ADMINISTRATION MAKES ECONOMIC PROPOSAL

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Bargaining Bulletin

NUMBER FOUR (DECEMBER 2003)

ADMINISTRATION MAKES ECONOMIC PROPOSALS

Don’t get your hopes up. After months of negotiations, the latest proposal from the administration, while better than its initial "Zero Now, Zero Later," is still only about 25% of the contract settlement accepted at every State College in New Jersey. Moreover, their proposal still makes no provision for any salary adjustment in the fourth year. Let’s call it "Zero Now, Too Little Later."

In order to put the Administration’s proposal in context, we contrast it with the reasonable needs the AAUP has been articulating all along.

AAUP Need

A four-year contract. Such a contract would permit larger increases in later years to balance relatively low increases that we would be ready to agree to in the early years. The state has recently negotiated such four-year contracts with the State College faculty and with all other employees with whom it negotiates.

Administration Proposal

A three-year contract with nothing for the faculty in the first year and small increases in years two and three.

AAUP Need

Salaries that will make it possible for Rutgers to recruit and retain an outstanding and diverse faculty. In order to have such salaries, we must:

keep pace with expected increases in the already high cost of living in New Jersey.
reestablish Rutgers as one of the salary leaders among U.S. universities, especially for junior faculty.
have a rational salary structure that maximizes faculty judgment and minimizes the potential for administrative favoritism with respect to faculty salaries.
have a faculty-controlled program that rewards exceptional merit, but only in addition to a fair overall salary settlement, which requires that faculty salaries across the board increase at least as much as the cost of living in our area.

Administration Proposal

Across-the-board raises decrease relative to merit awards as rank increases. (The AAUP could agree in principle with such an approach, but certainly not with the administration's current concept.)
Any changes in the procedural details of the merit award program to be worked out later, perhaps after the contract is signed.

Elimination of steps from the salary tables to increase administrative "flexibility."
No availability of the "traditional" health insurance plan to new faculty.
Promotion increments to continue at the same level as in the previous contract.

Details of the salary increases proposed by the administration are shown in the table below.

Year		Rank	Across the Board	Merit	Promotion increment	Step Increments
2003-04		All	0	0	10%*	0
2004-05		Asst Prof^#	1.375%	1.375%	10%	0
		Assoc Prof	0.5625%	1.6875%	10%	0
		PI and PII	0	2.25%	10%	0
2005-06		Asst Prof^#	1.625%	1.625%	10%	0
		Assoc Prof	0.5625%	1.6875%	10%	0
		PI and PII	0	2.25%	10%	0
2006-07	NO PROPOSAL

*Agreed to by Memo before the expiration of the previous contract

^{# Includes Instructors and Assistant Instructors

AAUP Need
Immediate economic relief for TA/GAs. There is very real anger among many TA/GAs because of a salary structure that is not merely noncompetitive, but is also totally inadequate for living in NJ. This anger has the potential to cause permanent harm to our graduate programs.

Administration Proposal
For 2003-04, all TA/GAs would receive remission of 1/3^rd of their fees. For new TA/GAs and for the most senior TA/GAs, this remission adds $358 to their compensation for the year. For most of the continuing TA/GAs, however it increases their salary by a net of $248 for the year because the administration proposal eliminates the usual longevity increments for TA/GAs.

AAUP Need
Long-term improvements to make our TA/GA salary structure competitive. Many of the universities with which we seek to compete provide much better TA/GA compensation packages than Rutgers does, especially when cost of living is considered.

Administration Proposal

Elimination of longevity increases for TA/GAs.
No availability of the "traditional" health insurance plan to new TA/GAs.
A 4.5% increase in the "competitiveness pool."

Across-the-board raises of 4.5% for 2004-05 and 2005-06.
An additional 1/3^rd fee remission in 2004-05 and 2005-06.

On June 30, 2006, the base salary of virtually all TA/GAs would be $15,616. This salary would be significantly worse than salaries are right now at many of the institutions with which we compete for graduate students. It is not likely to be more competitive in 2006.

The administration proposal for TA/GAs is summarized in the table below:}

Year	Salary increase	Longevity Increments	Fee Remission	Competitiveness Pool
2003-04	0	0	$358	$600,000*
2004-05	4.5%	0	$719^#	4.5% increase
2005-06	4.5%	0	$1078^#	4.5% increase
2006-07	NO PROPOSAL

*Carry over from previous contract.

^{# Based on no increase in fees.

We believe that the message the administration is sending with their proposals is a very clear one. Tell us what you think.

Bob Boikess
Chair, AAUP Negotiating Committee

Your Membership Matters – Join Today.
One of the most effective things you can do right now to support our efforts to achieve a fair and equitable contract is to become a member of the AAUP, rather than merely a payer of the representation fee. Use the following link to become a member: http://www.rutgersaaup.com/Who_we_are/member/Form/form.html

Mail the form to – AAUP, 48 Street 1603 (Livingston), Piscataway, NJ 08854 or fax it to (732) 445 – 5485.

Contact the AAUP Negotiating Team}