Dear AAUP-BHSNJ Faculty,

We wanted to update you in several areas.

Annual Meetings

Our annual meetings will take place on Zoom this year. We will send out the Zoom invites in a separate communication. Information is below:   

New Brunswick/Piscataway Chapter Meeting (RWJMS/SPH)   
Thursday, December 2, 2021 @ 6pm   
Newark Chapter Meeting (NJMS, RSDM, SHP, SON)
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 @ 6pm

Faculty/Librarians Missed in Merit Increase Pay Out

  Our union has found that at least 30 people were not given the merit raise that was paid out on October 29th. The bulk of these individuals were librarians and certain faculty working for SPH.  We have given the university a couple of weeks to correct these errors and then will be filing a grievance for anybody they have refused to pay.

Flu Vaccination Deadline December 1

        We have been informed that there are 199 individuals who have not uploaded their flu vaccination information or a religious exemption. If you are “covered person” and have not done so yet, please upload this information. The deadline is December 1st.

Juneteenth Holiday

        You may have seen that Rutgers, a university founded by slave-holders finally recognized Juneteenth as a holiday. We have inquired as to whether this will apply on the RBHS side and whether clinics will be closed. We think it fair that if Rutgers gets another holiday, you should get the value of this day as well. We will be following up on this with Rutgers/RBHS administration.

Taking Credit for our Union Work

        In an October 27th email, Chancellor Brian Strom wrote that “In attempt to try to ameliorate the financial hardship this puts on your current research funding, the University was successful for the first time ever in securing some fringe relief in the current state budget.” The email references $10 million that has been allocated in the state budget to offset the cost of increased fringe rates. The email neglected to mention that AAUP-BHSNJ and AAUP-AFT spearheaded the effort to lobby for this funding and have been working to get a more permanent solution. We were disappointed that our contributions were not recognized. This is an area where our union and the University can really work together.

Recovering $600,000 in Life Insurance for Widow of Former Faculty Member.

       Last July, a widow of a former SPH faculty member received over $600,000 in life insurance proceeds from the state of New Jersey. In February 2019, Rutgers wrongly fired a tenured professor from the School of Public Health for submitting medical leave paperwork a few days late. The union appealed the removal. However, the faculty member passed away shortly after the appeal was filed. We were undaunted. We settled the case with the University, which retroactively restored him to the payroll through the date of death. We then successfully continued to pursue the matter with NJ Division of Pension and Benefits to ensure that his surviving spouse got the life insurance proceeds she deserved.