Dear Colleague,

Yesterday afternoon we returned to the negotiating table, and had an unproductive session marred by management posturing over who we choose to bring to the table as members of our bargaining team. Right from the beginning, management’s team objected to the presence of both adjunct instructors and graduate student employees coming in to negotiate together, despite an earlier agreement that we would spend the afternoon negotiating over both proposed contracts, and no earlier objections when we had representatives of both groups on our team in a single session.

After rejecting our adjunct salary proposal for parity between adjuncts and the NJIT University Lecturer minima for a three credit course, yesterday we proposed significant raises for adjuncts that would at least equate to equal pay with adjuncts at Rutgers University across the street. We refuse to accept their counter that NJIT adjuncts should be the lowest paid of all adjunct instructors at any public 4 year institution in the state of New Jersey.

We countered management’s refusal to offer healthcare to adjunct instructors, presented on wage demands for the graduate student and research employees, as well as a fair grievance procedure that guarantees due process for all of our members. They took our counters, and will respond to us in the coming weeks.

In order to show management’s team that we will not accept sub-par wage increases for all adjuncts, graduate student workers and research employees, we are calling on all of our members and supporters to stand with us outside of Fenster Hall over the lunch hour on Wednesday, November 8th.

Our last action outside of bargaining showed we were serious: this time around we want to show the administration that in order to secure a contract, they will have to deal fairly with us and raise up the wages and working conditions for the academic employees on campus who, according to their self-reported Institutional Profile from 2016, teach 42% of all course sections across campus.

Will you commit to joining your colleagues on November 8th to show the administration that graduate students, research employees and adjuncts all deserve fair wage increases, access to decent healthcare and an equitable union contract? RSVP to this message and let us know, so we can plan on bringing t-shirts and placards for everyone.

We’ll also be discussing the details at our upcoming October General Membership Meeting on Monday, October 30th at 4:30pm in Room 240 of the NJIT Campus Center. See you there!

Your Bargaining Team,
Susan Bristol, Adjunct Instructor, CoAD
Jeffrey Reaves, Adjunct Instructor, NCE
Subash Ray, Research Assistant, Biological Sciences
Patrick Nowlan, Executive Director, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Victoria Pacheco, Staff Associate, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Joe Richard, Lead Organizer, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, UCAN
Jacob Chaffin, Organizer, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, UCAN

Thank you to everyone for coming out yesterday to show your support for a fair adjunct contract! We had a successful action that featured 25 or 30 adjuncts and their supporters holding “I Love Adjunct Unionization” signs, and then went back to the table with the administration bargaining over an adjunct contract. Our action had an impact inside the room, by showing the administration’s team that adjuncts at NJIT are watching closely what happens. Tomorrow we will negotiate over a graduate and research employee contract.

On Monday the 25th we received a more complete offer from the administration, which included more counter-proposals but still no language around access to health care. We went back and forth with them over the issue of guaranteed office space and resources for adjuncts, support in the classroom from TA’s for large class sizes, paid orientations for all new adjunct hires, a fair and efficient grievance procedure, and also wages.

We made it clear to them that a 0.0% increase is absolutely unacceptable, especially in a context where NJIT is on a solid financial footing, tuition and enrollment continue to rise (as well as administrative salaries), and the administration has continued plowing millions of dollars into acquiring new property in the surrounding community and launching new construction projects. Adjuncts deserve a fair wage increase and we are waiting for a good faith economic offer.

Our next date for adjunct bargaining is set for October 11th, in order for us to receive the final counter-proposals from the administration and to formally counter their offers. We very much look forward to getting back to the table and continuing to fight for a fair adjunct contract.

Also, mark your calendars now! Our monthly General Membership Meeting for October is set for Monday, October 16th from 4:30 to 6:00 pm in Room TBA of the NJIT campus center. We’ll see you there!

