Takeaway: We have a tentative agreement for a contract for the current year (2019-20) with raises and fee remission. We’ll review and approve quickly then go right back to negotiate for 2020-21. Meetings and voting will start Monday, so check your inbox regularly. Read the full agreement here.

We were close to settling contract negotiations back in March when the initial Covid crisis forced the shutdown of NJIT. Subsequently, NJIT used the crisis to delay negotiations. We initially sought a three year contract with incremental pay increases each year. NJIT announced that due to the reported $16 million budget shortfall they could no longer offer yearly increases and instead offered a two-year deal with no pay increase for this coming year. Rather than locking members into an agreement for another year with no raise, we are presenting you a one year agreement so we can go back to the bargaining table immediately and continue fighting for increases. Ratifying this contract means that retro-pay for the previous year will be paid out immediately– including refunds for graduate fees paid back to Fall 2018 for those affected.

Gains:
The graduate and research employee agreement contains some serious advances for graduate employees in terms of guaranteed funding, summer compensation, and wage increases. While we didn’t win everything we wanted, we feel this agreement moves the ball forward for graduate and research employees at NJIT.

• New minimum salary of $24,500 per academic year effective Spring 2020. TA/RAs will receive the increase in retro-payment from NJIT for Spring semester ($250) and Fall 2020 will include additional pay of $250.
• Research Scientists, Engineers, Architects $48,665
• Minimums for Research Associates $38,950
• Those above these minimums will receive retro increases of 2.5%
• Reimbursement of the university fee back to Fall 2018 for RAs who were paid the minimum stipend during the Fall 2018 and Spring 2019 semesters and the same for 2019-20.
• Additional clarification of deadlines in appointment letters
• NJIT has agreed to continue to negotiate so that UCAN job titles currently eligible for the State Health Benefits Plan (i.e. Research Employees) can enroll in the State’s new PPO plan option and save on their health benefit contributions.

Next steps:
Graduate and research employees will have every chance to read the UCAN-NJIT Graduate Student and Research Employee (7/1/19 – 6/30/20) Tentative Agreement and get questions answered on a series of upcoming conference calls before voting. Here are the dates and times of the conference calls, accessible for any and all graduate and research employees:

Monday, June 22: 12:00 – 1:00pm, EST
Tuesday, June 23: 2:00 – 3:00pm, EST
Wednesday, June 24th: 12:30 – 1:30pm, EST

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8143962746

Voting:
Voting for members will begin on Monday, June 22nd at noon and end on Wednesday, June 24th at 5pm. You will receive a ballot and instructions directly to your NJIT email account. You are encouraged to attend one of the above conference calls before voting, if you have any questions. You can also respond to this email with any questions about the tentative agreement.