Press Clips
Daily Targum: Union defers raises with no-layoff pledge
Ariel Nagi, Associate News Editor
Published: Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009, Updated: Monday, Dec.7, 2009
While some members of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers said they could not predict what the economic forecast will look like within the next few years, many agree the employment outlook is not looking good.
That is why the union voted on Nov. 30 to accept an agreement with the University to delay the last two years of its four-year contracted raises in exchange for job security, including a no-layoff pledge, said URA-AFT Spokesman Nat Bender.
Read the full article at http://www.dailytargum.com/news/union-defers-raises-with-no-layoff-pledge-1.2114128
Philadelphia Inquirer: Rutgers administrative workers agree to delay raises
Posted on Fri, Dec. 4, 2009
Rita Giordano, Inquirer Staff Writer
Rutgers University's 2,000 administrative workers have agreed to accept one-year delays of their 2009 and 2010 raises in return for a management pledge of no layoffs.
"Rutgers management asked us to renegotiate the last two years of a four-year deal, citing the poor economic outlook," Bob Cousins, executive director of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers, said in a written statement. "Our members decided that sacrificing money by accepting this deal made sense to save those who might otherwise be laid off."
Full article at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/78498102.html
Home News: Another Rutgers workers union agrees to defer raises
December 1, 2009
SERGIO BICHAO, STAFF WRITER
The union representing 1,900 administrative workers at the state's largest public university has agreed to defer salary increases in exchange for a "no-layoff pledge" through January 2011, union officials announced Tuesday.
The agreement, ratified Monday by the Union of Rutgers Administrators, or URA, avoids furloughs but saves the university $9.5 million over two years, according to Nancy Winterbauer, vice president for university budgeting.
"The university is grateful to the URA membership for contributing to a budget solution in these extremely difficult fiscal times," Winterbauer said in a statement.
"If management follows through and fulfills what is in this agreement, it is a very good thing for Rutgers and for our members," URA President Lucye Millerand said.
The URA this summer had filed a grievance against Rutgers after the university summarily froze salary hikes provided for in collective bargaining agreements.
The university said the freeze was necessary to meet the state's demand that it rein in employee compensation or else lose millions in federal stimulus money controlled by the state.
The agreement between the URA and the university defers this year's 1.5 percent across-the-board raise and 3.5 percent merit raise until July 2010, when the middle management employees will receive a 2.5 percent raise and 2.5 percent merit pay. In 2011, the employees will receive regular and merit raises each totaling 2 percent.
A no-layoff pledge only applies to URA employees not paid through state grants, or 60 percent of the membership.
In August, the university's largest union, the Rutgers Council of American Association of University Professors, representing 5,200 faculty members and assistants, agreed to defer salary raises, spreading a two-year $23.6 million obligation over three years.
But the URA held out, saying the university was asking them for more concessions than from the faculty. Agreements have yet to be reached with other minor unions.
Winterbauer said the URA's deferral is "comparable to the agreements already reached with the faculty and other large staff unions."
The state's public colleges and universities had until yesterday to certify with the state treasury that they had exacted employee savings equal to the savings the state reached earlier this year with a 14-day unpaid furlough for workers and deferring 3.5 percent raises for 18 months.
A treasury spokesman yesterday said the department expected to receive information from all the schools by the end of the day.
Winterbauer said "Rutgers achieved the personnel savings . . . through these wage deferrals and comparable wage deferrals for its non-aligned employees."
Sergio Bichao: 732-565-7256; sbichao@MyCentralJersey.com
-from http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091201/NEWS/912010346/Another+Rutgers+workers+union+agrees+to+defer+raises#pluckcomments
Daily Targum: Millerand Quoted on State Budget
Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers President Lucye Millerand said it is too soon to scream that the sky is falling.
[...]
“Really, none of us are working with hard facts as to how it will affect any agency or instrumentality,” Millerand said. “It is possible. It has happened before, although the state budgets X numbers of millions [of dollars] in state appropriations that they could then completely fail to send … and change their mind.”
This scenario would affect the University less than direct state agencies because the University charges tuition and has other means to stay afloat, she said.
Millerand said management had a very good start to the present year and the University has been able to attract more grants, boost tuition and increase enrollment in recent years.
