worker strikes have become a common occurrence lately and it appears another one could be possible if the teaching staff at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark doesn't finalize a contract soon workers are going on 15 months without a contract and as Ted Goldberg explains they're frustrated by the slow speed of negotiations five months ago some of njit's employees were frustrated to work without a contract we've been trying to negotiate with them in good faith and we put our proposals out last October and they didn't respond to us until a couple of weeks ago and to be honest with you know what they offered us for a raise this current year zero now it's been 15 months since the contract ended between NJIT and the union representing its postdoc students PhD workers and adjunct instructors we've had some tentative agreements on smaller items but big items like wages we're still negotiating we're still waiting for counter proposals from management those were sent last October they've resorted to stalling and diversionary tactics I mean for the first couple of months they wouldn't even meet with the adjunct professors and the graduate student workers in the same room even though we're represented by the same Union Nicholas dubicki is a teaching assistant and PhD student at NJIT he's researched magnetic materials here for five years I'll be graduating next April if everything goes well he's only half joking dubicki went to an on-campus protest last week and was arrested police were waiting there for us a couple other protesters came to sort of stand between me and the police but the cop just reached through them and pulled me out of there and then spun me around and frog marched me out the door they handed me over to the Rutgers cops and took me across MLK Boulevard there and put me in the cruiser they took me to the engine police station and wrote me a ticket dubicki was charged with disorderly conduct and given a ticket that charge was voided on Tuesday but dubicki worries that he won't be the last Union member to face arrest during protests I think there was a quick turnaround on this because it would really be indefensible to pursue these charges the idea that this University might think it's a might think it's a good thing to use the police to discipline and aggrieved Workforce is frankly very troubling will they do it to somebody else you know I'm fine nobody got hurt but uh we don't want this to happen again in response to this story NJIT sent a statement which reads in part we recognize and support the right to protest in public spaces the learning environment in a building that was actively being used for classes tutoring research and student collaborative work was repeatedly disrupted despite multiple pleas for protesters to respect that academic space and wait to enter the Board of Trustees public meeting before continuing their chance NJIT also says its latest contract offer includes pay raises and more benefits but that hasn't stopped union members from preparing for a strike taking inspiration from Rutgers none of us really want to strike we want to you know settle this contract quickly and basically get on with teaching and researching but you know if it becomes necessary I think we're prepared to do it we treat them as a sibling unit you know they're they're one of our extended Rutgers family and so we've made it very clear to them we're prepared to lend support in any material way we can Brian Sachs leads the adjuncts Union at Rutgers he says NJIT workers have asked for advice on how to move forward with a strike the most important thing that I or anybody can say to a union is build your power get your members behind you you're only as strong as what your members are willing to do the union tells me its biggest demands are raises and wages and Better Health Care in Newark I'm Ted Goldberg Ted Goldberg, NJ Spotlight News