I want to share the unethical behavior of
@RutgersU
. The faculty union,
@ruaaup
, found that female faculty were systematically paid less than their male counterparts and Camden faculty were paid 24% less than their New Brunswick counterparts. This is a thread. 1/12
We have a tentative framework for a deal. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥. We are gonna work hard to stitch up the missing pieces and make this a contract out amazing members, students and ally’s deserve.
#UberLyftStrike
Cities/Countries
Nairobi
Nigeria
Paris
London
Glasgow
Nottingham
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Chile
Sao Paolo
Panama
Costa Rica
NYC
LA
San Fran
San Diego
Seattle
Dayton
Minneapolis
Chicago
Conn
WashDC
Boston
Philly
Atlanta
brisbane
sydney
melbourne
US capitalism in 4 acts:
1: Breadlines balloon across US w/ growing food insecurity
2: Farmers burn crops & kill millions of animals at slaughterhouses.
3: Undocumented workers that do labor to close slaughterhouses ineligible for unemployment
4: Laid off workers join bread lines
I stand with AAUP-AFT Rutgers professors who are prepared to strike in order to defend affordable, quality higher education. When we organize and stand together, we win.
#UnionStrong
To my fellow unionists in the UC w. UAW2865 & unions involved in historic strike! It’s a terrible idea to share bargaining mtg notes on social media? You are sharing critical internal info the boss will exploit. It’s undisciplined & bad faith. Find non-public channels to debate.
By following through on their threats, Temple is making a choice that no other university has made during a grad student strike. Absolutely shameful and disgusting.
Many on the left have disdain for higher ed organizing, arguing that academic labor isn't labor: 1. Material fights in the academy will help reshape ideology, 2. Our goal is to expand the social base of intellectuals connecting their activities to social transformation
One final point. Rutgers Neoliberal management is cruel but they are par for the course. They are simply not fit to lead our colleges & universities. Only students, faculty and staff can lead our institutions in the public interest.
What
@RutgersU
did by changing comparators and using a regression analysis was to bake in salary inequity. A program that was supposed to bring underpaid faculty members up to equal pay for equal work is consigning them to being underpaid into the indefinite future. 11/12
Three unions representing 9k workers
@RutgersU
have a Tentative Agreement. After a strike, and negotiations in Trenton and NB, we have a powerful contract. The process was hard and imperfect, but we are transforming higher ed.
@ABhsnj
@ruaaup
@ruaaup_ptl
So,
@RutgersU
changed comparators (after the fact) to obstruct pay equity saving them $1 million. All the while being in debt in athletics to the tune of $250million. I have a simple question: Is this what you meant by beloved community?
#LeadershipFailure
12/12
This is the opposite of equity. If you take out, for example, male comparators and replace them with lower-paid female comparators, you’re simply compounding the problem of gender pay inequity. This is what Rutgers did. 6/12
Strike at Goldsmiths!!! Higher Ed workers globally are entering a period of militancy from Goldsmiths to Harvard (
@hgsuuaw
) & Columbia (
@SW_Columbia
) grad workers to lectures & student researchers in UC system (
@UCAFT
) (
@sruuaw
). Don’t sleep on HE strike wave!
@HigherEdLabor
Look at the numbers for our solidarity rally! This is not a normal strike.
@GoldsmithsUoL
management has bitten off more than it can chew. We demand
#NoJobCuts
!
#Goldstrike
Lol!
@Columbia
is in the midst of a cruel campaign against
@SW_Columbia
yet they put out this call for mental health. Do they have no sense of irony as they create untold economic and mental health issues among their workforce.
Whatever you're going through that's difficult, you can move through it. A new guided meditation for self-compassion, read by Dr. Aisha Holder of Columbia Health.
With
@ProfessorKumar
's leadership, we negotiated a pay equity process in our last contract to account for gender, race and campus inequity. Through this program faculty could apply for an equity adjustment. This was the first program of its kind in academia. 2/12
.
@TempleUniv
has stopped the evil practice of cutting of
@TUGSA_6290
healthcare! This is a critical victory and shows that the grad workers are winning. Keep the pressure on! Solidarity from
@ruaaup
❤️❤️❤️🔥
Our strength and your support put pressure on
@TempleUniv
admin to reverse their heinous decision to, without notification, deactivate our healthcare coverage since the start of the strike.
The pressure is working, let's keep it up until we get a fair contract!
.
@RutgersU
. Yesterday leadership of
@ruaaup
voted to begin a strike vote on 2/28. Keep offering 2% raises, denying adjuncts & grads a living wage, keep denying security for staff & NTTs and a rent freeze for students & community. The strike wave is coming.
