By Patricia Alex, Staff Writer, The Record
Rutgers University reached a tentative pact on Thursday with its largest faculty union, allowing for raises of about 8 percent over four years, the union announced.
The agreement applies to nearly 4,700 members of the university chapter of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers, including graduate and teaching assistants.
Nearly 15,000 other unionized employees — from police officers to nurses — are still in negotiation the university.
Union leaders said they were heartened that the new agreement requires that the university prove that a financial emergency exists before it can cancel raises, which has been a sticking point since increases were unilaterally frozen in 2010, said Nat T. Bender, a union representative.
The agreement calls for retroactive payments to chapter members whose contract expired last year. It also calls for “significant” increases in minimum salaries for non-tenure-track instructors and assistant professors.
Other administrative and professional staff have also been without a new contract since last year. But faculty and librarians in the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which was subsumed by Rutgers in 2013, have been without new contracts or raises for nearly six years, Bender said.
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