Tag: Strike

Rutgers, unions reach tentative deal to end strike
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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, who stepped in early this week to force the university and unions to the negotiating table, and Rutgers University President Jonathan Holloway called the agreement a “fair and equitable” resolution that raises wages and benefits and improves working conditions for faculty.
The three striking unions said in an email that they secured “profound victories” for students and faculty members ranging from pay increases to teaching conditions.
“This framework sets a new standard. Our members have struck to transform higher education in the State of New Jersey and across this country,” Becky Givan, president of the union Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said in a statement through Murphy’s office.
“The framework we have agreed to today sets in place unprecedented gains for contingent workers, graduate students, and our communities. We look forward to working together with the university to realize President Holloway’s vision of a beloved community. We would not have gotten here without our members’ commitment and the support of our governor.”
According to Holloway’s office, the agreement would:
- Increase salaries across the board for full-time faculty and counselors by at least 14 percent by July 1, 2025.
- Provide a 43.8 percent increase in the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers over the four years of the contract while strengthening their job security.
- Increase the minimum salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates by 27.9 percent over the same contract period.
- Provide “substantial enhancements” in wages, plus a commitment to multi-year university support for teaching assistants and graduate assistants. The graduate students, in addition to receiving health care coverage and free tuition and fees, will see their 10-month salaries increase to $40,000 over the course of the contract.
It’s unclear how these increases will get paid. Lawmakers are in the process of scrutinizing Murphy’s $53.1 billion budget, which includes funding for Rutgers and higher education. Murphy’s office declined to say how aspects of the new deal would be financed, saying only that the administration “looks forward” to working with Rutgers during the budget process.
Three unions were on strike: Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates and Educational Opportunity Fund counselors; the Rutgers PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, which represents part-time lecturers; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents workers at Rutgers’ health sciences schools.
Those unions and other had been working without a new contract for several months. Under the agreement, the contracts would be retroactive to July 1, 2022, according to Rutgers. It must be voted on to ratify the contract.
The unions said there are still some “open issues” to be resolved.

“However, the framework shows the vital progress we have made on the core issues we prioritized during this contract campaign,” an email to members and obtained by POLITICO said.
The unions — representing about 9,000 full- and part-time faculty, researchers and graduate students — suspended plans to strike next week. They credited the strike with putting pressure on the school to reach this point.
Givan also credited Murphy with stepping up his efforts and bringing the two sides to the Statehouse on Monday, “which was critical in getting far more movement from the administration in a matter of days than had taken place in months.”
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#Rutgers #unions #reach #tentative #deal #strike
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
April 15, 2023
One Dead, Another Critical In Lightning Strike

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SRINAGAR: A man died while another sustained critical injuries as lightning struck them in the Rajouri district.
Locals said that on Thursday evening, lightning struck the Patli forest area of Kotranka sub-division in which two men fell unconscious with critical injuries.
Both were taken to the Community Health Center Kandi, they said.
An official said that 28-year-old Zafar Iqbal, son of Mohammad Bashir, a resident of Panjnara was brought dead to the hospital.
Meanwhile, Showkat Ali, 22, son of Wali Mohammad, a resident of Panjnara is critically injured and has been referred to Government Medical College Rajouri for specialised treatment, the official said. (KNO)

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#Dead #Critical #Lightning #Strike
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 13, 2023
Rutgers president won’t rule out legal action to block strike

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Negotiations between labor and Rutgers management remain underway, with both parties still negotiating at the governor’s office. In a union update Monday evening from Trenton, Rutgers AAUP-AFT President Rebecca Givan said the union did not receive or exchange any offers.
“The governor briefly told us he was unhappy we were here because it meant we were on strike and also happy we were here because it meant we want to work to get a contract,” Givan said from a conference room in the Statehouse.
Rutgers AAUP-BHSNJ President Catherine Monteleone said during the update that the “right people” were not present to negotiate with her respective union, although that’s expected to be fixed by Tuesday.
Bryan Sacks, vice president of the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, said the “speed of this process is being accelerated” with the involvement of the governor’s office.
The strike encompasses Rutgers’ New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses, impacting approximately 67,000 students. The strike involved three unions: the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, which represents full-time faculty, graduate workers, postdoctoral associates, and Educational Opportunity Fund counselors; the Rutgers PTLFC-AAUP-AFT, which represents part-time lecturers; and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents workers at Rutgers’ health sciences schools. There are approximately 9,000 striking workers.
Holloway also alleged in the Monday evening email that protestors entered and disrupted a class where there was a “critical exam” that was underway. A university spokesperson did not respond to questions for more details on the incident.
The unions wrote a response Tuesday morning which did not directly address the allegation but said that “[O]ur picket lines have been and will continue to be a peaceful, nonviolent expression of our determination to make a better Rutgers for our students and workers.”
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#Rutgers #president #wont #rule #legal #action #block #strike
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
Group Captain Dismissed For Attack On Own Copter, Day After Balakot Strike

