Millerand Quoted in Daily Targum Article on BOG
Several union activists also attended the meeting, packing the back of Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus with signs like "Jersey Roots, Contract Breach" and chanting "Shame on you!" with each budget resolution passed.
Lucye Millerand, president of the URA-AFT Local 1766, said she believes the contract breach represents an ethics violation for the University and believes the motives for the freeze are more than economic.
"We’ve seen no hard evidence of fiscal exigency; we’ve seen no austerity plan for anything but salaries," she said. "We believe this is a strategic decision to shred collective bargaining at Rutgers [and] convince a demoralized workforce that they serve at the pleasure of management."
"Got Ethics?" Rally Recap in Home News
"We haven't received anything since 2008," said AFSCME 888 President Mike Holland, a Rutgers carpenter from Manville.
"To us, this (lost raises) means whether our kids have shoes or clothes for school," he said.
Read full article at http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100715/NEWS/100715048/1004/NEWS0102
Millerand Quoted in Ledger Article on Rutgers Budget
The 11-member board voted unanimously to approve the increases and a $2 billion university budget during a sometimes-raucous meeting before a standing-room-only crowd in Winants Hall. The proceedings were frequently interrupted by members of Rutgers’ labor unions, who were protesting the university’s recent freeze on the salaries of all 13,000 campus employees.
The crowd chanted "Shame on you!" repeatedly after the board voted to approve the budget. Earlier in the day, hundreds of union members held a rally nearby.
"We are absolutely serious in our position that Rutgers management has made an unethical, unfair and foolish decision to repudiate our contracts," said Lucye Millerand, president of the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers.
Read the full article at http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/rutgers_university_board_appro.html
Management Raise Grab: Myth Versus Reality
As the saying goes, “We are entitled to our own opinions, but not to our own facts.” Ethical managers share facts. Rutgers management spins myths. Here’s a little myth-busting, courtesy of your local union:
Myth: Furmanski claims that “deferred salary increases negotiated with the unions amount to $30 million”
Reality: The $30 million number combines both years of contracted raises into one fiscal year, and then adds non-negotiated raises for non-unionized employees. It’s bad arithmetic. It is also an unfair labor practice to hold negotiated raises hostage to discretionary raises for management.
Myth: Rutgers cannot afford to pay the deferred raises.
Reality: In meetings with Rutgers unions in 2009, VP Furmanski conceded that Rutgers had enough money in the 2009 budget to pay the originally negotiated raises. He told us that the big problem was 2010. Old Queens has many options for spending their $1.9 billion budget and managing their $1 billion portfolio. For example, Rutgers reported $30 million cash on hand at the end of FY09, after just holding onto our deferred raises. President McCormick could write a check tomorrow to cover all the salary increases, if he wanted to. Each of us in the Rutgers workforce has a story of reckless spending on luxuries that do nothing to serve Rutgers’ core mission.
Myth: VP Furmanski is trying to save jobs.
Reality: All the staff unions who signed MOA’s with Rutgers (URA-AFT, EOF Counselors, AFSCME) gave up raises in exchange for a no-layoff pledge. We tried to extend the no-layoff pledge into 2011, but management refused. VP Furmanski is not extending the no-layoff pledge; he’s only keeping the money.
Myth: There is nothing we can do to get the raises-the University needs the money and has the power to keep it.
Reality: It is not just about the raises. Management is trying to save money any way they can. If we make ourselves a "soft target" by meekly accepting it, they do not have to stop. They can layoff; they can increase our contribution to medical coverage and lower the benefits. They can require fewer people to do more work without limit. Anyone who makes it easy for management to break promises is going to see more broken promises.
See more mythbusters at Myth Versus Reality
URA-AFT Unfair Practice Charge
Rutgers has repudiated the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) dated November 18, 2009 by refusing to pay the wage increases MOA requires to take effect for the entire bargaining unit on July 1, 2010, thereby unilaterally modifying the terms and conditions of employment without reaching a negotiated agreement and without even asking URA-AFT to reopen the MOA for modification.
See the full charge at http://www.ura-aft.org/downloads/uraaftulp061610.pdf
URA Leaders the Pride of the AFT Convention
Newark Campus vice president Darlene Smith, College Avenue lead steward Kathy Licinski, health and safety chair Joyce Sagi, AFT president Randi Weingarten and URA treasurer Janice Dilella.
URA leaders met with AFT president Randi Weingarten at the Pride of the Convention reception in Seattle, WA. The reception honored locals for union-building efforts.
NJN Ran Segment on "Got Ethics?" Rally
NJN ran a segment on the Rutgers rally, featuring AFSCME's Mike Holland leading the march and rally, then telling NJN that after deferring last year's raises the university stiffed workers.
Rutgers officials, employee unions to face off at hearing over salary freeze
Thursday, June 24, 2010, 9:53 PM, Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger
NEW BRUNSWICK — Rutgers University and its employee unions are headed to Trenton for a showdown over the school’s decision to freeze all employees’ salaries to help close its budget gap.
The Public Employment Relations Commission today ordered the two sides to face off at hearing on July 7.
Several Rutgers unions, including the group representing campus professors, filed charges accusing the state university of unfair labor practices for denying employees their scheduled raises. The unions asked the commission, the state agency that mediates public employee disputes, for an expedited hearing.
"Short of honoring the original agreements, expedited arbitration is the most efficient way to vindicate the workers’ rights," said Bennet Zurofsky, an attorney representing the Union of Rutgers Administrators-American Federation of Teachers.
Union protests for salary increases
Daily Targum, By Chris Zawistowski, Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
With more than 250 protesters chanting “Open the doors! Open the books!” outside Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus, the University’s Board of Governors met Wednesday for their annual reorganizational meeting.
