To: UMDNJ Clinical Faculty

From: Alex Bernstein, Executive Director AAUP-UMDNJ

Date: May 22, 2007

Re: Injunction Hearing Results

I am writing to advise you that the Public Employment Relations Commissions (PERC) denied AAUP the injunctive relief it requested on your behalf - to maintain your clinical supplements at the status quo pending the outcome of the substantive PERC claim. The Hearing Officer held that the contemplated salary reductions do not constitute the irreparable harm necessary to award injunctive relief because back pay is an appropriate make-whole remedy for any affected faculty member in the substantive PERC claim. 

While the University faces a potential back pay liability in the substantive PERC claim, there is currently no legal authority or threat to prevent the University from reducing or eliminating the patient service component for NJMS faculty or the faculty practice component for RWJMS and SOM faculty. 

While I am disappointed in this outcome, AAUP will continue to pursue its substantive PERC claim and the two arbitrations it has filed on your behalf. The decision in the injunction hearing has no bearing on the outcomes of the substantive PERC claim or the arbitrations. While there are no guarantees, it is my full-expectation that we will prevail in those claims. However, the results of these two actions will not be determined for a minimum of six (6) months to one (1) year. 

Notwithstanding, you are not powerless to prevent these contemplated imminent salary reductions from occurring unilaterally. Your collective voice is a powerful weapon. I have personally witnessed its effectiveness and impact. I encourage and urge you to use your collective voice at every opportunity (Department, Dean, or Board of Trustee meetings) to help the administration understand the impact and the consequences of these contemplated unilateral reductions on faculty morale, scholarship, research, recruitment and retention. If the University wants a committed faculty, the University must honor its commitments to the faculty and commit to negotiating over any salary modifications.

If you elect not to assert yourself now, the University will perceive it as your acceptance of their actions. Whether or not you are currently impacted or whether reductions occur at NJMS, NJDS, RWJMS, or SOM, they impact you in that the University has and will continue to use their actions taken against others to justify doing it to you now or in the future. 

The only way to stop this NOW is to object collectively and let the University know there are negative consequences for their contemplated unilateral actions.

Please check your email for meeting dates in the near future to address your concerns and next steps.

In the interim if you have any questions, please contact Amy Reeder at 732-235-4196 or me at 973-972-5875.