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SRINAGAR: Group Captain Suman Roy Chowdhury, then Chief Operations Officer of Srinagar Air Force Station, has been dismissed by a General Court Martial (GCM) in Delhi for a missile attack on a friendly Mi-17 helicopter on February 27, 2019. The attack resulted in the death of six Air Force personnel and a civilian. The incident took place a day after the Indian Air Force carried out an airstrike in Balakot, Pakistan, reported The Tribune.
As per The Tribune, The GCM held Group Captain Chowdhury guilty on five of the nine charges. He was held guilty of not obeying the general order issued by Air Headquarters, dated July 14, 2017, which required all aircraft operating north of latitude 3200 N to operate with Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) on. He permitted Mi-17 to get airborne from Srinagar without the IFF on. He was held guilty of assigning an inbound flying object to the missile unit at 10:10 am on February 27, 2019, at 23 km from the Srinagar base for engagement by the Mission Commander, Command and Control Unit of 2258 Squadron. As a consequence, the assigned flying target, which actually was friendly copter Mi-17, was shot down by a Spyder missile at 10:14 am. The mishap caused a loss of Rs 133.31 crore to the state.
The court-martial found Wing Commander Shyam Naithani, who was the Senior Air Traffic Control Officer at the time of the incident, not guilty on four charges and gave him a severe reprimand for one charge.
The findings of the GCM and the sentence were subject to confirmation by the IAF Chief, according to Air Force officials. The High Court had allowed the GCM to pronounce the findings against Group Captain Chowdhury but ordered that these must not be given effect till the disposal of the case before it. The High Court is yet to dispose of the case, The Tribune reported.
The missile attack on the friendly Mi-17 helicopter resulted in the death of Squadron Leaders S Vashisht and Ninand M, Sergeant VK Pandey, Sergeant Vikrant Sahrawat, Corporal Pankaj Kumar, Corporal D Pandey, and Kifayat Hussain Ganie, a civilian on the ground and resident of Budgam district.
Group Captain Chowdhury had urged the GCM not to proceed with the pronouncement of the sentence till the case was in the High Court. His counsel Captain Sandeep Bansal (retd) said they would challenge the decision before the High Court.

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#Group #Captain #Dismissed #Attack #Copter #Day #Balakot #Strike

( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

April 11, 2023
Phil Murphy intervened to keep Rutgers strike from going to court

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“I’m not happy that it’s come to this. I am happy that we’re in the room together,” Murphy, speaking after an unrelated event in the Statehouse, said he told those in attendance. “Figure this out ASAP.”
Murphy would not directly answer questions about whether he would allow the state to take legal action to halt the strike, saying only, “I hope it doesn’t come to that.” But a spokesperson for Rutgers said the governor had already told school leaders to hold off on doing so.
“The Governor … asked us to delay taking legal action asking the courts to order strikers back to work so that no further irreparable harm is caused to our students and to their continued academic progress,” the spokesperson, Dory Devlin, said in a statement to POLITICO. “We agreed to his request to refrain from seeking an injunction while it appears that progress can be made.”
The legality of a strike from higher education workers at the state’s flagship public university has been a matter of dispute. Rutgers has maintained that it’s illegal for workers to strike, saying in an online FAQ that “New Jersey courts consistently and expressly have held that strikes by New Jersey public employees are illegal.” Unions have insisted that there are no laws explicitly prohibiting their right to strike.
As Murphy spoke about the strike, union members rallied at Rutgers campuses across the state in New Brunswick, Camden and Newark. The New Brunswick strike included labor leaders ranging from State AFL-CIO president Charles Wowkanech, the Communications Workers of America’s New Jersey affiliate and national American Association of University Professors president Irene Mulvey, who described Rutgers management was “stalling and foot-dragging.”
“Rutgers is for education — we are not a corporation,” workers chanted as they carried “on strike” signs.
Rutgers union leaders also said they worked with other unions to ensure workers don’t cross the picket line. Todd Wolfson, general vice president at the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said construction at the Zimmerli Art Museum at the New Brunswick campus — which was scheduled for today — was blocked to ensure workers did not cross the picket line.
“There will be no construction at the Zimmerli today,” Wolfson said during a union rally. “There will be no construction at the Zimmerli tomorrow. And there will be no construction at the Zimmerli until we get our contract.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) appeared at the union rally and expressed sympathy for graduate assistants and graduate student workers.
“I feel very strongly that whatever this final agreement is does have to include them and better wages and security for all of them,” he said.
The unions are seeking higher wages as part of a new contract. Other priorities include affordable housing and better health insurance, forgiveness for students’ overdue fees and fines, and equal pay for equal work for adjunct faculty.
In a memo, Rutgers president Jonathan Holloway detailed the university’s offer to the three unions now on strike — including “enhanced compensation programs” to increase salaries for full-time staff by 12 percent in two years, raising the per-credit salary rate for part-time lecturers and increasing the salary for postdoctoral fellows and associates.
The strike could mar the legacy of a governor who got into office in part because of support from public labor unions and who said Monday, “I don’t think there’s been a more pro-labor administration in the history of the state.”
Murphy deflected questions of whether those factors mean he should have been able to deliver an agreement, saying he has “very good relations” with unions and the school.
“We’ve been involved in one form or another — including me personally — for months,” Murphy said.
Murphy and his staff worked, he said, “all day yesterday and last night” with school officials “at the highest levels.”
Murphy said he’s optimistic his approach will work.
“I think the very force and nature of our office and our administration in the room, basically with a ‘lock-the-door-throw-away-the-key mentality’ has a very significant potential to move the needle in the right direction, and that’s what we’re hoping for,” he said.
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#Phil #Murphy #intervened #Rutgers #strike #court
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 11, 2023
Telangana: T-SAVE to organise hunger strike on April 17