“There should be a cushion somewhere for fiscal year 2010,” Millerand said.
Funding public education allows the state to educate students to become productive members of the workforce, she said.
“If we don’t have a highly educated workforce, we can’t get out of this,” Millerand said.
Read the full story at http://www.dailytargum.com/news/nj-revenue-slump-poses-university-budget-concerns-1.2115555
TCNJ Signal: Millerand question equality of new savings plans
Posted on 01 December 2009
By Diana Bubser, Opinions Editor and Matt Huston, Nation & World Editor
[...]
Rutgers University, which is not covered under the same contract agreements as other state schools, formed a different strategy and brought on the resistance of union members.
According to Miranda, Rutgers met state budget requirements by “deferring wage increases without the use of furloughs, which are difficult to administer in a research university environment.”
“Management did not want us to take furlough days. Eventually, we agreed to negotiate on the basis of holding back raises until it equals the amount of 10 days’ pay,” Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers (URA-AFT), said.
Rutgers University laid off about 30 URA-AFT members this year, Millerand said.
At Rutgers University, URA-AFT’s dissatisfaction over the implemented wage freezes prompted its boycott of Rutgers University President Richard McCormick’s speech in September.
“Management simply wants to get back more out of us (union members),” Millerand said, and mentioned that communication between union workers and upper management has not improved since the boycott.
Read full article at http://www.tcnjsignal.net/2009/12/01/unions-question-equality-of-new-savings-plans/
Bergen Record: Millerand quoted in on newly built Rutgers visitor center
[...]
"We're in favor of having a good program to recruit incoming students," said Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators. "The question is, are we in an austerity period or not?"
Other projects singled out
Millerand said her bargaining unit of almost 2,000 staffers has had wages frozen and 30 layoffs this year. She pointed out that this visitor center was not as "egregious" an expense as the $5 million lounge being built for recruiting football players or the $102 million football stadium expansion. Even so, she said, "Can we have a little more balance here?"
Read the full article at http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/65420367.html
URA Photo Included on Ledger Site
Rob Newman, a member of the Union of Rutgers Administrators, hands out literature protesting the way Rutgers has dealt with the union and on-going negotiations. Union members handed out leaflets on College Ave. before President McCormick's Annual Address to the University Community. NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ (Amanda Brown/The Star-Ledger)
Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick Gives His Seventh Annual Address to the University Community
Daily Targum: Union protests administration outside annual address
By Ariel Nagi, Correspondent
Published: Sunday, September 27, 2009
Dressed in white jumpsuits, hard hats, construction vests and gas masks, Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers members stood in front of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus Friday, boycotting University President Richard L. McCormick’s annual address.
Calling the address the “Toxic Incident Site,” the union was protesting against management greed, which they said is hazardous to the University community.
URA-AFT Spokesman Nat Bender said University management broke their contract and froze negotiated raises using the general economy and projections of next year’s budget as an excuse, although the University’s overall funding continues to increase.
“The University’s management is not listening when we tell them that they are overreaching far beyond what thousands of committed workers at Rutgers might agree to as a fair trade-off between deferred raises and job security,” Bender said.
Read full article at http://www.dailytargum.com/news/union-protests-administration-outside-annual-address-1.1916068
Press of AC: Rutgers president, union at odds over wage freeze
Rutgers University President Richard McCormick says the willingness of many unionized faculty and staff to defer raises has helped the university cope with the effects of the economic recession.
Rutgers and the Rutgers Council of American Association of University Professors, which represents professors and teaching assistants, agreed last month to defer until next year raises that were due in July.
McCormick made his remarks Friday during his annual address to the university an event that was the target of a boycott by another union that opposes the wage freeze.
Read full article at
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20090925_ap_rutgerspresidentunionatoddsoverwagefreeze.html
Home News: Rutgers union in contract dispute boycotting university president's address
September 24, 2009
Rutgers union in contract dispute boycotting university president's address
By SERGIO BICHAO, STAFF WRITER
From the campus office of one of the university's largest employee unions comes a "Top 10'' list of things to do Friday instead of attending President Richard L. McCormick's annual address.