Your Bargaining Team,
Susan Bristol, Adjunct Instructor, CoAD
Jeffrey Reaves, Adjunct Instructor, NCE
Patrick Nowlan, Executive Director, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Vicky Pacheco, Staff Associate, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Joe Richard, Lead Organizer, Rutgers AAUP-AFT

Important Information: We need you to join us at bargaining on Tuesday, September 26th at 2:00pm on the 5th

Along with rejecting our proposals for longer term contracts, language around promotions, guarantees of significant timelines for reappointment, seniority, and basic requests for union stability like wifi access, they offered literally nothing for salary increases for adjunct instructors. Zip. Zero. By proposing the current salary minimum of $1,300 per credit hour as their economic offer for the 2018 academic year, they’ve proposed that hundreds of adjunct instructors receive no raises for the life of our contract.

Their team also didn’t respond to the final 11 articles in our proposed adjunct instructor contract. To our negotiating team, this hardly signifies a good faith effort to negotiate a fair agreement.

We were at the negotiating table again yesterday, the first time since August 22nd. We argued with the administration over issues of longer term contracts, the need for stable and continuous employment for adjunct instructors, and the real need for significant amounts of advance notice about teaching classes. We also formally requested a clear answer as to the minimum enrollment numbers before a class is cancelled.

floor of Fenster Hall. Adjunct Instructors deserve a fair contract that recognizes our professional contributions to NJIT!

After cancelling a bargaining session in early September and repeated delays in sending our team their counter-proposal, the NJIT administration finally responded to our proposed contract covering adjunct instructors, and it was a whopper: 0.0%

We will be back at the table on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 26th. We expect a full counter-proposal by that time, and look forward to receiving a serious economic offer, given the university’s strong financial position, as recently reported by the NJIT Chief Financial Officer at a recent Faculty Senate meeting.

But we need your help. We want to show the administration that adjunct instructors are a valuable part of the NJIT community, and that we expect a fair contract that recognizes our contributions to be bargained on time and in good faith.

Will you join us on Tuesday, September 26th at 2:00pm on the 5th floor of Fenster Hall to stand with your colleagues? Please RSVP so we can bring union t-shirts for everyone!

1. violence in the workplace,
2. academic freedom,
3. tuition remission,
4. health care benefits,

Our team was back at the negotiating table with the administration Tuesday, July 25th, and we’re happy to report on our second bargaining session.

Using the information we’ve collected over the last academic year through hundreds of in-person interviews, and supplemented with all of your responses to our recent bargaining surveys, we put forward a batch of creative proposals that would dramatically improve the lives and working conditions for the nearly 800 academic workers that will be covered under any future contracts.

Among many other things, we put forward proposals to:

Significantly raise adjunct salaries and create a system of additional ranks of Adjunct Instructor II and III with higher salaries and multi-year contracts,
Raise graduate employee wages to the level of parity with Rutgers salaries and lower the expected clock hour workload from 20 to 15,
Early mandatory deadlines for reappointment for all covered employees,
Full tuition remission for adjuncts and their dependent children,
Lowered parking costs for all covered employees,
Paid orientations for all new employees to provide them with access to necessary information and resources in order to perform effectively at work
Expanded sick and personal leave for all covered employees,
Unused vacation payout for research employees and post-docs

We also formally requested information from the administration around issues of graduate employee summer funding, health insurance plans for all covered employees, and mandatory fees in order to have accurate data with which to craft specific improvements which we will also submit soon.

The administration spent the session listening to our proposals, and informed us that they would give us a complete response at our next session, as well as some proposals of their own. We agreed on multiple bargaining dates in late August to give them time to prepare, and are ready to work hard to reach a fair settlement soon.

Best,
Susan Bristol, Adjunct Instructor, CoAD
Subash K. Ray, Research Assistant, Biology
Jeffrey Reaves, Adjunct Instructor, NCE
Patrick Nowlan, Executive Director, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Joe Richard, Organizer, AAUP-AFT
Victoria Pacheco, Staff Associate, AAUP-AFT
Jacob Chaffin, Organizer, AAUP-AFT

June 28, 2017

It’s our pleasure to report to you on our first bargaining session with the administration of NJIT, which took place on Tuesday afternoon, June 27th. Given that this was our first meeting between our union’s bargaining team and representatives from the administration, it was a short session focused mainly around introductions and outlining our goals in broad strokes.

