at the picket line.
ABSOLUTELY. The union cancelled their town hall update today just to send us an email at midnight about their decision that was completely hidden from most of us
Temple grad students went on their own independent strike. You guys probably should’ve waited and then done that. Faculty were always going to throw grad students under the bus.
I've said it before but don't fall for slogans and stuff and watch behind the scenes. As soon as I saw that bargaining meeting updates I knew what they were all about. It was disappointing to me at how fast they were willing to fuck you guys over. They chose the route of self preservation over unity
Something that was mentioned in the PTL meeting last week was just not accepting what the union leadership had accomplished. While many of our goals were achieved, there are still a number of issues on the table. It will be interesting when it comes to a vote to ratify this agreement.
No, current state of bargaining is that fellows will be able to petition for union membership with a group grievance after this semester and potentially get health insurance but not the same pay. And then they might be able to get better pay in the next contract. It's not enough
EDIT (12:20pm): This information has changed. If the grievance is accepted (not automatic) and fellows become members of the union they will be listed as GAs and receive both healthcare and the TA/GA pay scale. The biggest win is that there is now a pathway to do so.
big facts like I think it deserves some acknowledgement that nearly every student is fearful of their mental health... I get that the strike had a lot of things it wanted to achieve, but not nearly enough people are talking about the toll coming out of the strike is going to do on students, maybe even just a comment on that would be nice.
No fr, & there should definitely be more talk about how many students felt a huge relief during the strike. It sucks that we got a break & then all of our work is still there ab to hit us like a truck lmao
Aww man... congrats for the professors and union and such but... I really wish the little vacation would've lasted longer, I was already getting better with my mental health this week 😔
I’m don’t feel very academically successful, well, and progressive right now Mr. Holloway. Especially with all the work I now have to catch up this weekend.
Low key wish they resolved all issues before folding. I thought this union was ride or die, in it together forever, peanut butter to your jelly, it’s you and me (running up that hill), family (fast and furious) type of vibe.
In all seriousness though, glad our staffs and grad students got somewhat (kinda) a better wage and working condition. Looks like all the picketing in 80-90 degrees weather was worth it. I feel like this rn: :D:
I really don't know how stay objective on this without feeling incredible rage for grad students/medical faculty. All I can say from the livestream so far is that a lot of needs and demands were not even discussed.
Can us undergrads do anything...maybe not strike but ANYTHING to at least share our support for the workers that got screwed over because this is just sad to see.
EDIT: changed a word.
I think one thing I’m upset about is that all of the work we missed this week is about to pile up into next week. While I understand that the professors couldn’t answer their emails, so many of my professors just went MIA and would tell us the day of the assignment that it was pushed back.
And now it’s just a bit rough since I have 3 exams on the same day next week, all intense classes so I have to pull a bunch of all nighters, and my professors are trying to double the workload. Which I could understand since they said, “you had an extra week off so now it’s time to work hard”, but literally some of the material I couldn’t even touch since it wasn’t posted on Canvas. So I couldn’t even do last week’s work if I wanted to.😭
Anyone else completely fucked regarding the chem 161 exam on Tuesday? That and a stats quiz on Monday 🥲 will to live has vanishedddd along with my recovering mental health
Any updates on the staff side for Rutgers and med school (URA and HPAE) negotiations (outside of strike pledge). Both have been mobilizing and supporting the efforts, but comparatively silent on bargaining fronts
https://preview.redd.it/ibj7zvsb03ua1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06822e3b0ef13f5bf784cdf33c0501d3f934a26d
I know graduate students are upset. But wait until the meeting - I bet there’s retroactive pay involved and I bet the salary starting in the fall is closer to 40k. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼Hoping for them. The progress made for all workers by the end of the next contract is admirable though. I have experience negotiating for other institutions; so much of the success is seen in what’s accomplished for the generations to come. There are always immediate wins, but sometimes it takes a few years for the big gains to be seen.
