After more than a year of negotiating and still far from an agreement, the union representing the teaching staff at Rutgers has called the first strike in the university’s 257-year history, putting a halt to all non-necessary research work at the New Jersey university’s three main campuses starting Monday.
Politico reports leaders of Rutgers AAUP (American Association of University Professors)-AFT noted the increase in support for unions across the country. “We are not alone,” Todd Wolfson, general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, noted after the vote to strike. “The strikes that are happening right here in New Jersey and in other parts of the country right now are building on a historic strike wave in higher education.”
The union represents more than 9,000 full-time and part-time faculty, as well as instructors and graduate assistants serving 45,000 undergraduate and 20,000 graduate students.