Thursday, Jul 7, 2022
July 7, 2022, letter from the Rider University Collective Bargaining Team to faculty and staff
Dear Colleagues,
The administration and AAUP leadership have now held three bargaining sessions to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Long before negotiations began, the University made clear its intention to have a new agreement in place by September 1, 2022. Negotiations are moving forward, albeit at a slower pace than the administration prefers.
To that end, the administration has offered to meet with the AAUP bargaining team early and often throughout the summer. We have requested to meet multiple days per week, for full day sessions, in order to move this process forward as expeditiously as possible.
To date, the AAUP has declined our offer to meet more frequently, indicating they are only willing to meet once per week for a few hours at a time, although the AAUP has expressed a willingness to meet more frequently when the parties get closer to finalizing an agreement.
Notwithstanding the pace of negotiations, the parties are on their way to tentative agreements regarding some issues, which is a positive step in the right direction. But to be clear, the heavy lifting is still ahead.
We look forward to meeting more often and for longer periods of time, and coming to additional agreements on more substantive issues in the near future.
Sincerely,
The Rider University Collective Bargaining Team
Matthew Stieglitz, Esq., Associate Provost & Legal Counsel for Academic Affairs
Dr. DonnaJean Fredeen, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Eugene Kutcher, Dean of the Norm Brodsky College of Business
Robert Stoto, Vice President for Human Resources
John Romeo, Esq., Chief Negotiator and Partner with Gibbons P.C.