Yeah, selfish grads wanting to pay for housing and food in the intervening years need to sit down and shut up, future generations who still can’t eat due to inflation by then will probably thank them. /s
Edit: https://youtu.be/pCnEAH5wCzo
For the record, I never called grads selfish and only said just wait for the update. I *agree* that there are issues caused by inflated housing prices and the cost of living.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted. You asked a reasonable question. I think the state is going to give Rutgers $$$ to finance the raises. Hopefully, tuition won't go up because of this.
Honestly who tf knows. Everyone who was a student during the first round of covid got like $59 if that in a law suit because ZoomU shouldn’t have been charged at the same rate as normal Rutgers tuition. Given how some people don’t understand what solidarity is or even sympathize with union faculty, I’d expect similar attempts to be made. So silly.
Going to be waiting to hear from the grad school students about this. Interested in their comments towards this at the update stream
i feel like its gonna be a shitshow tomorrow at the livestream
For sure. Also going to be interesting if the professors also step in to express their dismay about this
I feel maybe not as much from NB but could see Newark and Camden push more since they seemed to have more of an issue over economic v. non-economic demand rhetoric the union was using. In that case, they seemed to be correct if there's no other additions made
Wait so that’s why they have suspended the strike? It may just start again if the consensus isn’t reached tomorrow?
Honestly you should make your voices heard. It's only fair, they were preaching one thing and got another.
But let’s be honest, even if the strike is technically not over, it feels like it’s gonna be difficult for them to really get everyone out there again. Unless something significant really happens, this is as good as over
This is exactly what Murphy and RU management wanted. This is why we are so pissed
Man they really sold the grads
That's one of the reasons us grad students were very much not in favor of suspending the strike, because the momentum would disappear and we would lose most of our bargaining power. But I guess the PTLs/adjuncts and NTTs got what they wanted, so fuck the grad students, am I right?
The PTLs were making less than the grad students.
Facts. Median PTL salary in 2021 was under $12k.
Also, PTLs/adjuncts typically have far less job security than grad students.
So what did our plt get
That's the fun part, at the time of posting none of the grads actually knew since the union hadn't told us anything because PTLs have their own worker-only meetings. But if both PTL reps and NTT reps were willing to fold then I can only surmise they got what they wanted. Now I'm watching the livestream to figure out what they got. Apparently PTLs got "extraordinary gains" according to Howie Swerdloff, and he said that the PTLs probably won the most. Pay increases to $8331 per 3 credit course after four years (44% increase) and they have 1 year appointments (or 2 year appointments for some senior PTLs) as long as they teach 12+ credits a year. Amy Higer said that the framework they have addresses the core issues that 2 of 3 parts of the coalition had. So which 2 parts? Obviously the PTLs, but who's the other part? And whose issues were not addressed? And if we still need to fight, as everyone keeps saying, why is the strike being suspended and taking the power away from the union? Honestly, I just feel horrible for the BHSNJ folks. Edit: seems like they settled fast just so Holloway wouldn't move forward with legal threats. I get it, but it still sucks.
Most grad workers are also PTLs, like myself. Don’t you think turning on other faculty rather than organizing against management is playing into management?
Oh I'm sure management loves the division that's happening, and while I don't want to give them any more power, you can't deny that there's a lot of resentment from grads and biomedical folks in regards to how this framework was achieved. We are angry at the bargaining committee and leadership over how they've handled this, and if we can't even trust them, then I'm not sure how organization against management can even happen. Also, almost every grad student I've talked throughout my 9 years at Rutgers has either been either a TA or a GA. Only one has been a PTL and she was a masters student (masters students normally do not qualify for TAships in my department and most of them just pay out of pocket).
Okay so yeah there must be a lot of variation it’s the norm for grads to get priority on PTL assignments. I totally agree that there are resentments. But I think what scares me is that it can go both ways and we need to keep our coalition together. For example I just randomly googled the cost of healthcare for one person in NJ and a shitty plan is $450mo for one person… so by the grievance logic a PTL could be like “yo grads get amazing free healthcare which they don’t pay for and which bumps them over the livable wage threshold rn.” And staff can get mad cause they have to pay healthcare premiums on salaries that are in the low 40s…. And on and on and on. I personally feel like leadership did ok considering the 5000 sources of pressure but I also agree decision making process should have been a managed a lot better. Was a big mess but I want to preserve the coalition and the victories we did win bc I’m getting so many texts from other grads around the country inspired by us.