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Hyderabad: The Telangana Students’ Action for Vacancies and Employment (T-SAVE), that was proposed and floated by YSR Telangana Party (YSRTP) as an umbrella organisation, announced a daylong hunger strike by all opposition parties at Indira Park on April 17.
The hunger strike was announced at its inaugural roundtable meeting on Monday in Hyderabad.
Speaking at the event, Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Telangana Party (YSRTP) chief YS Sharmila blamed both the state and central governments for allegedly failing to meet the expectations of the students and the unemployed youth. “KCR has failed to generate a single job during this term, and despite carving new districts and mandals, there has been no effort made to fill vacancies and address the growing administrative needs,” she added.

“This figure stands at close to 4 lakhs, while the Biswal Committee’s recommendation to fill up 1.91 lakh vacancies has fallen on deaf ears. Inside the Assembly, the CM puts the vacancies at 80,000, then the notification is issued for barely 40,000 jobs and finally exams are held for 8000 posts. The fate of these too are indefinite after the paper leakage,” said the YSRTP president.
Sharmila added that her party will stage a hunger strike for a day at Indira Park to “bring this government to task” and put pressure and force it to deliver justice to the youth.
She also demanded that the Biswal Committee recommendations be immediately implemented, and a CBI enquiry be called to look into the paper leakages. “If KCR fails, why doesn’t the BJP government launch the CBI probe?” she added.
Listing the demands of T-SAVE Sharmila said, “Skill development should be prioritised, Nirudyoga Bhruthi (pension for the unemployed youth) be immediately disbursed, fees reimbursement dues be cleared, and corporation loans be facilitated to turn youth into self-made entrepreneurs”.
T-SAVE also demanded that the Central government give clarity on its commitment to 2 crore jobs annually. “They have deceived Telangana on IIM, coach factory, steel factory, tribal university and many other bifurcation related promises. These would have generated employment for the state youth,” Sharmila said.

Speaking on the occasion, TPCC official spokesperson Addanki Dayakar lashed out at the KCR government for “concentrating” on liquor business rather than students’ future. “His failure and recklessness in paper leakage is unpardonable, while his son is a classic case of inefficiency. The vacancies stand at 2.20 lakhs in the state and KCR’s tall talk about Rs 4 lakh crore budget is a sham and ham,” alleged Dayakar.
“KCR’s rule is all about corruption, scandals, and scams. We support T-SAVE and stand by the side of the youth,” he said.
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#Telangana #TSAVE #organise #hunger #strike #April
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 11, 2023
Rutgers University workers will strike, a historic first for New Jersey’s state school