Among the tongue-in-cheek suggestions posted on the Union of Rutgers Administrators' Web site: "Get your feet dirty trying to walk through the construction on Livingston Campus" and visit the Rutgers Stadium in Piscataway "to see the construction crew building a monument to where your raise went."
The humor behind the call to boycott the speech belies the union's anger and frustration at the administration, which froze their contractually-obligated salary increases in July and is seeking contractual give-backs from the union.
"University management has shown continual disregard for workers' rights, breaking contracts by unilaterally withholding raises while continuing with layoffs," URA-AFT president Lucye Millerand said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon. "Since President McCormick has taken no action to establish a real dialogue, I see no value in listening to his prepared address."
See full article at www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090924/NEWS/909240328
Daily Targum: Union to boycott president’s address
-from http://www.dailytargum.com/news/union-to-boycott-president-s-address-1.1911341
Daily Targum > News
By Cagri Ozuturk
Associate News Editor
Published: Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The contract negotiations between the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers and the University administrators have not reached a settlement yet, and the delay looks to continue, as the relationship seems to strain.
“When President [Richard L.] McCormick gives his State of the University speech on Friday, URA members will warn members and passersby to avoid the event as a toxic hazard,” URA-AFT Executive Vice President Nat Bender said.
Members of the URA-AFT plan to boycott McCormick’s address Friday at the University Senate meeting in the Multipurpose Room of the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus.
“There are no developments in talks. We will not be going to the address for the health and safety of our members,” URA-AFT President Lucye Millerand said. “We will be informing our members that going to this address will cause them some symptoms, so they should go to more relaxing events instead like yoga on Livingston [campus].”
Inside Higher Ed: The Price of Wage Concessions
Sept. 10
...While the agreement leaves Rutgers AAUP-AFT members largely unscathed, other unions including the Union of Rutgers Administrators-AFT (URA-AFT) and two AFSCME locals representing university employees are still at the bargaining table and face more onerous cuts.
The URA-AFT represents 1,900 administrative employees. Lucye Millerand, its president, said she has been negotiating with Rutgers for more than two months, since “at the very beginning of July we were unilaterally notified that [the university] was not planning to pay any of our raises beginning with that month’s first paycheck.”
Read full story at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/09/10/rutgers
Home News: Rutgers faculty agrees to defer raises, avoiding more cuts, Sept. 9
...URA-AFT President [Lucye] Millerand said her union has not reached a deal with officials because the university "wants relatively more in givebacks from our salary package than from the faculty."
The URA has 2,500 fewer members than the AAUP, whose tenured faculty earn an average of $108,430 while its teaching and graduate assistants earn an average of $26,000 and part-time lecturers earn $6,500. The administrative staff average is $54,020, union documents show.
"We are concerned about job security in this day and age," Millerand said. "We continue to see our members being laid off and we do not see proposals from management that give us really iron-clad protections."
Millerand said there are no scheduled discussions between the union and the university, and their grievance claim will be settled by arbitration if the two sides do not reach a resolution.
"We do not recognize that they have the right to hold back this money that was owed us," Millerand said about the salary freeze. "They never negotiated that prior to doing it."
Read full article at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909090341
Star Ledger: Rutgers University faculty union approves pay raise delay to avoid layoffs, cuts
by Brian Whitley/The Star-Ledger
Tuesday September 08, 2009, 7:24 PM
The Rutgers University faculty union approved an agreement with school officials Friday that staves off layoffs and other deep cuts by delaying two previously negotiated raises.
Read the full article at http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/09/rutgers_university_faculty_uni.html
Daily Targum: U. faculty delay salary increases to avoid layoffs, Sept. 9
...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.”
Read the full article at http://www.dailytargum.com/news/u-faculty-delay-salary-increases-to-avoid-layoffs-1.1869796
Daily Targum: Governor speaks out for unions at local picnic
By Ariel Nagi, Published: Monday, September 7, 2009
The Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers kicked-off the annual Labor Day campaign Saturday at Johnson Park in Piscataway with a picnic featuring live music, a barbeque and a visit from the governor.
The campaign was put together to celebrate workers organizing unions and standing up for negotiated contracts in the midst of an extremely challenging economy, URA-AFT Executive Vice President Nat Bender said.