We told the administration that we anticipate bargaining in good faith and working to achieve just and equitable contracts improving the wages and working conditions for all graduate employees, adjuncts, and post-doctoral researchers in every academic unit at NJIT. We told them we are eager to get to work negotiating, and that we intend to spend the summer putting forward concrete proposals for their consideration.

The administration’s team responded to us, and though we can anticipate areas of disagreement, their lead negotiator assured us of treating our union’s bargaining team and the entire workforce with respect and dignity. We plan to hold them to their promise. We committed to working straightaway to get into meaningful negotiations with them and commit our proposals to paper for them to review.

During our recent unionization campaign, adjunct, post-doc and graduate employee members of our Organizing Committee met with and interviewed hundreds of people all across NJIT from different backgrounds. We heard loud and clear the serious issues we need to improve upon at NJIT.

UCAN Bargaining Team
Susan Bristol, CoAD, Adjunct Instructor
Jeff Reaves, NCE, Adjunct Instructor
Subash K. Ray, Biology, Research Assistant
Patrick Nolan, Rutgers AAUP-AFT Executive Director
Joe Richard, Rutgers AAUP-AFT Organizer
Jacob Chaffin, Rutgers AAUP-AFT Organizer

On February 22nd, United Council of Academics at NJIT (UCAN) held an election to ratify a constitution, which included an affiliation and alliance with the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters, and to elect interim-Officers. This election represented a major step forward for UCAN in pursuit of building a strong labor organization for academic workers on campus. In accordance with the constitution, UCAN must hold another election for the coming year.

Important Voting Info:
General Membership Meeting and Election Nominations
When: Monday, April 10th
5:00P-8:00P
Where: Campus Center 240

General Election– April 26th and 27th

You must be a member of UCAN to participate and vote in the upcoming election.

We will be holding the first General Membership Meeting on April 10th where we will be accepting nominations for the following positions:
President– serves on the Executive Board and committees, represents UCAN in all official capacities, and is responsible for annual reports the membership.

Vice President– serves in the absence of the president, maintains official non-financial records of the organization, oversees the Elections Committee.

Secretary– Treasurer- oversee and maintain all financial and membership records.

Executive Board– Meet monthly to set policy for the organization. Open seats for:
One graduate employee or postdoctoral fellow

All information pertaining to the duties of the Executive Committee can be found in Article VI and V of the UCAN Constitution. To request a copy of the constitution, please respond to this email and a copy will be delivered to you.

UCAN Officers and Executive Committee members can be nominated:
From the Floor— Nominations may be made from the floor of the April 10th General Membership Meeting, with candidates approved by vote of the membership meeting.

By Petition–To be nominated a candidate must submit to the Elections Committee a petition containing the signatures of twenty (20) signed up union members. Petitions must be submitted by the April 10th General Membership Meeting.

Any signed-up union member is eligible to hold office. Members nominated to run for office must affirmatively accept their nomination, and the terms for all positions are 1 year.

Elections for UCAN officers will be held by secret ballot on April 26th and 27th. The majority of the ballots cast shall determine the outcome of the election. Results of the election will be published and notifications will be sent to members after fifteen (15) days of the election.

Only members of UCAN will be allowed to vote in the election. The mission of UCAN is to create an active membership that sets the priorities and activities of the union for continued organizing and advocacy. I have attached a membership form to this email. In order to vote  you must fill out and return the membership form.

In order to lay the foundation for a permanent and strong union organization, members will be voting to adopt a draft constitution, elect officers, and decide upon affiliations with local, state, and national organizations. Members of UCAN will be able to vote to ratify the constitution and elect officers on Wednesday, February 22nd. 

We will be holding a vote by secret ballot in the Robeson Center— Hudson Rm 255 (Rutgers campus, 350 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd ) from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. You can stop by at any time during those hours to review the constitution, ask questions, join the union and vote. In order to vote, you must first become a member of the union by filling out a membership card.

Please contact Jacob Chaffin with any questions.