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“We are not alone,” Todd Wolfson, general vice president of Rutgers AAUP-AFT, said in an online meeting after the vote. “The strikes that are happening right here in New Jersey and in other parts of the country right now are building on a historic strike wave in higher education.”
The strike means instruction and non-critical research to “come to a halt” and picket lines will instead go up at the campuses, union leaders said. The workers plan to continue not working until a deal is reached.
The potential for a strike has loomed over Rutgers since late last year. University faculty and staff from multiple unions had been working without a contract since summer, and they publicly rallied for higher wages and increased benefits while threatening to strike if the school did not “bargain in good faith.”
In March, with its members still without contracts, unions voted to authorize a strike. Sunday night’s vote took that authorization to the next step as negotiations have stalled.
“We take this very seriously,” said Rebecca Givan, president of Rutgers’ AAUP-AFT union. “We have bargained and bargained and bargained and bargained and bargained and we’re not getting anywhere, and we need to do something more.”
The three unions — AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and AAUP-BHSNJ — represent about 9,000 full-time faculty, counselors, part-time faculty and others. More than 6,000 other union workers in nine other unions are also seeking new contracts.
Rutgers’ president, Jonathan Holloway, said it’s “deeply disappointing” to reach this point, especially given the progress the two sides have made recently.
“We have all been hard at work trying to resolve issues around compensation, benefits, and other terms and conditions of employment,” he wrote in a message to the Rutgers community. “For the past several weeks, negotiations have been constant and continuous. Significant and substantial progress has been made, as I have noted, and I believe that there are only a few outstanding issues. We will, of course, negotiate for as long as it takes to reach agreements and will not engage in personal attacks or misinformation.”

Union leaders said they were negotiating for contracts that included not just higher wages but guarantees such as equal pay for equal work for adjunct faculty, affordable housing and forgiveness for students’ overdue fees and fines. Although the two sides made some progress the last few days, they were “far apart on many core issues,” Givan said.
The vote to strike comes amid a national wave of college labor action. A combination of factors — such as declining enrollment, rising costs and the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic — have propelled a labor movement that reached campuses around the country, including pro-union, Democratic states like New Jersey. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, a strong supporter of unions, had largely stayed out of the public discourse on Rutgers contract disputes but advocated for the two sides to reach an agreement. He took a more direct approach Sunday night.
“Rutgers University is one of the nation’s premier institutions of higher learning. I am calling the University and union bargaining committees to meet in my office tomorrow to have a productive dialogue,” he said on Twitter.
The strike is historic in another way: It would be the first to involve tenured and tenure-track faculty at a Big Ten university, according to the unions.

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#Rutgers #University #workers #strike #historic #Jerseys #state #school
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

April 10, 2023
Akhilesh to unveil Kanshi Ram statue; set to strike at BSP’s Dalit base in UP

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Lucknow: Having given up all hopes of an alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Samajwadi Party (SP) is now going all out to woo the Dalits.
The party will use the upcoming Ambedkar Jayanti to kick off its campaign.
SP president Akhilesh Yadav will unveil a statue of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) founder Kanshi Ram at a function in Rae Bareli on April 3.

According to party sources, in his address, Akhilesh will recall BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s alliance with SP founder Mulayam Singh Yadav in 1993 and underline the need for another ‘coming together’ of the forces in the present political scenario.
SP national general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya said, “The BSP today has strayed away from the path shown by its founder Kanshi Ram and Babasaheb Ambedkar. There is an urgent need for the followers of Kanshi Ram and Mulayam Singh Yadav to join hands once again for nation building. It is time to carry forward their idea of social justice that the two leaders had first shared in 1993.”
According to sources, the SP leadership feels that an OBC-Dalit combination, in at least a dozen Lok Sabha constituencies, has the ability to be a game changer on the strength of its numbers.
In the political circles, the move is being seen as SP’s latest strategy to win over non-Jatav Dalits who had sided with the BJP in the 2022 Assembly polls and also make a dent in the BSP’s Jatav vote base.
The party’s broad frame of this strategy was also noticeable in the recently constituted national executive committee of the party. Where 62 members in the committee — around 35 per cent — were from non-Yadav OBC communities particularly from electorally influential communities like Pasi, Kurmi, Rajbhar and Nishad.

