The 2023 Rutgers University strike was a labor strike involving faculty and graduate student workers at Rutgers University in New Jersey, United States. Academic workers at all four campuses—New Brunswick, Newark, Camden, and RBHS—participated in the bargaining action, affecting over 9,000 staff members and 67,000 students at the university. The strike began on April 10, 2023 following several months of failed negotiations between labor unions and Rutgers administration and was suspended on April 15, 2023.
On June 30, 2022, the labor contract between Rutgers and its labor unions expired after an agreement on new contract couldn't be reached. Union members continued to work without a contract while negotiations continued, with union leaders demanding increased salaries, more job security, and equal pay for equal work. Management bargainers provided counter-offers of gradual raises at percentages lower than those requested by Rutgers AAUP-AFT and rejected many provisions regarding working conditions. A vote for strike authorization passed on March 10, 2023, allowing union leaders to call a strike if a contract could not be reached, while Rutgers administration, led by university president Jonathan Holloway, maintained that striking was illegal.
The strike ended after a tentative framework was reached on April 15, though the unions asserted to resume work stoppage if their gains were not secured. An agreement was formally reached on May 8, ending the strike. It was the first strike by academics in the school's history, and one of the largest strikes in American educational history. A strike by 2,800 non-teaching faculty members in January 1987 had ended after an agreement was made with the administration after nine days. New Jersey governor Phil Murphy's extensive involvement in negotiations to end the strike was considered unprecedented and was praised by both union officials and Holloway.
Background
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in June 2020, Rutgers declared a fiscal emergency and laid off more than 1,000 staff members, including dining-service employees and adjunct professors. The layoffs included over 5 percent of the university's total union membership. The layoffs ignited concerns of job security among Rutgers faculty, and 20 labor unions at the university formed a coalition called the Coalition of Rutgers Unions to defend jobs that were threatened by layoffs, with many unions encouraging the administration to consider furloughs instead. Further, as a result of delays caused by the pandemic, many graduate students lost funding for their research and Rutgers did not offer adequate compensation. In April 2021, the Coalition of Rutgers Unions reached a deal to prevent further layoffs until January 2022, but concern for job security and fair wages in the meantime remained.
The labor contract between Rutgers and the 20 unions expired on June 30, 2022, and union members continued work without a contract. In August 2022, an investigation by The Bergen Record revealed that the Rutgers athletics department had spent $450,000 on DoorDash orders from football players between May 2021 and June 2022, causing many students to question how Rutgers was spending their budget. Rebecca Givan, president of the American Association of University Professors – American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) union, criticized the "upside-down priorities" of Rutgers administration, saying:
On December 6, 2022, hundreds of students and faculty gathered at Voorhess Mall on New Brunswick's College Avenue Campus to protest the lack of bargaining progress. Over 100 bargaining meetings were ultimately held with no agreement. On February 28, 2023, after eight months of failed negotiations with the administration, three unions within the Coalition of Rutgers Unions (AAUP-AFT, PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, and AAUP-BHSNJ) collectively opened a vote for strike authorization. The vote ended on March 10. About 80 percent of union members participated in the vote and 94 percent of votes were in favor of strike authorization.