Thursday, March 30, 2023

Rutgers AAUP-AFT Academic Workers Union- Letter to President

 Open letter from prominent scholars asking Rutgers president Holloway to rescind "the threat to use the power of injunction to punish, fine, & arrest workers taking job actions..." Rutgers AAUP-AFT.




We write to you as scholars of Labor, Social Justice, and the Black Freedom Struggle, who strongly support the right of Rutgers’ graduate workers, staff, EOF counselors, postdocs, adjuncts, lecturers, and tenure-stream faculty to bargain collectively and participate in job actions without facing the draconian power of a court injunction. We know that as an expert in African American history, you have thought deeply about how struggles for racial justice have consistently been aligned with the demands for jobs, labor rights, and democracy in the workplace.


Rutgers has a rich history of groundbreaking scholarship in African American history and literature, Women’s and Gender Studies, Philosophy, and a wide array of fields and departments. The Rutgers AAUP-AFT has been integral to nurturing this vibrant political culture for which Rutgers is known. Across its fifty-three-year history, the union has pioneered inclusive forms of intersectional organizing that bridge differences of race, gender, and national origin across a wide variety of job categories. In 2019, the union won $20 million for diversity hiring and a pay equity process to address structural inequalities.

More recently, the Coalition of Rutgers Unions (CRU) has embraced a wall-to-wall organizing vision that brings together a dozen locals (representing over 15,000 people), ranging from dining-hall workers to adjunct faculty and medical residents. The union coalition has also foregrounded the struggles of undergraduates and their families by demanding a $15-an-hour living wage for student workers, a rent freeze for all Rutgers rental properties and dorms, and debt forgiveness for students and alumni whose degrees are withheld because of outstanding fees and fines.

Given the importance of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and CRU to multiple campus communities , we ask you to rescind your administration’s threat to use the power of injunction to punish, fine, and arrest workers taking job actions. At a time when we are experiencing a full frontal assault on critical histories of the American past, academic freedom, tenure, and the right to organize as public-sector workers, we ask you to work with the campus unions toward a just and fair contract.

Here is the complete letter: Scholars Open Letter to Jonathan Holloway.pdf - Google Drive

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