A total of six members in the national executive committee list were Dalits.
Besides, of late, Akhilesh has been seen making a conscious effort to promote Ayodhya MLA Avadhesh Prasad as the Dalit face of the party.
The nine-term MLA, who currently represents the Milkipur Assembly constituency of Ayodhya, not only shares a seat next to party president Akhilesh Yadav in the state Assembly but was also seen sharing the dais with Yadav during the two-day party’s national executive meet in Kolkata recently.
Akhilesh even tweeted a selfie with Awadhesh Prasad and Shivpal Yadav on board a flight to Kolkata, to underline the growing stature of the Milkipur MLA in the party.
His rising stature in SP is being seen as Akhilesh’s attempt to send across the message that the party is willing to give a special status to Dalits — who were till now seen as a dedicated and exclusive voter base of the Bahujan Samaj Party.
The SP, which had floated Babasaheb Vahini on Ambedkar Jayanti in 2021, now plans to strengthen the organisation within the party.
The Vahini has been asked to celebrate Ambedkar Jayanti in a grand manner in all districts.
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#Akhilesh #unveil #Kanshi #Ram #statue #set #strike #BSPs #Dalit #base
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 2, 2023
Rajasthan: Govt medicos to go on strike on Wednesday in solidarity with private doctors

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Jaipur: Medical services in Rajasthan are likely to be seriously affected on Wednesday with government doctors and faculty members at medical colleges announcing a one-day mass leave in solidarity with private doctors agitating against the Right to Heath Bill.
Emergency services, however, will be exempted.
Private hospitals and nursing homes in Rajasthan have been shut for several days due to a strike by private doctors, leading to a rush of patients in government hospitals.
Private doctors have been striking to demand the withdrawal of the bill, which was passed in the assembly last week.
On Tuesday, the All Rajasthan In-Service Doctors’ Association announced the one-day strike in support of the agitating private doctors.
Association general secretary Dr Shankar Bamnia said more than 15,000 in-service (government) doctors will go on a one-day mass leave in support of the private doctors’ movement against the Right to Health Bill. Resident doctors and medical college faculties will also join the strike.
“All doctors will be on a one-day mass leave in support of the (private doctors’) movement,” Bamnia said.
Bamnia, however, said emergency services will not be affected.

The protesting doctors have claimed that the bill will increase bureaucratic interference in their functioning.
According to the bill, every resident of the state will have the right to emergency treatment and care “without prepayment” at any “public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres”.
Dr Vijay Kapoor, secretary of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Society, said their agitation entered the 11th day on Tuesday.
Claiming that Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has not yet called them for talks, Kapoor said he should directly speak with the agitating doctors instead of spending lakhs of rupees on advertisements.
Chief Secretary Usha Sharma and senior state officials held a meeting with a delegation of the agitating private hospital operators on Sunday and assured them to hold a discussion on their suggestions regarding the bill.
However, the doctors were adamant and said any discussion would be possible only after the bill was withdrawn.
The bill was passed following the recommendations by a select committee.
Before the bill was amended, the draft mentioned “any health care provider, establishment or facility, including private provider, establishment or facility, public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres, qualified”.
According to the amended bill that was passed, “designated health care centres” mean health care centres as prescribed in the rules, which are yet to be framed.
The private doctors said their one-point demand is the bill’s withdrawal and any discussion on the points in it will be held only after the government fulfills the demand.
Health Minister Parsadi Lal has already clarified that the bill will not be withdrawn because all the suggestions from doctors have already been incorporated and hence the demand was not justified.
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#Rajasthan #Govt #medicos #strike #Wednesday #solidarity #private #doctors
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 28, 2023
Austin admits admin should’ve notified Congress ‘earlier’ about Syria strike

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The gap prompted Republicans to question if the administration held off on notifying Congress to shield Kurilla from tough questions and to ensure the war-powers measure sailed through the upper chamber.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Austin on Tuesday if the Pentagon’s congressional affairs team should’ve notified Congress sooner, especially because of the war powers vote. Austin agreed: “We should’ve notified you earlier.”
The secretary noted that the U.S. suffered an attack and responded in one day, letting Congress know about both events in between. “We take the War Powers Act very seriously,” Austin said, seated alongside Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Mark Milley.
Later in the hearing, Austin told Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) that there was no connection between the notifications and the war powers vote.
“Secretary Austin, I don’t believe you,” Cotton responded, noting that an amendment by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) “directly touched” on the Syria strike scenario. “That’s my belief, nothing you can say is going to change my belief on that.”
“I just want to say, senator, that is absolutely not true,” Austin said.
“Maybe you didn’t personally do it, but I believe entirely that people in your office did that,” Cotton replied.
Tess Bridgeman, the co-editor in chief of Just Security, told POLITICO on Monday that the executive branch isn’t required to include casualty information in reports to Congress.

“That said, the Biden administration did include casualty information in its notification to Congress, even though it was not required to do so,” she added.
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#Austin #admits #admin #shouldve #notified #Congress #earlier #Syria #strike
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 28, 2023