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.

NJ AFL-CIO passed this resolution on June 16. For more information about the NJ AFL-CIO, see www.njaflcio.org.