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.
URA-AFT President Lucye Millerand said the annual address lacks substance and fails to address these issues.
“Since President McCormick has taken no action to establish a real dialogue, I see no real value in listening to his prepared address,” Millerand said in a press release.
In July, the University decided not to pay the previously negotiated salaries without informing any of the union members, according to the release.
The University has publicly claimed to hope to avert layoffs, but layoffs continue even as raises remain frozen, Bender said.
“This goes against the letter and the spirit of the deal that unions such as Communication Workers of America agreed to with the state, other AFT state colleges unions agreed to and the full-time faculty agreed to here at Rutgers,” he said.
The union is supposed to be negotiating salaries, according to a proposal they made more than a month ago, URA-AFT Campus Vice President Kathryn Neal said.
“It’s been very disturbing and very upsetting working with them … [We] have not heard anything back from them,” Neal said. “With this kind of attitude, they are being very laissez-faire and they’re acting like this is not a big priority for them.”
Although the University reached a settlement last month with the union, management is asking for more in deferrals from staff, according to the release.
“We reject the idea that the state University of New Jersey should be run like a corporation where management slices and dices workers’ rights to save money for executive compensation or projects,” Bender said. “That will expand the physical infrastructure without taking into account the additional services that will be needed by the students that occupy the new spaces.”
In his address, McCormick thanked faculty, staff and administrators for deferring salary increases to help the budget.
“Our faculty and the union that represents them deserve enormous credit for agreeing to defer their raises,” McCormick said. “The savings from these agreements are being used to prevent what would have been devastating cuts to our essential programs of instruction and research. To my colleagues, I want to express a heartfelt thank you.”
In the question and answer session following the address, McCormick said he could not comment on ongoing negotiations.
URA-AFT member Professor Richard Gomez asked McCormick to layout the sacrifices administrators have made.
“With respect to administrators, they too have no raises,” he said.
McCormick said only full-time faculty members were asked to defer, not part-time lecturers, and staff and faculty have been figuring budget cuts throughout the University this past year, he said.
“The administrative offices have been struck more severely than anything in the academic realm of Rutgers, and rightly so,” he said.
—Mary Diduch contributed to this article
Union protests administration outside annual address
Published: Sunday, September 27, 2009
Updated: Sunday, September 27, 2009 22:09
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