Local 5094 Rutgers Bargaining Update, May 15, 2026

Our union’s newest proposals*:

Uniform allowance increases for our members in that need to purchase (yearly increase for duration of our contract)
$250 cell phone allowance for those that use their personal devices while away from desks at events or in the field.

*The Negotiations Team has given a total of 23 proposals, and there are 9 more to come. Our team was held in caucus (a waiting room) for 3 hours waiting for discussion which did not happen.

Rutgers Counter proposals:

Removing Step 1 of the Grievance process. For those that don’t know, Step 1 requires a meeting with the direct supervisor, worker, and the union representative.
Rutgers says, “Serve time, discuss later!” Rutgers would prefer that disciplinary actions be immediately enacted with no due process. You would be guilty until proven innocent. Disciplinary actions, such as suspensions, should go immediately into effect while you wait for Labor Relations to review your case and set up meetings. Labor relation meetings could take a month or more to schedule as members can attest to. They want us to serve our time and then object to it.

It is important to keep aware of this type of behavior and these types of proposals.

Finally, they have made it known that most of them are out at the end of June so negotiations will not happen then. They will continue in July (after our contract has expired). It has been an obvious time filler right now to get us to go past the expiration.

Continue to show our solidarity: HPAE shirts and stickers on Mondays, Zoom Backgrounds, Solidarity walks, flyers, rallying your coworkers and increasing our membership.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO ADD ADDITIONAL PROPOSALS AND
IT IS IMPERATIVE NOW THAT YOU COMPLETE THE MEMBER SURVEY IF YOU HAVEN’T: Click here to take the bargaining survey.

Think what a 100% completed survey says about our strength in organizing.

In Unity,

Local 5094 Committee on Negotiations and Contract Action Team