An unprecedented court battle could be brewing at New Jersey’s state university if three Rutgers University staff unions go on strike over wages and job security. Facing a statewide walk-out by at least 8,800 educators and medical workers, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway this week emailed employees and students a letter in which he stated, “…the courts have ruled that strikes by public employees are unlawful in New Jersey … we are taking all appropriate steps to mitigate any possible disruptions that a work action would have for you and, most important, for our students.”
Union members reacted: “What he’s saying is that if we decide to go on strike, he’s going to go to court and sue us to make us go back to work,” said professor of English Jim Brown. “It felt pretty transparent — an attempt to manipulate people, to make people afraid. And I think the result was not that it made people afraid, but that it made people angry.”
One legal expert who is also a Rutgers union member said New Jersey statutes and state Constitution neither allow nor ban strikes by public employees, but that Rutgers could go to court and ask a judge to order striking unions back to work. A Rutgers spokeswoman said there’s legal precedent — that New Jersey courts have stopped public worker strikes in the past. Negotiations continue.