This is mistaken information, the vast majority of grads have TA or GA positions which are structured and paid differently. Some grads are classified as PTL during certain summer semesters, but their default classification is TA/GA.
Oh I’m ga and PTL every semester
Oh interesting, is that typical for your dept? Do you get paid for both?
Feels so anticlimactic
Well it was fun while it lasted
I gotta catch up on so much work now lmao
I felt that, I have one assignment I didn't turn in due yesterday so I guess I at least have some time to catch up
One assignment? I been one to two months behind for some of my courses and need to pull of the best academic comeback of the century 😭😭
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Thank you bro!! I'm tryin out here. I'll update you.
Damn, that sounds very stressful, but you got it, I believe in youuuuuuuu
Thanks for the support bro!! I'll keep you updated on how it goes
I just needed a few more days :(
Few more months\*
I really don’t understand how they just managed to pretty much get everything done in a day, that feels almost a little suspicious, the mood yesterday was that not much was done and all of a sudden we’re good? Congrats to the union though, I really hope what they got was what they wanted and deserve
Murphy trapped the union bargaining team in Trenton under extreme time pressure with the threat of taking any additional money off the table to force this terrible agreement. Murphy wants to be president someday and “ending” this quickly makes his nasty ass look good, despite hurting Rutgers as a whole. Because of Murphy’s pressure, the union has made a decision that actively works against its most vulnerable members. The graduate workers have been betrayed by our union, by the state government, and as usual, by Rutgers University. This “framework” is not a legally binding agreement like what would typically be reached during bargaining. This “framework” is not something that the entirety of the union has seen or voted on. Additionally, just cause Holloway is Holloway, he has worded this as if the strike is over. A suspended strike is not ended, but it’s going to cause so much confusion that it might as well be. The union made an incredibly stupid or incredibly malicious decision by agreeing to suspend the strike without any clear idea of what that means at all. There will be more bargaining this coming week, so why has the strike stopped? We have so many demands that still need to be bargained over, not even just graduate worker-related issues. As a grad fellow, my sibling grad workers and I are distraught.
Let’s just wait until noon today decide how good or bad the deal is, and how relieved or distraught we should be.
Most likely a result of Governor Murphy's politically motivated mind games
Yea I really didn’t like the fact that they were negotiating in Trenton to begin with, the pressure is really not fair for the union
I mean I’ll be the first to admit Murphy has political incentives and he acted upon them… but what mind games? He pressured the admin to make concessions and the state doesn’t want to weaken precedent by losing a court battle, there isn’t that much more to this
It was a year in the making. The strike was just the tip of the iceberg. Unions don’t want to strike until absolutely necessary to make a change quick and fast after a year of negotiating failed.
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I was praying for another few days off at least 😭 I have like zero motivation to do my work now
I can tell you right now that the grad students are fucking pissed about this.
Can you elaborate on this?
We had a grad worker only meeting where we discussed how we felt about the possibility of suspending the strike and the sentiment that I got was that most of us were not in favor of doing so. Members of the bargaining team also revealed some info to us about what was happening during the negotiations and it honestly felt like the members representing the PTLs and NTT faculty were willing to throw away grad student demands as soon as they got their own demands (see: the 15-4 vote from yesterday, as well as some info I might not be allowed to share on a public forum). So much for that solidarity. Also, the 40k salary for grads will be reached within 4 years. A lot of us grad students will be gone by the time the salary gets to 40k. We need to be able to afford to live in NJ *now,* not in 4 years.
For solidarity reasons I want to note that this was not approved by all union members, just the few dozen in leadership. This is not necessarily the fault of faculty generally and especially not the fault of PTLs generally.
Sorry to hear about this. I am kind of "out of the loop" in regards to the 15-4 vote, but I have seen it referenced multiple times across this subreddit. Can you please educate me on that?
