NJIT Reaches Tentative Deal With Staff After Threat Of Strike (2024)

Schools

"These are the kind of transformative changes that simply can't be won just sitting at a bargaining table," a union spokesperson said.

Posted Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 4:30 pm ET|Updated Thu, Jan 25, 2024 at 5:38 pm ET

NEWARK, NJ — A deal on a new contract between staff members and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) in Newark is in the final stages and is moving towards the goal line, their union announced Wednesday.

Adjunct faculty, postdoctoral research employees and graduate workers at the university threatened to walk off the job in December as contract talks dragged on. The labor stoppage would have been the first-ever strike launched by NJIT educators and researchers.

Issues included “pay equity” with educators and researchers at Rutgers University, health care benefits, limits on class sizes and better job security. See Related: NJIT Faculty Union Threatens Strike Over Stalled Contract Talk

On Wednesday, the United Council of Academics at NJIT (UCAN) announced that a major breakthrough has been reached, and its members are preparing to vote on tentative agreements for new contracts this weekend.

If ratified by UCAN members, the contracts would cover adjunct faculty, postdoctoral research employees and graduate workers at NJIT through the end of June 2026.

NJIT administrators have maintained that the university was carrying out negotiations in “good faith.”

“We’re very happy to have been able to reach an agreement,” NJIT vice president for communications Matthew Golden told Patch.

“Now, we’re looking forward to the ratification of the contracts,” Golden added.

THE DETAILS

One of the most important gains in the proposed deals is parity with the salaries won by adjunct faculty, postdocs, and grad workers at Rutgers University after their strike last spring, UCAN president Brian O’Donnell said.

Under the tentative agreement, minimum pay for adjunct faculty at NJIT would increase by 32 percent in the first year of a new contract (already past, but the pay increases are retroactive) and 44.2 percent over four years. Minimum salaries for graduate workers would increase 34.1 percent over four years, and the bottom salary for postdocs would likewise match the increases won at Rutgers.

According to the union, other gains in the agreements include: strengthened job security for adjunct faculty, who must reapply for their classes each semester; additional pay and other provisions for adjuncts who teach large classes; six years of guaranteed funding and full health insurance coverage for grad employees; earlier deadlines for postdocs to be notified about reappointments; and improved grievance procedures for everyone represented by UCAN.

“These are the kind of transformative changes that simply can't be won just sitting at a bargaining table — something we learned from the stonewalling we faced in the first year of this campaign,” O’Donnell said.

“It took strengthening our local, protesting, challenging the university head on, and ultimately a 98 percent strike vote and 70 people willing to bargain for our side past 1 a.m. to win what our members need,” O’Donnell added. “This win belongs to all of us.”

News of the tentative deal got a thumbs-up from their fellow union members at Rutgers.

Todd Wolfson, president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents some 6,000 full-time faculty, grad workers, postdocs, and counselors at Rutgers University, said that the “strong contract” for UCAN is a continuation of the contract campaign at Rutgers last spring, which led to the first strike in the state university’s 257-year history.

“We know that NJIT educators, researchers, and students cross the street in Newark all the time—some departments even span both campuses,” Wolfson said. “So we see the UCAN contract as another stage of our own fight.”

“We prioritized pay increases and other measures for the lowest-paid and most vulnerable at Rutgers, and we’re proud of our sibling union for having achieved the same at NJIT,” Wolfson said.

• See Related: Here Are The Terms Of The Deal Rutgers Reached With Faculty Unions

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