Read the full article at http://www.dailytargum.com/university/governor-speaks-out-for-unions-at-local-picnic-1.1868584.
The Home News and Tribune: "Rutgers post-docs join faculty union"
August 17, 2009
By SERGIO BICHAO
STAFF WRITER
Deep inside the concrete corridors of the Chemistry Building on the Busch Campus are buzzing metal chambers doing what post-doctoral research assistant Alan Wan can only attempt to describe in layman's terms as "ion scattering."
Read full article at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990817042
State Issues Rutgers “Serious” Citation for Lack of Emergency Preparedness
[July 7 Update: Article published in On Campus magazine at http://aft.org/pubs-reports/on_campus/julyaug09/OC_julyaug09.pdf#page=9]
Union Health and Safety Experts Hoping for Better Cooperation
NEW BRUNSWICK… When Joyce Sagi and Amy Bahruth collaborated on a grant through the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to cultivate peer-to-peer emergency planning at Rutgers, the duo had no idea university management would fiercely resist sharing vital information. Now the state has confirmed that the refusal to cooperate in emergency action planning constitutes a serious risk to student, faculty, staff and community safety.
Star-Ledger: Stadium oversight isn't only problem at Rutgers
Star-Ledger Tues., Dec. 23, 2008...Senate Majority Leader Stephen M. Sweeney has called for the resignation of Rutgers President Richard McCormick for failed oversight of athletic fi nances while construction of a $100 million football stadium coincided with cutting academic programs and student services. However, structural reforms at Rutgers are necessary regardless of who is at the helm. Faculty, staff and close observers at Rutgers see the football fiasco as just the latest and greatest example of poor management at Rutgers. A good referee at Rutgers management offices in Old Queens would be busy throwing penalty flags.
After months of requests to cooperate on improving emergency planning, Rutgers faculty and staff unions have formally charged management with failing to safeguard 59,000 students, faculty and staff on three dense urban campuses. Subsequently, the state Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health program is investigating management for not having an adequate plan in the event of an emergency when the need for teamwork means the difference between life and death.
Poor labor relations reveal further failures of leadership. Management has stymied a vote by summer and winter session instructors to unionize by claiming that graduate students are not a legitimate part of the group. Any student can testify to the absurdity of that claim. Recent layoffs target low-level but highly experienced employees, while new executive positions are created almost weekly.
True shared governance is one reform that can easily be initiated. Non-voting student and faculty representatives to the Board of Governors should be granted vot ing status and one voting non-faculty staff seat should be added to adequately represent the real campus stakeholders.
Rutgers students, alumni, faculty and staff, as well as New Jersey taxpayers, deserve management of our state university committed to worthy research, academic excellence and good public policy. Comprehensive reform must include developing a more accountable management struc ture and democratic governance process to be effective.
--Lucye Millerand is president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers staff local at Rutgers, and Lisa C. Klein is president of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT faculty union. Read more and comment at njvoices.com
from http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1230010077118030.xml&coll=1
The Home News and Tribune: New game plan needed for RU management
LUCYE MILLERAND and LISA C. KLEIN-The Home News and Tribune, Fri., Dec. 19...State Senate leader Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester, has called for the resignation of Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick for failed oversight of athletics department finances while construction of a $100 million football stadium coincided with cutting academic programs and student services. However, structural reforms at Rutgers are necessary regardless of who is at the helm. Faculty, staff and close observers at Rutgers see the football fiasco as just the latest and greatest example of poor management at Rutgers.
Last year's State Commission of Investigation report found problems at Rutgers that "rendered the exercise of proper oversight, accountability and transparency difficult, if not impossible, to achieve within the university's governance system." The rogue football program is the best example, but not an aberration. A good referee at Rutgers management offices in Old Queens would be busy throwing penalty flags.
After months of requests to cooperate on improving emergency planning, Rutgers faculty and staff unions have formally charged management with failing to safeguard 59,000 students, faculty and staff on three dense urban campuses. Subsequently, the state Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health program is investigating management for not having an adequate plan in the event of an emergency when the need for teamwork means the difference between life and death.