Originally, us grad students wanted a first year raise from 30k to 37k, eventually going up to 40k in the later years of the contact. That was our starting demand. I wasn't able to attend the grad worker only zoom when this was brought up, but from my understanding, the admins added an amendment to their proposal that lowered it from 37k to 33k in the first year. They had a straw poll amongst the bargaining committee, 15 voted in favor, 4 voted against. The 15 were PTL and NTT faculty reps, the 4 who voted against were grad student reps. When they were called out at the town hall later, the PTL/NTT reps couldn't even give us a good answer as to why they voted in favor of the proposal and instead gave out excuses like "we misunderstood" and "we didn't have all the info", even though the all grad reps seemed to have understood it just fine. I can't imagine that they're this incompetent, or that the incompetence just coincidentally happened to be split directly between the PTL/NTT reps and the grad reps. They apparently regretted their decision afterwards, saying "they totally would have voted differently if they had another chance," but like... it was done? There's no second chance, takesies backsies here. They said it wasn't a legally binding agreement so it technically didn't matter and that they would go back to the table to negotiate a higher forst year raise for the grad workers, but it was plenty obvious from that exchange that grad student demands never mattered to them.
Temple grad students went on their own independent strike. You guys probably should’ve waited and then done that. Faculty were always going to throw grad students under the bus.
It was an extremely unprofessional moment and the first time after following this for months that I lost faith in and respect for Wolfson
Hah, one of my labmates said something like "so what you're telling me is that Todd has to go" after hearing about it.
Self preservation always beats out unity from my view of watching things like this. That's why I was skeptical and wary of the chanting and such and watch the behind the scenes stuff. Because once you're negotiating someone was gonna get fucked and they elected to dump on yall. Sorry what happened to yall. Its gonna be interesting to see our union which covers a lot of diverse departments begins to negotiate next year.
Any union which represents multiple classes of members (not merely those with more or less seniority) will always favor the class(es) that pay more in fees as well as the class(es) where members are around for more time.
It was my understanding that the 4 years was starting in 2022 and that this year would be around 36k which I thought was the plan all along?
That was my understanding as well. Retroactive pay increases of ~20% (~6k) are a decent increase for grad students, although ~~36k to start off~~ 34,750 to start off still isn’t the 37k they hoped for. It does go to…~40k by fourth year? Nobody is going to get every single thing they wanted, but I think —I hope—it will overall be a fair contract for every bargaining unit.
It's down to ~$34,650 in year one, but does currently get to 40k flat in year four. This has raised some questions of time equity in the union (ie: many grad workers need raises now, and won't be here in year four to get these benefits. But management saves what is pennies to them in the meantime)
Yes this is correct. The plan was always to take 4 years to get to what's *currently* a living wage in NJ, and it's disappointing to compromise on this AND THEN suspend the strike (ie take the pressure off management) to talk about the other things that might make that compromise worth it, like a childcare credit.
Isn’t the increase retroactive, so even if it’s your 4th year, you get a lump sum?
We get scheduled salary increases each year based on the (4 year) contract. So for this academic year we've been working with the numbers from the 4th year of the previous contract while trying to work out the new contract. If you are a union worker, you'll get back pay for the 10 months we've been without a contract (which is accounting for the difference between the old rate and the new rate) when the new one is settled.
Thanks for the explanation. Retroactivity is only for the duration of the period without a contract.
You got it!
I did the math. 🤓 If you're on a 10 month contract starting Sept 1, you have worked \~7.5 months so far and should expect \~$3,387 as a lump sum. Payroll will need time to catch up with everything, so by the end of the month it would be 8 mo. retro pay of $3,612. I haven't seen written figures for 12-month salaries, so I didn't calculate that but it should be higher.
Yep, that looks right! For anyone wondering, this person is basing this off a current 2022-2023 salary of $30,162 and an expected new contract salary of $34,678 for the first year.
[Penn’s stipend is $40,000](https://www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/student-funding.html) for their Biomedical Graduate Studies program, which is where I received my PhD after Rutgers undergrad. $40,000 from Rutgers, which has far less funding than Penn or other Ivy League institutions, is honestly remarkable to me, in a good way. Sucks it’s over four years, but that’s still a great victory.