@ruaaup_ptl
@NewLabor
I want to congratulate the workers at
@ruaaup
for taking the courageous step to go on strike. You are inspiring the labor movement across this country. I am proud to stand in solidarity with you.
I am excited to announce my new book Another University is Possible with
@haymarketbooks
and with the support of
@sarahkkhalil
at
@CalligraphLit
. Given all the repression we are seeing on our campuses from California and Texas to New York, this book is right on time!!
The administration also used a so-called “regression analysis”—provided by anti-labor law firm Jackson Lewis—to calculate the final adjustments, which also typically reduced what applicants received. This algorithm was deeply flawed, and again cemented existing inequities. 7/12
In a majority of the cases for which we have full information, the comparators endorsed by deans were switched, resulting in a substantial reduction in the final salary adjustments for most applicants. Rutgers went back and switched comparators after they were endorsed. 5/12
Our experts found that the regression analysis reduced awards for the first 103 decisions by $535,000. In the 49 cases for which we have full information, the comparator switches cost applicants $218,000. We think the total reductions in awards were close to $1 million. 8/12
It is now 2 years later and the first 103 equity adjustments were finally released yesterday.But it is vital that we shine a light on Rutgers given what they have done in this process. 3/12
I stand in solidarity with the 9,000
@ruaaup
faculty and graduate student workers on strike at Rutgers University. These workers deserve a good contract with fair pay and benefits NOW.
Devastated by the news of the death of our dear colleague, friend and union comrade, Distinguished Professor Cheryl Wall, who helped advance our fight for race and gender equity at
@RutgersU
Cheryl Wall, presente! 😭
Four unions at
@RutgersU
have reached a landmark agreement with the university to prevent more damaging cuts after a year of austerity. "Our core demand was no layoffs," says
@ProfTWolf
of
@ruaaup
.
The agreement needs to be ratified, but
@TUGSA_6290
are my fucking HEROES! They stayed out and fought in the face of everything. They did not back down to a shit boss and held firm. Congratulations! We are learning from you at
@ruaaup
&
@ruaaup_ptl
.
#IBelieveThatWeWillWin
Today, we reached a new Tentative Agreement with
@TempleUniv
. This TA reflects the incredible work of striking members over the past six weeks. It includes significant movement on all four of our core demands! Members will now vote on whether or not to ratify the TA.
🧵(1/7)
Applicants to the program chose faculty peers (called “comparators”) to show that they were underpaid. In the early stages, these comparators were reviewed, and in many instances endorsed, by deans, who endorsed pay increases to bring applicants up to an equitable salary. 4/12
The most disappointing part of Pres. Holloway’s hollow address to
@RutgersU
was the tired claim that worker demands force tuition hikes. We know this strategy to divide workers and students. The worst bosses harness this rhetoric. I expected more.
@ruaaup
@union1766
@ruaaup_ptl
At
@ruaaup
we demand equal pay for equal work. That is why we filed a lawsuit today along with five amazing female plaintiffs under the New Jersey Equal Pay Act.
Canceled my seminar talk tomorrow at
@HarvardPopCtr
in solidarity with the
@hgsuuaw
strike. The world's wealthiest university can do a whole lot more than adjust for inflation
#HarvardOnStrike
The President of
@RutgersU
claimed that paying adjuncts and grads a living wage would force Rutgers to raise tuition by 10%. What about the hundreds of millions spent subsidizing athletics or the hundreds of millions added to reserves since COVID? 🤥
@ruaaup
@ruaaup_ptl
@union1766
Today President Holloway and
@RutgersU
announced that they'll establish an office of labor relations because of the central role unions play in the university. Then they announced that a Chris Christie appointee will run this new office. 🤣
@ruaaup
@ruaaup_ptl
@ABhsnj
@union1766
Camden faculty came out behind in every measure. They accounted for 42 of the initial 103 decisions, Eight of those 42 got no salary adjustment at all—compared to five from all other campuses among the initial cases. 9/12
I stand with
@TUGSA_6290
. 352-30 means more than half the unit rejeced the offer. That is a massive margin rejecting the TA. And
@TempleUniv
can, and must, do much better. It is important for allies and elected officials to stand with TUGSA now! Solidarity.
#StrikesWork
@ruaaup
The average salary adjustment for the 34 Camden faculty who received something was $6,800, less than half the average award for applicants on other campuses. Despite Camden faculty asking for the lowest increases, they still got the lowest percentage of what they asked for. 10/12
This is the definition of manufactured austerity.
