For Workers at Rutgers, Work Sharing Has Been a Weapon Against Austerity
At Rutgers University, unions have banded together to advance work-sharing as an alternative to the administration's demands for massive job cuts. The approach has been an engine of solidarity between different groups of workers that has helped cut through the zero-sum logic of austerity.
Members of Rutgers AAUP-AFT outside the Paul Robeson Campus Center. (Rutgers AAUP-AFT / Facebook)
After enduring layoffs by an austerity-driven administration, a coalition of unions at Rutgers University has voted in favor of a new agreement with the school. The agreement includes a work-sharing program through which some workers will agree to furlough for a portion of each week, with lost income made up for through unemployment insurance, in exchange for the university agreeing not to lay off workers. The agreement covers around ten thousand people who are members of AAUP-AFT, HPAE Locals 5094 and 5089, URA-AFT, and CWA Local 1031.
Jacobin’s Alex N. Press spoke to Todd Wolfson, AAUP-AFT’s president, and Donna Murch, AAUP-AFT executive council member and head of the union’s BIPOC committee. This discussed work-sharing, how to build solidarity across a highly stratified workforce, and the future of higher education. The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Alex N. Press
What was the state of things at Rutgers before you reached this agreement?
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