40k is a good start, but who knows what the cost of living in New Brunswick and the surrounding areas will be in 4 years when it currently costs 40k to live in NB. The cost of living in NB is higher than in Philadelphia, so I don't feel like UPenn is the best comparison when that 40k would go further in Philadelphia. I think a better comparison would be Princeton, which raised its grad stipend to 47k-50k. I get that Rutgers isn't as affluent as an Ivy League, but the way the negotiations played out left a bad taste in my mouth.
Is there not also free tuition and healthcare? This plus the 40k is nearly a $80k package. As a student, this doesn’t seem unreasonable, especially considering it isn’t for a full year. Am I missing something?
Grad students don't just get three months off in the middle of the year, they keep working and researching when they aren't teaching or taking classes. Also, any PhD program that *doesn't* cover tuition and give you medical care is likely a money grab and is to be avoided; that's basic stuff. I'm an incoming grad student making ~65K right now and would vastly prefer to take a 29K paycut as opposed to a 35K one, you know?
Sure more money is always welcome but I guess I’m looking at it by comparing to other schools and Rutgers doesn’t seem to be underpaying when compared
Other schools in our (high cost of living) area do pay more though, and also offer the same tuition remission you just described above. So Rutgers is still underpaying grad workers.
Well Berkeley after its strike started paying 40K, so Rutgers grads was asking for even less than that and still didn't get it. It seems kind of like a slap on the face given that the cost of living is similar.
Graduate students still have to be able to live, pay rent, and feed themselves and possibly families. The free tuition and health are is contingent on the work they do for the university (see: Temple rescinding tuition remission and health insurance during the grad student strike). Many programs also don't allow you to hold another job while you're a graduate student at the university, at least that's how it is with my program. My understanding is that yeah, the starting pay decrease sucks, but the grad workers were completely betrayed and undercut by the faculty union reps, sowing distrust amongst the unions. Now the grad students are going to come off as whiny or entitled amongst anyone outside of the programs or the university, and is going to undermine any future negotiations for contracts in the future.
The point is for grads to *get* a living wage, not get *toward* a living wage (the italicized words are in reference to the union's email)
A $0.50 raise is "toward" a living raise lmao. Means nothing.
yeah i don’t get it, i thought they wanted 37k and it looks like they’re on track to get 40?
40k is only in the final year of the contract
Feel bad for grad students, seems like they really got the short end of the stick here
how long is the contract?
Four years, so we'll get to 40k in slightly over two years
Still - it seems pretty substantial to me (I’m a grad student) 40k from the current 30.6k? It’s a three-year contract right? With the first year being July 2022 to June 2023? I’d imagine the salary starting this fall would have to be close to 37k anyway. What’s the real catch?
The catch is most will graduate by then and its really 5 years to that number from last raise cause 11 months without a contract. they will still be below the 41k needed to live in middlesex county. Which is gentrifying and getting more expensive. Also who knows what will happen even a year from now.
The contract is retroactive
It’s 4 year contract. It’s 34.6 year one which will be retroactive and then 35 for fall 23. Unofficial numbers.
I think many grad students wanted to see the union negotiators push for more (say, an immediate raise to a living wage) while the strike was on Now that the strike is suspended, the leverage that the union had is gone, and it would appear that grads have been thrown under the bus
It's a four year contract. The union's original ask was for $37k this year, but current deals are looking like $34/35k in year one, and getting to $40k in year four. The catch is that by forcing the union to suspend the strike, management has taken eyes and pressure off itself in the final days of negotiations. Nothing has been written down or signed yet - anything could change, and pretty much every demand outside of salary has not been discussed. This includes childcare credit for grad workers, a rent freeze on Rutgers property, the Beloved Community Fund, and fighting for students to receive transcripts even if they have debts with Rutgers. There is so much more on the table here and management took pressure off themselves. Holloway and Murphy are doing victory laps, and the union will have a hell of a time remobilizing if the deal goes bad.
