HPAE 5094 Bargaining Update, May 24
After three full days of bargaining Wednesday-Friday, we have reached agreement on all outstanding issues except wages. A final settlement was only held up by some 11th hour nickel-and-diming on the part of Rutgers.
The new tentative agreements from this week include: 1) incorporation of non-represented employees into the union per the Workplace Democracy Act, 2) the inclusion of our members into the Rutgers Legacy Vision Plan, 3) three additional sick days as well as expanded sick leave usage, 4) medical leave without a cap on accrued sick leave usage, a guaranteed 12-week extension under donated sick leave, and a guarantee that we will stay under the less restrictive UMDNJ Staff Leave Donation Program, and 5) 3 additional bereavement leave days.
The disagreement over wages stems from the need to include step increases as part of the wage program in order to address the fact that the majority of our members are chronically underpaid due to being stuck at the low end of their salary range for years. Despite agreeing with us that this is a problem, Rutgers is balking at any additional cost.
We’ve scheduled an additional session on the 30th. As a result, the next picket is being rescheduled to Tuesday June 4th.
ALL MEMBERS MUST COMPLETE THE STRIKE SURVEY
Our next session is Thursday 5/30 at ASB II in New Brunswick. E-mail akulenovic@hpae.org to RSVP.
In Solidarity,
HPAE 5094 Negotiations Committee
Tom Murphy, Mendes Toussaint, Mary Doran, Justin O’Hea, Phil Wilson, Alicia Rivera, Ryan Novosielski, Claude Monken, Antoinette Johnson, Ana Delgado, Lisa Adams, Annette Werts & Beverly Fraietta