Poor labor relations reveal further failures of leadership. Management has stymied summer and winter session instructors vote to unionize by claiming that graduate students are not a legitimate part of the group. Any student can testify to the absurdity of that claim. Recent layoffs target low-level but highly experienced employees, while new executive positions are created almost weekly. The public safety division is short on officers but students are regularly targeted by criminals.
Closer legislative oversight of university operations is clearly needed.
The Rutgers law grants the state university tremendous autonomy but a bloated bevy of vice presidents are clearly not capable of creating or enforcing necessary checks and balances.
While Sweeney raises the specter of sacking the president, other structural reforms are necessary to insure that a culture of management arrogance and irresponsibility is corrected.
True shared governance is one reform that can easily be initiated. Non-voting student and faculty representatives to the Board of Governors should be granted voting status and one voting non-faculty staff seat should be added to adequately represent the real campus stakeholders.
Along the lines of the committee that examined athletics spending, a committee of experienced private and public sector labor professionals should be appointed to examine the university's labor relations practices. Recommendations from such a group could help develop an overall approach more rooted in problem-solving than in needless confrontation.
Rutgers students, alumni, faculty and staff, as well as New Jersey taxpayers, deserve management of our state university committed to worthy research, academic excellence and good public policy. The football fiasco is a good reason to question President McCormick's leadership, but comprehensive reform must include developing a more accountable management structure and democratic governance process to be effective.
Lucye Millerand is president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers staff local at Rutgers. Lisa C. Klein is the president of Rutgers faculty union, the Rutgers AAUP-AFT.
This article ran in:
The Home News and Tribune at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812190307
The Asbury Park Press at http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081221/OPINION/812210316
The Daily Record at http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812210316
Home News Tribune: Rutgers, state, unions meet on emergency management plans
(from http://www.mycentraljersey.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811270318)
November 27, 2008
By ERICA HARBATKIN
Staff Writer
State safety inspectors met yesterday with representatives from the Rutgers University administration and various labor unions to initiate a conversation about the university's emergency management plans.
The meeting came a week after the faculty and staff unions filed a complaint with the state Public Employees Occupational Safety and Health Program, accusing the university of violating state law that requires employers to provide written emergency action plans that include procedures for evacuation and reporting.
The administration has maintained it provides the emergency plans that are legally necessary but that releasing more specific information could create security risks. Union representatives say they are not looking for sensitive tactical information, and that they just want to know what they should do in an emergency situation.
In the first step toward middle ground, the administration yesterday agreed to schedule a meeting with the unions to discuss cooperative emergency preparedness.
"There will be a follow-up meeting among representatives of the bargaining units and the administration to discuss emergency training,' said university spokesman Greg Trevor.
Union representatives said the agreed-upon meeting was just one component of their request and that they were generally discouraged after their conversation with the university.
"We haven't seen it in writing. We don't understand why we had to wait two months from our first demands, why we had to file a labor complaint and make public statements to get this,' said Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers. "This is the normal procedure when you're formulating an emergency plan. This should have been done without our asking.'
The issue first arose when Joyce S. Sagi, health and safety chairwoman for the staff union, requested a copy of the plan at university President Richard L. McCormick's address in September. The administration directed union members to a Web site outlining evacuation procedures.
But union representatives said those procedures are rudimentary and vague, and fail to specify basic components such as people in charge of evacuations at different buildings.
"The Rutgers community has been at risk — they were at risk yesterday and they're going to be at risk tomorrow,' said Sagi, who was disappointed that the university didn't come to the meeting with more specific information than had already been provided.
"The big thing we wanted to bring to the table is you can't say we can't have it because it's tactical — were not asking for tactical information,' she added. "This is about training, education and awareness.'
Homes News Tribune: Rutgers protesters smell a 'rat' in layoff of worker
By CHRISTINE SPARTA
STAFF WRITER
A giant inflatable rat chomping a cigar temporarily took up residence on College Avenue on Thursday — and it wasn't a fraternity prank.
The rat was part of a demonstration by the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers Local 1766 to protest the layoff of Leslye Lowen, an administrative assistant at the university.
Star-Ledger: Menendez urges Rutgers to allow drive for union
Feb 13, 2007
By: ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff
U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez yesterday urged midlevel administrators at Rutgers University to unionize and sent a message to the university not to interfere with the drive.
