About

About AAUP-BHSNJ
The American Association of University Professors – Biomedical and Health Sciences of New Jersey (AAUP-BHSNJ) is a non-profit labor union who represents 1500 faculty at Rutgers/Rowan Universities. Our faculty teach the next generation of doctors, nurses, scientists, and health professionals.. The Association furthers the interests of faculty by bargaining for improvements in clinical compensation, researcher incentives, work/life balance, and other benefits. We also defend members from discriminatory treatment and provide individual advice on an array of issues. Finally, we advocate for our students, patients, and colleagues in Trenton by advancing legislation which promotes their interests.
AAUP-BHSNJ Represents
- New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers
- Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Rutgers
- School of Osteopathic Medicine, Rowan
- School of Dental Medicine, Rutgers
- School of Nursing, Rutgers
- School of Public Health, Rutgers
- School of Health Professions, Rutgers
- University Libraries, Rutgers and Rowan
AAUP-BHSNJ Bargaining Accomplishments
Our last contract won significant gains. We maintained clinical compensation for NJMS faculty, improved minimum pay standards for RWJMS faculty, as well as beat back proposed salary reductions for almost all faculty. This was the first contract to include clinical compensation as a part of it. This was also first contract to add sick days for our SHP colleagues and leave for expecting parents. During the pandemic, we fought to ensure that raises were exempted from the fiscal emergency, faculty/staff safety and health was protected, and that jobs were spared from furloughs.
You can see the current AAUP-BHSNJ union contract here.

About AAUP-AFT
Rutgers AAUP-AFT represents more than 5,000 full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and counselors on Rutgers University’s Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick campuses. We’re one of the oldest faculty unions in the country, having been recognized in 1970, soon after public-sector workers in the United States won the right to collective bargaining. Rutgers AAUP-AFT is a member-led union committed to protecting and advancing not only the interests of our members but those of university staff, students, and the communities Rutgers depends on. We are committed to taking community issues to the negotiating table and bargaining for the common good.
AAUP-AFT Represents
- Tenured and non-tenured full-time faculty
- Graduate Workers
- Postdoctoral Associates (separate contract)
- EOF Counselors (separate contract)
AAUP-AFT Bargaining Accomplishments
Rutgers AAUP-AFT has served as a model of a strong, activist, committed higher education union. Our last contract won significant improvements in salaries job security, and benefits across all ranks. Take job security for example. In 2010 71% of NTT faculty were on a 1-year contract. By 2020, due to our work, 26% were on a 1-year contract. 60% were on a 3 or more-year contract. We also won a groundbreaking program to ensure salary equity across race, gender, campus, and other categories. At the start of the pandemic, we proposed a people-centered alternative to the cuts and austerity implemented by the administration, eventually bargaining an agreement that saved the jobs of staff, improved an emergency funding program for graduate students, overturned a hiring freeze on adjunct faculty, and got back the raises the administration tried to cancel.
You can see the current AAUP-AFT union contract here.
Thanks to our Bargaining, Core, and Advisory Committees:
One Faculty Town Hall Materials
- View the slideshow
- Watch Zoom recording (passcode: z0Y9B%9J)