At the Thursday, July 9 Board of Governors meeting President Tate announced that he is implementing a hiring freeze to “strengthen the university’s long term financial sustainability.”
We are working with our peer Coalition of Rutgers Unions (CRU) members to write a joint letter contradicting his assertion that there is a financial crisis at all. URA members were instrumental in restoring more than $40 million from the NJ state budget towards Rutgers operating aid. An additional 800 state lines to retain staff and faculty are also provided for. There is no need for a hiring freeze. In fact, management needs more URA workers to address the chronic understaffing and overwork that we experience. Growing workloads are a pervasive problem. Freezing hiring means more work falls on fewer hands.
Know The Protections In Our Contract
All URA staff should review the protections of our contract in Article 2 – Acting Appointment and Article 28 – Overtime/Compensatory Time. Together, we will resist any efforts from management to increase workloads by shrinking the workforce. Contact your campus Executive Board member or URA steward and we will provide training on how to push back against increasing workloads.
A “personnel action freeze” cannot take away your contractual right to reclassification, acting pay or any self-initiated in-grade adjustment that you submitted before June 30. Management tried this before and lost at arbitration. However, many union members were confused and did not initiate these processes. Again, training is available for all members on how to use the contract.
Not a Crisis: A Scare Tactic
We continue to negotiate with management, offering our salary economic proposal on Wednesday, July 8. As the cost of living – housing, fuel, health care – keeps rising, we need management to respect our value.
Join the URA Contract Action Team at any of the events or complete the What I Will Do form and we will follow up on those specific items.
Management has enough to pay us fairly for the work we do, and to meet our demands for safe, dignified, working conditions. We must make ourselves into a priority for Rutgers.