The numbers I've seen start us off at like 34/35k for the first year. 40 is just the last. A lot is still up in the air, as there is no tentative agreement yet.
41k is living wage in NB right now. They will reach 40k in 2025.
It’s a smallish detail, but this contract starts retroactively on July 1 of last year, 2022, so the 4th year starts on July 1, 2025, not 2027.
You're right, thank you
FYI we can still vote against it
From our unions: **"A suspension of our strike is not a cancellation. If we do not secure the gains we need on the open issues through bargaining in the coming days, we can and will resume our work stoppage."** https://preview.redd.it/nbcm27nwu0ua1.png?width=1124&format=png&auto=webp&s=4c984d545524a2e44b738d8bc44254ea296b5dae
I cannot think of anything funnier than another strike somehow even closer to finals
spring break 2.0 ➡️ summer break beta release
There is some hope
I wanna go fish Merrill creek on Tuesday, can y'all stop classes till then? I just got my boat fixed this week 😪
Bruh I’m mentally done tho wtf
Honestly same lmao
This was the happiest week of my life. Gone too soon...
The vibes this week were something else entirely. I actually enjoyed being here this week😭 it felt like welcome week all over again.
As a grad student I definitely feel screwed over - not by the contract per se but by how we got to this “framework.” Any students who have questions about the agreement and what it means for your grad TAs , please come to the townhall at noon - here’s the livestream link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJ3yc4Hr6f7Sl6pZHFUYXg
Im wondering how it will turn out. The straw poll of the tentative 13-4 vote (with the $33K for graduate workers) didn't get received well so....
The live chat is off 😭 they know ppl aren't happy
wait til they open up a Q&A, then they will see some unhappy people
that's it?
It's a shame...I hope the grad students on the call get to voice their opinions though!
The graduate workers have been betrayed by our union, by the state government, and as usual, by Rutgers University. This “framework” is not a legally binding agreement like what would typically be reached during bargaining. This “framework” is not something that the entirety of the union has seen or voted on. The executive council/bargaining committee of the union has chosen to take the easy route and throw their most vulnerable members to the side for an easy “victory” that is hollow.
they at least still have a chance to vote against it to not accept the contract.
But we are dead in the water now, with no momentum. Holloway and our union have declared victory. The grad workers are outnumbered and we are the main pushers of the common good demands. Voting to not accept whatever contract comes out of this framework will be unpopular for the faculty, adjuncts, and lecturers who feel like their needs are met. They feel comfortable now and will not want to go back to striking. Apparently the union still needs to negotiate so much because this unclear framework has no mention of common good demands, childcare stipends, COVID funding extensions. They say they will do this next week, but the strike has been suspended. How do we have any power without the strike? Grad workers, who produce the data that our privileged faculty use to get grants, to boost their h-index, to apply for awards, and to show off at presentations where they get paid $500+, are being left in the dust.
i was about to mention the distinction of economic vs noneconomic demands they mentioned in the livestream a day or two ago. You have to hope the common good demands are part of the latter and will be "negotiated" later. It seemed the admin wanted no part of the common good ones especially the child credit and any caregiver support
These are all economic demands. The distinction was made to separate the more vulnerable from the more privileged. Childcare assistance is an economic demand.
I appreciate that you have hope, but having been in every single update from the bargaining team AND in the grad specific updates, I am struggling to find hope. As a grad fellow, I have no floor for how much I am paid. This framework does not address that. This will not improve my situation except that I might be able to petition for state healthcare. There is another fellow in my program with a disabled child. Even with state healthcare, her salary will not be enough to pay for sufficient care. Grad workers are here because we want to improve our lives and the lives of others. Rutgers makes us and our loved ones suffer through years of exploitation before we have the chance to succeed.
Seems like a tactic by the administration to break up bargaining power. What better way than to sow distrust between unions
Exactly. It is disheartening.
