Academe: One Big Union
Writing the Story of Rutgers' Historic Strike
Academe, the magazine of the American Association of University Professors, has posted a history of the Rutgers University faculty strike, written by Howard Swerdloff and me. The piece focuses on the organizing efforts and what has been an unprecedented cross-unit and cross-class unity at Rutgers. You can read it here.
One Big Union
Attacking the corporate model through joint action and organizing.
By Hank Kalet and Howard Swerdloff
In retrospect, nothing had been easy. Organizing nine thousand academic workers across three separate bargaining units, getting them on the same page, and having them set the same priorities seemed a pipe dream. Getting them to agree to put aside old grievances, to work on behalf of the most vulnerable academic employees—the adjuncts and graduate student workers—had no precedent. Not at Rutgers University. Not anywhere in higher education.
Yet, that’s what we did at Rutgers when we walked out of classes in April 2023, in a demonstration of strength that ultimately made university negotiators take notice, forced the governor to intercede, and won significant gains for all categories of academic workers.