"It seems that the power of many standing together as one is better than standing alone," Me nendez said during a union-spon sored forum on campus in New Brunswick. Menendez, a Democrat, is the latest in a string of New Jersey politicians, including Gov. Jon Corzine and
Senate President Richard Codey (D-Essex), to pressure the university to allow a fair opportunity for some 3,000 midlevel administrators, professionals and supervi sors to unionize. The administrators are one of the only such groups in New Jersey public higher education that does not have union representation.
Read full article at http://www.uraaft.org/coverage/ledger021307.pdf
Star-Ledger: Corzine appears at meeting of union organizers at Rutgers
February 01, 2007
BY ANA M. ALAYA
Star-Ledger Staff
After pressuring Rutgers University and a teachers union to sign a neutrality pact recently, Gov. Jon Corzine lent his support to the union's organizing effort on campus yesterday.
"People ought to have the right to make a free choice when it comes to joining a union," Corzine told about 300 workers at a meeting set up by the American Federation of Teachers in New Brunswick. Although the governor stopped short of telling workers to sign union authorization cards, he said he doubted a new union of midlevel administrators would hurt Rutgers or drive up spending or tuition. "Rutgers is a seat of excellence in research, advancement of science and intellectual thought, and we should be proud of what's going on there," Corzine said, "and I don't think there is any reason to argue that somehow or other the choice of being part of a collective bargaining unit would undermine the credibility of
the excellence of the university."
Read full article at http://www.uraaft.org/coverage/ledger020107news.pdf
Star-Ledger: Rutgers, workers reach accord to keep union campaign civil
January 27, 2007
By: ANA M. ALAYA
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
Rutgers University and the American Federation of Teachers announced a truce yesterday, ending a feud over a drive to unionize mid-level administrators. The parties signed a neutrality agreement just weeks after Gov. Jon Corzine demanded Rutgers stop sending employees e-mails extolling the virtues of nonunion employment. A handful of state lawmakers also had threatened to cut state funding for the university if Rutgers President Richard McCormick didn't cease "anti-union" activities. "This removes any shadow of a doubt on campus that the university is going to remain neutral and the employees' decisions whether or not to form a union are protected," said Charles Wowkanech, president of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, who helped negotiate the agreement.
Read full article at http://www.uraaft.org/coverage/ledger012707.pdf
Star-Ledger: Bid to unionize at Rutgers adds heat to a feud
Corzine and Democrats go toe to toe with McCormick
January 26, 2007
By: ANA M. ALAYA AND JOSH MARGOLIN
STAR-LEDGER STAFF
After two failed attempts to unionize in the past 15 years, mid-level administrators leading a new drive at Rutgers University say they are battling a "chilling" anti-union campaign by the school's leadership. This time, though, the workers and the American Federation of Teachers have some high-powered help: Gov. Jon Corzine and top Democratic lawmakers. A handful of other lawmakers actually threatened to cut state funding to the university if Rutgers President Richard McCormick didn't cease his "anti-union" activities. The unusual feud reached new heights this week when the governor confirmed plans to attend a union rally
on campus next week. Earlier, he had demanded in a closed-door meeting that McCormick hammer out a neutrality agreement with the local chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. Put another way, the governor told McCormick that the university had to stop e-mailing workers about the virtues of employment without representation.
Read full article at http://www.uraaft.org/coverage/ledger012607.pdf
Rutgers Observer (Newark): "FEAR" FACTOR: Union organizers, employees say university officials are stifling union efforts with 'threatening' letters"
December 12, 2006
By: Kejal Vyas
Attempts at organizing a union for administrative assistants at Rutgers University are being put down by university administrators using "hostile" and "threatening" tactics, university employees and union organizers claim. Union organizers told the Observer that language in an e-mail sent out by a university human resources administrator to deans, department heads and employees, was designed to stifle unionization by staff. The e-mail, sent out Oct. 18 by Sandra Russell, the associate vice president of human resources at Rutgers, warned of "aggressive" and "intrusive" efforts by labor organizers trying to recruit employees into a union.
Read full article at http://www.uraaft.org/downloads/observer121206.pdf