@RutgersU
is laying off dozens of adjunct faculty and cutting the writing program classes in half for a saving of less than $1m or 5% of the annual athletics program deficit. Julie Wade & Mike Gower: What are your priorities?
Karen Thompson has been teaching for 45 years in the NB Writing Program. Her work should be celebrated. Instead, Karen recently learned that she is 1 of 29 lecturers whose classes may be cut next Fall. These cuts harm our students and our entire community.
#SaveRWritingProfessors
For the first time in the history of Rutgers University, all three faculty, grad, EOF, and postdoc unions have voted to go on strike. Monday morning, we are ON STRIKE. See you on the picket line.
#RUOnStrike
We are calling President Holloway and
@RutgersU
administration to live up to their commitments around freedom of speech and reinstate Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine immediately. Academic freedom for all!!
As part of RU-AAUP's commitment to academic freedom on Rutgers campuses & beyond, the Academic Freedom Committee has released a statement condemning the administration's censure of Students for Justice in Palestine. We stand for the academic freedom of all.
I voted YES. I voted to end contingent labor in higher ed. I voted to demand all workers make a living wage on our campuses. I voted to fight for and with our students and communities. There is more to fight for and win, but this is an critical step!
@ruaaup_ptl
@ruaaup
@ABhsnj
🚨ATTENTION🚨
You delivered historic picket lines, but it doesn't stop there.
We now need to mobilise for next week and our NATIONAL RALLY in London
Speakers from across the movement💪
Coaches from across the UK🚍
New merch🧢
A surprise for the bosses 🫣
BE THERE
#ucuRISING
This was a beautiful event! Rutgers New Brunswick
@BNBuzz
is gonna be the first union shop in the country. New Brunswick is a union town! Solidarity from
@ruaaup
Feeling surreal to be a part of history being made today as Barnes & Noble workers in New Brunswick, NJ present their petitions to file for union recognition—the first store to file in the country!
Union busting is disgusting! Lee Bolinger and
@Columbia
should be ashamed! Faculty at Columbia need to join
@SW_Columbia
on the strike line! Don’t be a scab and cross the picket!
@HigherEdLabor
Confirmed: Bill Tambussi has been kicked off the Rutgers Governing Board. He is the indicted lawyer for party boss George Norcross, and was supposed to live in Camden County to hold that seat. He doesn't.
New - Biden told House progressives tuition-free community college is out of package, per multiple sources. Child tax credit won’t go as far as some would like — likely a 1-yr extension. Home health care likely less than $250B. Dems had wanted $400B. Climate change still a debate
Important article on
@WestVirginiaU
by
@dennismhogan
: “Gee has tied up the school’s finances in real estate boondoggles … now seeks nickel-and-dime savings that will make education cheaper by making it worse…” WVU IS THE FRONT LINE!
The leadership
@RutgersU
are awful. Mike Gower, Vivian Fernandez, John Hoffman, Tony Calcado should be fired immediately. Today they laid off another 56 ppl, largely people of color, that do mental health work with youth. This is barbaric and scandalous.
#WeRNotDisposable
@ruaaup
"The harms of the past are echoing loudly in Temple University’s recent decision to undercut the efforts of its grad students to secure better wages ... by suddenly demanding full payment for their tuition.."
@TUGSA_6290
@ruaaup
@HigherEdLabor
@hthompsn
This is one of the zoom screens from the
@RutgersU
senate meeting. We are all out to demand a postdoc contract and to resolve pay equity. The university is on notice!
@ruaaup
Hey
@JonSHolloway
&
@RutgersU
: Is this your idea of a "beloved community"? We see what you really stand for. I guess we will see you in the streets as we do what you do not have the courage to do. Transform Rutgers University!
#RUSTRIKEREADY
@ruaaup
@ruaaup_ptl
A story of leadership
@RutgersU
.
@JonSHolloway
becomes president & declares: We MUST address adjunctification. Flash forward to
@ruaaup_ptl
contract campaign. We propose ways to address problem. Holloway responds: I didn’t mean we’d address it at Rutgers!🤦♀️
@ruaaup
#RUStrikeReady
Hey New Jersey! We are only getting stronger! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️. Sign up for a picket shift and get on the picket lines today in Newark, New Brunswick & Camden. We are fighting for
@RutgersU
and the future of higher education.
#WeROnStrike
.
@ruaaup
@ruaaup_ptl
@ABhsnj
@union1766
Our unions—Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ—refuse to prop up artificial and outdated divisions that diminish our voices and our power and that leave us with different degrees of job security, pay, and benefits depending on campus or title.