For Immediate Release
January 22, 2004

Contact: Rudolph Bell, AAUP President

The Rutgers Council of the American Association of University Professors will be joined by Local 888 and Local 1761of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union’s Doctors Council at a noon rally on the steps of Brower Commons on College Avenue in New Brunswick. The three unions represent six contracts covering the overwhelming majority of Rutgers employees.

The AAUP represents professors, part-time lecturers, teaching and graduate assistants, and EOF counselors at Rutgers.

The purpose of the rally is to draw attention to the fact that most Rutgers employees have been working without a contract since June 30, 2003. All direct state employees and all of the other state colleges and universities have long since settled on four year contracts.

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Dear fellow Rutgers University Senator,

As we enter a new semester, the unionized workers of Rutgers University remain on the job but without a contract. Professors, TAs, GAs, PTLs, physicians, police, blue-collar workers, and clerical staff all ask for your support. As of January 23, 2004, the date of the next scheduled University Senate meeting, we will have worked without a contract for 207 days. This situation cannot continue. We must stop doing business as usual.

The Executive Council of the Rutgers Chapters of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), joined by AFSCME, representing blue-collar and clerical workers, and SEIU, representing health center professionals, ask you to boycott the January 23, 2004 Senate meeting. Without a quorum, there will be no meeting of the Senate this month. We will demonstrate in front of Brower Commons at noon, and you are welcome to join us there in calling for equitable contracts. Then, at 1:00 p.m., we will form a picket line and ask you not to enter the Senate room or sign in for the scheduled meeting. Please respect our picket line and join us in calling attention to the plight of workers at the only institution of higher education in New Jersey still without contracts for any of its union members. Refuse to conduct business as usual.

Virtually everyone else in the state higher education system has settled. The AAUP has repeatedly indicated a willingness to negotiate a salary package based on the one achieved by all state workers, adjusted to the particulars of Rutgers’ situation. The administration says there is no money, but we have strong evidence to the contrary. The administration says tuition would have to increase if a settlement were reached, but tuition already has soared -- by 9 percent last year, with not so much as a nickel going to any union worker. Why is Rutgers, the flagship state university, unable to reach a settlement when all nine state colleges have done so?

In accordance with its by-laws, the University Senate cannot take positions on collective bargaining issues. But, acting as individuals, you can decide in good conscience that all workers at Rutgers deserve a decent standard of living and equitable working conditions. Speak loudly and clearly by refusing to sign in for the January 23, 2004 Senate meeting. A great research university requires a distinguished faculty, paid accordingly, supported by skilled professional, blue-collar and clerical staff who are treated with dignity and economic fairness. Our students at Rutgers University deserve the best, and we urge you
to join us in demanding nothing less.

Thank you.

Yours truly,

Rudy Bell
Senator for Rutgers College
Professor of History
President, Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters