Daily Targum Sept. 9 - U. faculty delay salary increases to avoid layoffs

...Despite the perceived agreeable end to contract negotiations with the faculty, University administration is still in negotiations with the Union of Rutgers Administrators.
“We have had ongoing talks with management over the summer, and we have not come to an agreement. We’ve exchanged proposals but we are still quite a way apart,” President of the URA-AFT Lucye Millerand said. “Management as we understand is asking our members to give back more than they asked from the faculty. Our members make an average half of what the faculty makes.”

Members of the URA-AFT, which represents 1,900 workers, handed around 10,000 leaflets at the football game last Sunday to raise awareness to their contract negotiations.
“Other state bargaining units have come to agreements where they’ve revised the economic conditions of their contracts to save management money. In exchange, they’ve gotten other protections; in particular, very strong, no layoff protections,” Millerand said. “And management has not offered us that kind of protection.”
People in the URA-AFT are still being laid off and there are no scheduled discussions. The management did not negotiate with them before they held back their raises in June and they only notified them, she said. Communication Workers of America and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees gave up part raises but their pension contributions were protected.
“We have the problem that they’re not offering layoff protections; they’re asking more money back than they do of the faculty,” Millerand said. “We need protections of our pensions.”
The URA-AFT has worked under the saying “do more with less” for a long time. The University budget crisis has been going on for a while, and as staff members are laid off, those still employed have more work to do.
“We have a lot of people funded by grants in our unit. The University saves any money from holding back those people’s salaries,” Millerand said. “We don’t think management is even factoring that when they do calculations.”

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