Barbara Nowkowski, Program Coordinator, Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Busch Campus.
Our bargaining team met for our fifth session to continue our negotiations for a better contract.
At the start of our session today, management expressed that they are happy with our current contract and that they will not initiate a lot of proposals. Also, management stated we have one of the most generous contracts, better than Rutgers policies for non-aligned staff. Our position is that there is more than enough room for improvement.
We discussed the following proposals Wednesday:
Article 6 – Bereavement Leave: Rutgers management verbally replied to our last counter proposal. Management does not agree with our use of tiers for additional family members or our definition of expanding additional family members. Additionally, they stated that they do not agree with using sick leave to extend bereavement leave. If members are sick while mourning, they should just use sick time. At the session later in the afternoon, management announced they will reject our proposal.
Article 33 – Probationary Employees: We made a counter proposal to management’s counter proposal looking to solidify a progress meeting with supervisors, reduce extension length, and have a better extension notification and representation. In the session later in the afternoon management stated they will be offering a counter proposal on this.
Article 34 – Professional Development: We proposed a new fund that will be made available to our members that will provide financial assistance to attend professional development activities, covering registration costs and related travel expenses. These funds are only available for activities that would not otherwise be paid for by departments.
Article 46 – Tuition Remission: Our proposal extends tuition remission to include spouse, civil union or domestic partner while raising the salary maximum for 100% remission. Additionally, the proposal includes tuition remission for all credit-bearing courses at Rutgers and courses from other institutions not offered at Rutgers.
Article 49 – Union Representative: Management verbally offered comments on our previous proposal stating again they have a concern with building and Net ID access being given broadly to URA-AFT staff. At our session later in the afternoon management announced they will reject our proposal.