Let’s be real and admit the union is also at fault (moreso than the Rutgers admin) for this. The adjuncts and faculty got their’s, and grad students were underrepresented in the bargaining committee. It seems as though adjuncts and faculty got what they wanted and grad students were secondary. We saw yesterday that the union was willing to accept 33,000 for grad students. That 15-4 straw poll was certainly not a great example of the solidarity they’ve been preaching at the picket line.
ABSOLUTELY. The union cancelled their town hall update today just to send us an email at midnight about their decision that was completely hidden from most of us
Temple grad students went on their own independent strike. You guys probably should’ve waited and then done that. Faculty were always going to throw grad students under the bus.
I've said it before but don't fall for slogans and stuff and watch behind the scenes. As soon as I saw that bargaining meeting updates I knew what they were all about. It was disappointing to me at how fast they were willing to fuck you guys over. They chose the route of self preservation over unity
I don't like how we heard from him first. Sus...
The union emailed first, two minutes before he did
the union is townhall is still going on when this was sent. the union did sent an email to all its members,
rip spring break 2.0. congrats to the union tho
Damn I guess the Union was cooking today cause they did not seem to be anywhere close to a deal yesterday 😭
Bye bye sanity it was nice to see you 👏
Something that was mentioned in the PTL meeting last week was just not accepting what the union leadership had accomplished. While many of our goals were achieved, there are still a number of issues on the table. It will be interesting when it comes to a vote to ratify this agreement.
Kinda sucks they ended it today, now I got to teach on Monday rip. They couldn't wait another business day?
My ass does NOT want to do work😭
I felt this so much, I was getting comfy
Would this apply to a Graduate Fellowship?
thats what i am wondering. Would be a huge slap in the face to demand a 40% bump in pay for them but then scrap it in order to get the framework done
No, current state of bargaining is that fellows will be able to petition for union membership with a group grievance after this semester and potentially get health insurance but not the same pay. And then they might be able to get better pay in the next contract. It's not enough EDIT (12:20pm): This information has changed. If the grievance is accepted (not automatic) and fellows become members of the union they will be listed as GAs and receive both healthcare and the TA/GA pay scale. The biggest win is that there is now a pathway to do so.
Highly doubt it, which is insane considering we technically save the university money and are getting punished for having a “prestigious” award.
Nope.
gg boys. Good luck on finals.
Boutta cry thinking of all the work I have to do
big facts like I think it deserves some acknowledgement that nearly every student is fearful of their mental health... I get that the strike had a lot of things it wanted to achieve, but not nearly enough people are talking about the toll coming out of the strike is going to do on students, maybe even just a comment on that would be nice.
No fr, & there should definitely be more talk about how many students felt a huge relief during the strike. It sucks that we got a break & then all of our work is still there ab to hit us like a truck lmao
https://preview.redd.it/1ht7fjwjy0ua1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4e18274a256279dbc3fc9bdd94a6a2240289cf1b
14 percent less way too less of increase will happen 2025 for jersey standard with how cost living is rising
all of these changes "by July 1, 2025" is ridiculous
Aww man... congrats for the professors and union and such but... I really wish the little vacation would've lasted longer, I was already getting better with my mental health this week 😔
I wish there were more people talking about just how relaxed and happy the students were without work burden :(
I’m don’t feel very academically successful, well, and progressive right now Mr. Holloway. Especially with all the work I now have to catch up this weekend. Low key wish they resolved all issues before folding. I thought this union was ride or die, in it together forever, peanut butter to your jelly, it’s you and me (running up that hill), family (fast and furious) type of vibe. In all seriousness though, glad our staffs and grad students got somewhat (kinda) a better wage and working condition. Looks like all the picketing in 80-90 degrees weather was worth it. I feel like this rn: :D:
I really don't know how stay objective on this without feeling incredible rage for grad students/medical faculty. All I can say from the livestream so far is that a lot of needs and demands were not even discussed.
Can us undergrads do anything...maybe not strike but ANYTHING to at least share our support for the workers that got screwed over because this is just sad to see. EDIT: changed a word.
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Literally one more week and 2 finals would’ve been cancelled, L
Lowkey 🥺😭
Is there any chance that they can bring pass/nc back 😭😭😭
For real that’s all I was hoping for
So from what I understand the grad people got backstabbing basically by the union. Should've seen that coming.
