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RU Listening?

RU Listening?

By RU Listening? Podcast Team

The RU Listening? podcast is produced by members of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, an academic labor union at Rutgers University. For more information about the podcast and our union, please visit our website (ru-listening.org).
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From the Table 12/06: Article 8 - Management Responds to Our Economic Demands

RU Listening?Dec 12, 2022

00:00
24:17
From the Table 12/06: Article 8 - Management Responds to Our Economic Demands

From the Table 12/06: Article 8 - Management Responds to Our Economic Demands

This week's agenda was planned to focus on Article 10 and Article 11 release language (for settlement of grievances), an Article 22 counter (regarding earned-vacation accrual carryover), and a union response to management’s proposed Appendix H (pertaining to faculty and grad worker suspensions). However, this agenda was disrupted by management’s long-belated delivery of a response to our Article 8 proposal, focusing on salary and compensation. Their response was an insultingly low-ball offer after powerful and well-attended rallies in Camden, New Brunswick, and Newark, earlier in the day.

To read more from our member Whitney Straub, head to our website: https://rutgersaaup.org/bargaining-update-18-december-6-2022/ 

Dec 12, 202224:17
From the Table 11/8/2022: Article 12 Grad Issues

From the Table 11/8/2022: Article 12 Grad Issues

On 11/8/2022 we presented Article 12 of our demands regarding the graduate worker contract, including 1) Increasing graduate worker PhD funded appointment minimums to 5 years; 2) Including graduate fellows in the contract, with equal pay protections and benefits; and 3) COVID extensions for workers whose completion timelines were affected by the pandemic. COVID extensions were broken out into a side letter that was presented. Several speakers worked with our bargaining committee to present personal statements regarding the importance and urgency of our demands. Some of them joined us here.


For more information and to read the Article and Side Letter: https://rutgersaaup.org/bargaining-update-15-november-8-2022/

Nov 17, 202234:09
From the Table 11/1/2022: Articles 4 & 9

From the Table 11/1/2022: Articles 4 & 9

We are back at the table! This session was a small-group session, with our core bargaining team and some member observers attending. In this episode, we check in with some of them on Articles 4 and 9 and the experiences of being back in bargaining.   For Paul O'Keefe's great written update and links to the articles in full, visit our website:

Nov 08, 202226:53
From the Table 7/19: Article 8, the proposal for Bridge Funds, and check in on the Grad funding extensions

From the Table 7/19: Article 8, the proposal for Bridge Funds, and check in on the Grad funding extensions

This is the RU Listening Podcast series on bargaining updates, From the Table. This week we talk to Jim Brown and Paul O'Keefe and Andrés Morera about Article 8, the proposal for Bridge Funds, and check in on the Grad funding extensions. To learn more and get involved visit the website Rutgers AAUP-AFT website at  https://rutgersaaup.org/

Aug 05, 202245:24
From the Table 7/18/22: Article 4 - PTLFC Bargaining Update Fractional Appointments

From the Table 7/18/22: Article 4 - PTLFC Bargaining Update Fractional Appointments

In this episode we learn about Article 4 demands for fractional appointment status for PTLS  with PTLS Howie Swerdloff and Dan Sidorick and then follow up with Karen Thompson, Heather Pierce, and Austin Rooney as well as undergrads Alex Ascencio, Izzy Nuñez, and Edan Blank after bargaining on management's response.  

 To get involved with the next PTLFC bargaining session - sign up here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe__T8yabH49i4WkyIcUfhQbh2vYZwJLS9EMhTKDnRHTtCp3g/viewform

Jul 22, 202239:30
From the Table Ep 2: Bargaining Session 7/12 Update on Grad Funding

From the Table Ep 2: Bargaining Session 7/12 Update on Grad Funding

Are you a Covid impacted-grad running out of funding?  

Share your experience with management!   Email us at media.ruaaup@gmail.com to join today's bargaining session or call and leave a message at our call-in line at (862) 227-4644‬. Let us know if you are willing to be included on the podcast.  

If you think you may have been left off the list of grads in need email the union at aaup@rutgersaaup.org 

Our contracts with the university administration expired June 30, 2022. In anticipation of this, we have been at the bargaining table since May, working to secure a new, more equitable contract based on the demands of our members. While we've been posting regular bargaining updates to our website, this is the first of a new series of regular audio/video updates.  

From the Table is RU-Listening’s dispatch from the bargaining table. In each episode, members will introduce an issue or article we are bringing to the administration in contract negotiations with an update on how the session went.

Jul 19, 202223:44
From the Table Ep 1: Bargaining Update

From the Table Ep 1: Bargaining Update

Our contracts with the university administration expired on June 30, 2022. In anticipation of this, we have been at the bargaining table since May, working to secure a new, more equitable contract based on the demands of our members. While we've been posting regular bargaining updates to our website, this is the first of a new series of regular audio/video updates.

From the Table is RU-Listening’s dispatch from the bargaining table. Each episode members will introduce an issue or article we are bringing to the administration in contract negotiations with an update on how the session went.


Jul 01, 202233:45
Ep. 103. Worker Solidarity in the Grad School Hunger Games

Ep. 103. Worker Solidarity in the Grad School Hunger Games

For this special episode, we talk to three grads from the Graduate School of Education. Our guests are facing a situation shared by many around the country: after COVID delayed or derailed their research, the clock is running out on their funding.

Jun 15, 202241:06
Ep. 102. Union Myth-Busting: Untangling Fact & Fiction

Ep. 102. Union Myth-Busting: Untangling Fact & Fiction

In this episode, our hosts look at contemporary pop-culture references to unions to see what union myths tell us about how to think about our rights and possibilities as workers. Mich and Ihsan explore how these myths appear in anti-union campaigns tactics from some of the biggest corporate employers and how they affect teachers and university workers. Finally, our hosts consider some of the histories and new realities of the public university and union to ask how we can bust these myths and the union-busting practices behind them to fight for a more dignified work experience for all workers at Rutgers. [Credits: Ru Listening? is produced by: Danyel Ferrari, Ihsan Al-Zouabi, Jade Stepeney, Mich Ling, Heather Pierce, Bridget Purcell, Dylan Simpson & Mi-Hyun Yoon. A special thanks to the RU-AAUP/AFT for their support.]
Mar 08, 202238:27
Ep. 101. Who Are We and Where Are We Going?
Nov 24, 202131:55