I hope they have a strike fund, universities can be terribly exploitative, stubbornly so, for being a place that advertises the emancipatory aspects of education.

>aid that graduate students who are research or teaching assistants make about $30,000 for a nine-month contract, and as little as $20,000 if they are working through a fellowship.

That is insultingly low, but on par with universities. Just look at Temple and John Hopkins Universities. I hope they succeed in getting higher wages.

I don’t have as much sympathy for these employees as I did the last time they threatened to strike when I was studying at Rutgers.

The union campaigned hard for student support and we gave it to them. Tuition was then raised way above average to compensate. Whether or not that’s justified is another story. Either way, the union was dead silent and has continued to be silent on increases in tuition. If the support doesn’t go both ways they’re not getting any from me at all.

One of my friends is the president of the professors/graduate students labor union at NJIT. It’s the same deal over there too. TA’s make about $30,000 a year, which is disgustingly low. Many TA’s can’t even afford to live in the immediate area of the campus. They’re actively campaigning for pay raises, in addition to other benefits that they’d like initiated.

Shows that single-shop unionism leads to divide and conquer tactics, there needs to be a united front between student unions, teacher unions, facilities and service workers on campus. The threat of a strike from all those unified groups guarantees a more even balance of power while negotiating with the administration.

I've been keeping up with labor news through a lot of the leftist podcasts I listen to. Some of the things these workers have to ask for will leave you dumbfounded like proper grievance procedures and healthcare benefits. These are full-time employees of businesses that make millions of dollars a year asking for a functional workplace and a wage that would keep them from being homeless. It's infuriating.

Lol 250 days, my job has gone 3-4 years before

Rutgers isn’t a business. It’s a state run university…

Arguing over whose been exploited the most by their employer is such an American thing

👍🏼

I couldn’t find info on this but, are the medical schools linked to Rutgers RWJMS and NJMS faculty also subject to this strike?

If you think universities aren’t being run in the same way businesses are then you haven’t been paying attention to what’s going on in higher education in this country.