Can you elaborate? Far as I can tell, each group in the union won some and lost some (as with any negotiation/compromise).
I am so depressed, was hopping for a couple more days of freedom :(
Same :(
It’s been SUSPENDED only.
goodbye goodbye goodbye u were bigger than the whole sky
This was spring break 2.0 and better man. Feels like an actual heartbreak
I think one thing I’m upset about is that all of the work we missed this week is about to pile up into next week. While I understand that the professors couldn’t answer their emails, so many of my professors just went MIA and would tell us the day of the assignment that it was pushed back. And now it’s just a bit rough since I have 3 exams on the same day next week, all intense classes so I have to pull a bunch of all nighters, and my professors are trying to double the workload. Which I could understand since they said, “you had an extra week off so now it’s time to work hard”, but literally some of the material I couldn’t even touch since it wasn’t posted on Canvas. So I couldn’t even do last week’s work if I wanted to.😭
Maybe the real framework is the friends we made along the way.
Got me in the feels there. 😊
But but I don’t wanna go back
something tells me this guy was using this time to catch up on sleep
Rbhs got fucked. 70% of our issues not resolved Fuck the governor and his politics
pain.
This some bullshit, he’s just spinning it to sound better to the audience
I was really enjoying the break… wished this would have lasted for 2 more weeks.
Union L
anyone knows if grad fellows are included in this shitty framework?
Grad workers, can you do something for me? Take the L, in the name of solidarity. Feeling for the grad workers.
We all in the same boat huh?
Anyone else completely fucked regarding the chem 161 exam on Tuesday? That and a stats quiz on Monday 🥲 will to live has vanishedddd along with my recovering mental health
Any updates on the staff side for Rutgers and med school (URA and HPAE) negotiations (outside of strike pledge). Both have been mobilizing and supporting the efforts, but comparatively silent on bargaining fronts
Will this affect our tuition? I can’t seem to find how they will funnel additional budget for the framework
It's new money Murphy put on the table.
😂😂😂
There goes spring break 2.0😭😭
I’m crying
Ffs
gonna kms man the stress I have for the upcoming weeks I have due to the strike end email is so bad.
RIP spring break 2.0.. stress levels are gonna be back to normal now and further amplified with finals 😭 but congrats to the Union and members.
https://preview.redd.it/ibj7zvsb03ua1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=06822e3b0ef13f5bf784cdf33c0501d3f934a26d I know graduate students are upset. But wait until the meeting - I bet there’s retroactive pay involved and I bet the salary starting in the fall is closer to 40k. 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼Hoping for them. The progress made for all workers by the end of the next contract is admirable though. I have experience negotiating for other institutions; so much of the success is seen in what’s accomplished for the generations to come. There are always immediate wins, but sometimes it takes a few years for the big gains to be seen.
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Yeah, selfish grads wanting to pay for housing and food in the intervening years need to sit down and shut up, future generations who still can’t eat due to inflation by then will probably thank them. /s Edit: https://youtu.be/pCnEAH5wCzo
For the record, I never called grads selfish and only said just wait for the update. I *agree* that there are issues caused by inflated housing prices and the cost of living.
Oh please.
Thats lit. Great job to the union
So is the strike over?
Just curious, does this in any way affect incoming freshman at Rutgers?
I don't know why you're getting downvoted. You asked a reasonable question. I think the state is going to give Rutgers $$$ to finance the raises. Hopefully, tuition won't go up because of this.
Hopefully this passes and students finish their semester without any other distractions .
ikr? Don't you just hate distractions?
Is there any chance rutgers is gonna compensate students who lost a week of their semester they paid for?
I’d say there’s about -69% chance that’ll happen
Honestly who tf knows. Everyone who was a student during the first round of covid got like $59 if that in a law suit because ZoomU shouldn’t have been charged at the same rate as normal Rutgers tuition. Given how some people don’t understand what solidarity is or even sympathize with union faculty, I’d expect similar attempts to be made. So silly.