Thousands of teachers and employees of Rutgers University who were expecting raises in the next few weeks won't see a cent and they are not happy.
"The reaction is anger. The reaction is we were lied to. We gave up raises to save jobs," Lucye Millerand told The Star-Ledger. She's president of one of the twelve unions on campus.
Eight out of 10 of the school's 13,000 workers belong to a union and they all found out Thursday that Rutgers is freezing salaries and canceling all pay raises. The "surprise" announcement came in a campus-wide email.
"We’re outraged," Adrienne Eaton told the paper. She's a professor of labor studies and president of the AAUP-AFT union that represents close to 4,500 educators.
Upcoming pay increases for union employees ranged from 2.75 percent to five-percent. The school is getting around the contract agreements by putting a condition into play that says if the school doesn't have the money to pay for pay increases, then it doesn't have to enact the pay raises.
"We are in a very, very difficult situation. One that is unprecedented," said Dr. Philip Furmanski, who oversees contract negotiations for Rutgers. The school's forecasting a $95 million budget gap and pay freezes would make up about a third of the difference and help the decision to cancel pay raises is an attempt to avoid other consequences like layoffs or cancelled classes. Funding from the state is being slashed again this year, possibly another 15-percent if Governor Christie's budget gets approved.
"This comes in a year when Rutgers opened a $100 million football stadium," said Millerand. "No expenses were spared for that program."
Union leaders plan to meet with attorneys Friday to see if they can somehow force the school to pay what what was negotiated in the most recent contracts.
Get More: The Star-Ledger