Protesters representing the University’s three major labor unions rallied against the recent decision to cancel pay raises and freeze the salaries of their 13,000 system-wide employees.
Lucye Millerand, Union of Rutgers Administrators–American Federation of Teachers president, said the wage freeze breaks an agreement brokered last year for more than 10,000 unionized staff and faculty who agreed to defer their 2009 contract raises.
“I don’t think that this is really about the money,” Millerand said. “I think this is Old Queens [wanting] to maximize their freedom to treat employees as they see fit and to just instill fear, uncertainty and doubt, and I don’t think that’s an effective way to motivate people.”
Call for Respect at Rutgers BOG Rally
Media Coverage:
Home News and Tribune
Rutgers University employees protest holds on pay raises Tuesday, June 22, 2010
NJ AFL-CIO Passes Resolution Calling for Respect at Rutgers
WHEREAS, workers at Rutgers, the State University, negotiated through their unions, locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) legally binding collective bargaining agreements awarding annual salary increases on July 1, 2010; and
WHEREAS, at the request of Rutgers management, members of these same unions agreed to defer freely bargained 2009 raises to provide savings Rutgers management claimed would be necessary for operations for the duration of these contracts; and
WHEREAS, Rutgers management has publicly announced its intention to disregard both the aforementioned collective bargaining agreements and the deferral agreements, offering repeated insults to university faculty and staff unions representing an overwhelming majority of Rutgers workers; and
WHEREAS, as a public employer with 13,000 workers, Rutgers has a responsibility to maintain good labor practices by honoring freely negotiated contracts and agreements; and
WHEREAS, Rutgers is not in a state of fiscal emergency, but rather has a bloated management structure that has continuously chosen to inflate their own executive salaries then call a salary freeze for a $450,000 president and $45,000 administrative assistant “shared sacrifice;” and
WHEREAS, the New Jersey AFL-CIO's mission is to improve the lives of working families, bringing dignity and fairness to the workplace and securing social equity in the State of New Jersey and in the nation by being in conformance with the policies of the AFL-CIO; and
WHEREAS, the union members who comprise the AFL-CIO know that security and growth for working families is dependent upon our ability to freely organize, bargain for fair contracts and enforce those contracts across the private and public sectors; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the unions of the New Jersey AFL-CIO, representing one-million working families in New Jersey, call upon Rutgers management in a unified voice demanding that negotiated agreements are honored and raises due are paid on July 1, 2010.
New Vacation Policy a Win for URA
When Rutgers management rolls out a new vacation policy this week URA Rutgers employees will benefit from a streamlined process for earning and using vacation days. Stated simply: “As of July 2010, employees will be able to use accrued vacation time as soon as the time is credited – i.e. the following month.”
The new policy will establish that: “Requests for vacations shall not be unreasonably denied." Many members have reported that supervisors have refused requests for vacation so often, and so unfairly, that they end up carrying over vacation time until they lose it. URA unit members (but not the non-unionized supervisory and professional staff) will also gain important protections against forfeiting vacation days, interrupted vacations, and managers who will not approve requests for vacation.
Call for Respect at Rutgers
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 Note: The first screen that opens after you plug in your address is the federal reps. Then click the "State" tab to find your state representatives. |
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| We are using AFT's Click2Call program to automate the process of contacting your elected state legislators and provide you with talking points to start the conversation. When Rutgers management announced it was breaking last year's deferral agreement and our contracts, it made a bad call. We all deserve respect for the work we do at Rutgers—whether it is cleaning the campus, counseling students, keeping financial records, or teaching classes. Rutgers management is showing a basic lack of respect for workers and the integrity of a contract. |
Talking Points Dear Senator or Assemblyman (or get staff person’s name), I live in your district in [NAME OF TOWN] and I work at Rutgers University. I am calling today to ask for your support: 1. Because of language in last year's budget, Rutgers workers agreed to defer raises in two-year deals patterned after the state workers agreements. 2. Although the new Governor will honor the state worker agreements, Rutgers management recently announced their plan to withhold these contracted raises. Are you aware of this issue? (Allow time to respond.) 3. My co-workers and I deferred more than the state legislature mandated last year and management is failing to meet its side of the bargain by paying our raises. 4. Rutgers management's decision reflects poor priorities in managing a $1.9 billion budget and a lack of respect for working families. 5. (Make the ask.) Please call Richard McCormick and Phil Furmanski and demand that they pay negotiated raises. (Please give the representative or staffer the chance to respond and express a position. Thank them and repeat back that you appreciate their help in demanding Rutgers respect your contract. |
If your representative or staffer wants more information on the issue, please take their name and contact Nat Bender at 732-745-0300 or nbender@ura-aft.org so we can follow up with them.
State Education Union Leaders Call on Rutgers to Respect Contracts
High Profile Public Breaches Undermine Workplace Relations Everywhere
EDISON...As one of the largest employers in the state, Rutgers University is setting a terrible precedent by withholding negotiated raises next month, according to AFT New Jersey State Federation president William Lipkin. “It hurts morale and productivity, is morally repulsive and bad for business throughout the state,” said Lipkin of Rutgers management's unilateral pay freeze. “The people hurt include janitors, secretaries and administrative workers who have not had a raise in two years and whose families may already be suffering from layoffs. Rutgers management is withholding raises that would otherwise be circulated right back into the state's economy.”
The action, announced last week by Rutgers executive vice president Dr. Phil Furmanski, freezes wages for 13,000 workers and breaks an agreement brokered last year for more than 10,000 unionized staff and faculty who agreed to defer 2009 contracted raises.
