Rutgers University (N.J.) full-time faculty and graduate employees have settled on a tentative agreement marked by major innovations. In addition to significant salary increases—25 percent over four years—the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters/AAUP/AFT persuaded the university to commit to increasing the number of full-time tenured or tenure-track faculty by 100 within four years. Also, the agreement provides new parental and family leave provisions that make it among the most progressive and family-friendly contracts in public higher education.

The agreement, which runs from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2011, was approved by the Rutgers AAUP/AFT executive council on Aug. 23 and goes to the membership for a ratification vote at the end of September.

Teaching and graduate assistants, whose compensation has lagged way behind that of comparable graduate employees, will see raises totaling 36 percent over the life of the four-year contract and better language governing workload. Faculty raises average 18 percent overall—significantly higher than state employee averages.

The union went to the mat for the increase in 100 tenure-track jobs, proposing the creation of a Faculty Development Fund that provides no less than $12 million to the salary base of the bargaining unit over four years. The university has seen schools like Arts and Sciences "decimated by the erosion of full-time tenure track positions over the years," says Bell. The union took $6 million out of the fund for raises and offered to pool it with a matching amount from the administration.

Likewise, the union bargained hard for progressive parental and family leave policies that provide a full semester of teaching and service leave for birth mothers and eight weeks of leave for employees dealing with serious health situations among family members.

Another portion of the contract sets up a task force to look at the issues of nontenure-track faculty, who make up one-fourth of the bargaining unit. "This contract recognizes for the first time the importance of this group," says Lisa Klein, Rutgers AAUP-AFT president. "It begins to direct attention to their career development opportunities."

The union's decision to affiliate with the AFT two years ago has smoothed the way for shorter, more effective negotiations, says chief negotiator and former president Rudolph Bell. That affiliation was intended to achieve more leverage in the state Legislature and at the bargaining table. Also, the AFT's organizing success with the Union of Rutgers Administrators/AFT and the AAUP-AFT's closer relationships with the state AFL-CIO, the state governor's office and state legislators has also added to the union's clout.

The agreement has many features in harmony with three bills that were introduced in the NJ Legislature this session that are modeled on the AFT's Faculty and College Excellence campaign (FACE). They deal with restoring the ranks of full-time faculty and securing pro-rata pay and partially paid health benefits for part-timers.

The AAUP-AFT chapter represents 2,500 tenured, tenure-track and nontenure-track faculty members and 1,700 teaching and graduate assistants. Currently, its sister union, the Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter/AAUP/AFT, is engaged in negotiations. The Union of Rutgers Administrators/AFT, which was just certified this summer, is preparing to negotiate its first contract.

August 24, 2007