Rutgers 5089 Bargaining Update, August 12, 2022
August 12, 2022 and we still do not have a contract.
HPAE local 5089 met on 8/12/22 for our eighth session of negotiations with Rutgers University. Our contract expired July 1, 2022.
It is now more important than ever to get involved and support your negotiations team. We need to you to collectively show Rutgers you stand behind our team. Click the link below to sign the petition and show solidarity with your negotiations team.
Finally, the University has begun to provide counters on proposals to our bargaining unit. We still do not have a wage counter proposal. The University stated they are “hopeful” to have wage counters at our next session on August 26th. We were told the University is working on different models for a wage counter but provided no details. We received proposals on Full time employees and Grievance procedures.
Grievance procedures: The University continues to try to limit your rights to union representation by eliminating their responsibility to notify negotiations unit employees of a right to have a rep outside of what is required by law or in the case of a pre-termination hearing. The University has also proposed to delay grievance hearings for 60 days while OEE investigations take place without holding in abeyance any suspensions or terminations delaying our negotiations unit employees the right to the grievance process.
Full time employees: In an effort to address the payroll system issues with 12 hour employees, the University has presented a proposal on a 36 hour full time position for those in 12 hour shift roles. We continue to negotiate over the terms of this which will directly affect the CRNA and RWJMS Hospitalist APN groups. If you are currently working a 12 hour shift and not in these areas, please reach out to Christine Munck at cmunck@hpae.org to discuss your working situation.
We presented to two proposals in our session: Flex Work and Remote Work.
Flex work: Many of our negotiations unit employees already work a reduced schedule but for those in 8 hour/5 day positions, this would allow for a compressed schedule to be requested by the employee to work either a four day work week or a nine day pay period week.
Remote Work: While the majority of our bargaining unit has been onsite throughout the COVID pandemic, we recognize that a hybrid schedule is possible for some of our bargaining unit. We assert that our bargaining has the opportunity to work remotely during non-clinic/patient facing days. The University claims that our bargaining unit is patient facing and doubts this would be possible. We will continue to push back on that argument, to increase our ability to work remotely when possible.
If you need buttons or stickers, please be sure to attend a future Unity Day event on one of the other campuses: Piscataway 8/17, Newark 8/25. Both events are from 12-2pm. If you would like to schedule a site visit, please contact Bennett Nagurka at bnagurka@hpae.org.
Our next virtual session is scheduled for August 26 at 1pm. We encourage everyone to attend the session for the first half hour to show the University we stand together in solidarity with the bargaining team and we will not accept falling behind on our Nurse Clinician and Staff Nurse experience scales. We are meeting as a caucus prior to the session at 12:30pm and are inviting all members in good standing to attend. The time commitment would be from 12:30-1:30pm. Please register for the pre-meeting at this link.
https://aft.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEkc-iprD4sG9C7moTgW4fI2cRdbbkpogmu
You should not be on work time during your attendance at the session. We are asking for a commitment of 1 hour to show Rutgers we stand behind our committee in solidarity. You can use either your personal or Rutgers device to log into the sessions.
In solidarity,
HPAE 5089 Negotiations Committee – Sabrina Brown-Oliver, Jennifer Lerner, Josephine Machado, Dawn Yuhas, Khooshbu Patel, Arlene Cruz, Yuk Wong, Marilyn Mundy, Sri Kota, Joe Bentivegna, Marsha Lauriano, Lucia Otti, Francine Pasch, Tara Andino, Joan Santner, Donna Nelson-Henry, Susan Bauer