STATE – Gov. Chris Christie’s promise to increase support for higher education should include fair contracts for workers, according to Donna M. Chiera, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Jersey (AFTNJ), the state’s largest higher education union federation.
“The full and part-time faculty, librarians and professional staff of the state’s public colleges and universities want working conditions to keep up with those in private schools,” said Chiera. “True support for higher education means investing in both the structural capacity to house and educate students as well as the working conditions to attract, recruit and retain colleagues who will maintain high standards of excellence.”
The Council of New Jersey State College Locals collectively bargains contracts for faculty, librarians, professional staff and adjunct faculty at all nine state colleges and universities. Lead negotiator College Council President Nick Yovnello, the Assistant Director of Library Services at Rowan University, characterizes discussions as the most difficult in his 40 years of bargaining with the state. “While we are making some progress, the state’s proposals threaten to undermine the basics of working conditions we have established over the past several decades.”
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