March 16, 2004
Dear colleague:
Enclosed you will find a ballot asking you to authorize the Executive Council of the AAUP to take job actions -- up to and including a strike -- in support of reaching a contract settlement. I am voting YES because I have concluded that this is the only rational course left open to us.
Last Thursday morning you received an e-mail from Bob Boikess, chair of our negotiating team, informing you that the administration had unilaterally declared an impasse in negotiations. Several hours later you received another e-mail, this one from President Richard McCormick, confirming that he had indeed authorized his side to take this step, one that we consider unwarranted and uncollegial.
I will not rehash the positions taken in those two e-mails, and in any event I am including in this packet a copy of Bob’s e-mail. The essence of the matter is that the administration, had it wished for the assistance of a mediator, could easily have done so without resort to impasse. Declaration of impasse is not about settlement. Rather, it is the sure road to only one conclusion: imposition by the administration of whatever it has on the table, without any further discussion or formal negotiation. Imposition represents a total failure of collective bargaining and violates all the imperatives of faculty governance, shared responsibility, teamwork, and transparency proclaimed by President McCormick. I am truly sorry to see so much good will on the part of faculty and students being dissipated so quickly over so little. There is no alternative for the faculty and the TAs/GAs but to defend our rights in a vigorous manner.
Objectively, the two sides are not that far apart We think our current proposal for across-the-board increases, amounting to a compounded 12.48% over four years, would protect our members against increases in the Consumer Price Index, not much more. Our number is far less than the minimum of 16% guaranteed to every state college faculty member in their recent contract. Our number is worthy of being considered in fair-minded negotiations, not simply dismissed after one hour as "impasse." We dropped completely our earlier proposals for automatic steps, such as state college faculty receive, and instead we accepted fully that all salary increases beyond across-the-board would be earned through promotion and/or merit. We even included promotion costs within merit to keep down the total cost of our proposal. The provision that increases must be evenly split between across-the-board and merit comes from the administration, not from us, and it is a major concession by our side to be considering this concept. If the result is to raise substantially the overall cost of the settlement, then so be it. I would like to think that the high cost is because we are a high quality faculty.
Everyone agrees that the past system for determining merit awards has not worked as well as we would all like. We have made some thoughtful proposals for how it might work better, based in part on the system employed with success throughout the University of California system. Surely these proposals are worthy at least of discussion and surely they do not constitute an impasse. Dialogue is the essence of what an open, democratic university is all about; rational discourse is lost completely with impasse and imposition.
The greatest hardship in the administration’s path to imposition falls upon TAs and GAs. The process will take several months, even as it proceeds inexorably to a conclusion that can be altered only if our strong actions deter the administration from what it has most unwisely and precipitously undertaken. Even if TAs and GAs eventually receive some "back pay" or delayed fee remission months or even a year from now, they cannot use that money to pay this month’s rent. Thus far, TA/GAs have been the most active among us in the relatively decorous events we have held in support of our side in the negotiations. I find it especially galling, therefore, that the administration, surely knowingly, used the tactic of declaring impasse in a manner that punishes our students in a particularly harsh way. We of the faculty are ethically obligated to come to their defense by rising to higher levels of activity ourselves.
The issues separating the two sides on TA/GA issues involve far less money than those concerning faculty and I would not even raise the matter here except to alert you to the administration tactic of trying to drive a wedge between the faculty and the graduate students. It is of course the case that the AAUP represents both groups but it by no means follows that the cost of improvements in TA/GA support must come directly at the expense of faculty salaries. There is, as President McCormick points out, a finite universe of money, but I would suggest that it includes all the money – the entire $1.3 billion that the university takes in and spends each year – not simply the small fraction (actually, less than 1/6th) spent on state-funded faculty salaries each year. Against the finite but big pool of "all the money," bringing graduate students up to the poverty line should not be so difficult to achieve – and surely it is not a matter for impasse.
In his recent communication, President McCormick amended his earlier total neglect of part-time lecturers and made some reference to them, a token of progress to be applauded. The position of the AAUP faculty and TA/GA chapter is clear in its steadfast support for our fellow teachers: they deserve compensation linked directly and proportionally to the salaries negotiated for faculty members in our unit, not talk of $20 per credit as if they were packaging clerks at a local supermarket.
The enclosed ballot should be self-explanatory. Your vote is absolutely secret and we welcome an enormous turnout. If you have any questions about the balloting procedure, please contact the AAUP office, 732-445-2278, or send an e-mail to aaup@rutgersaaup.com and we will get back to you. You are invited to the open forums we will be holding concerning the job action authorization on each of the three campuses. Times and places are detailed in another enclosed sheet.
Thank you for listening and for considering the AAUP’s position.
Fraternally yours,
Rudolph M. Bell
President, Rutgers Council of AAUP Chapters