Clarification of Unfair Practice Charge

April 22, 2004

Members of the Rutgers Faculty:

The AAUP negotiating team wrote to you on Monday regarding the university’s filing of an unfair practice charge with the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission against the Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters. The AAUP expressed unhappiness that the administration provided the Home News Tribune with a copy of the charge, thus leading to a story referencing it last Friday.

Actually, the university did not initiate the article.  Rather, the administration was contacted by the reporter, who said she was following up on “a tip” that the university had filed an unfair practice charge. We provided a copy of the charge in response to her inquiry and answered her questions.

As all of you know, for the past 16 months the university and the AAUP have been deeply engaged in lengthy and often frustrating contract negotiations.  The university’s objective has always been to achieve a fiscally responsible settlement that recognizes and fairly compensates the work of faculty members, TAs and GAs.

But useful negotiations require a willingness by both parties to work together to reach a compromise that everyone can support.  When one side does not negotiate in good faith, it becomes impossible to arrive at a viable resolution.

After numerous negotiating sessions, the administration reluctantly concluded that the AAUP is not acting in good faith and, therefore, filed the unfair practice charge.

Given the financial constraints the university faces and the state’s overall difficult economic situation, the administration has made what we and others consider a generous offer.  On April 20 the Asbury Park Press, for instance, published an editorial on the subject.

In the mediation sessions ahead, all of us at the university, faculty and administrators alike, share a common goal:  to conclude contract talks and renew our vital commitment to education, research and service. We are hopeful that the mediator will help us work together to resolve remaining differences so that beginning July 1 faculty, TAs and GAs will receive the raises they deserve. The first session with the mediator will take place April 29.  We remain confident that if we harness our considerable intelligence, our true respect for each other and our deep loyalty to Rutgers, we will surely be able to arrive at a mutually acceptable agreement.

Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey