Rutgers Student Sues Faculty Unions For Going On Strike Last April

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A Rutgers student just sued all the school's faculty unions for going on strike last April, alleging the professors' strike was "selfish and illegal."

The student is Jeremy Li, a business major and junior at Rutgers main campus in New Brunswick. He is also demanding Rutgers students be reimbursed their tuition payments for the five days of lost classroom time.

Li filed his lawsuit Friday in Middlesex County Superior Court.

He is asking a state Superior Court judge to declare the professors' strike illegal, on the argument that Rutgers professors' are public employees and public employees — such as NJ Transit workers and public school teachers — are not allowed to go on strike, as there will be too much damage to the public if they do so.

When the strike first began last April, Rutgers President Johnathan Holloway similarly called it "unlawful." At the time, the professors told the Bergen Record they disagreed, arguing there is no statute or law making it illegal for public workers to strike.

Li's lawsuit is a class-action, meaning any other Rutgers student can join as a plaintiff.

"This class action is a simple, straightforward way to provide justice, accountability and compensation for the 67,000 students who were denied a week of the education they paid for because these unions chose to undertake a selfish and illegal strike," read his suit.

It was the first time in Rutgers' 257-year history its professors went on strike; they were arguing for pay raises and better job protection. It is also considered the largest faculty strike to ever occur at an American college or university: About 9,000 professors, adjunct professors and faculty total walked off the job.

While the Rutgers professors' strike was unprecedented, it was also short-lived: The strike only lasted for five days, from April 10 - April 15.

Gov. Phil Murphy, who publicly said he was "pissed off" the strike was occurring, aggressively intervened to end the strike. Last April, he said he was going to take a "lock-the-door, throw-away-the-key" mentality to force both sides to reach compromise.

"I'm not happy it's gotten to this point. I said this to them, to both sides. The message is simple: Figure this out ASAP. Period.," said Murphy at the time.

One of the main reasons Murphy said he wanted the strike to end was because Rutgers students were not able to attend class.

"There are many losers, including the many, many thousands of students who go to Rutgers," said the governor last spring.

Li sued Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union and AAUP-BHSNJ, which represents Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences faculty. He also sued the New Jersey chapter of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the powerful national teachers' union. His lawsuit accuses all those unions of breach of contract, negligence, conspiracy and violating state consumer protection laws (the Rutgers students being the consumer).

"The Rutgers faculty unions were given substantial assistance in their illegal strike by state and national unions," read his lawsuit.

Li is also president of the Rutgers Republican Club, according to the New Jersey Monitor.

Li's lawyers argued the Rutgers professors' deliberately chose to strike in April, when students were preparing to take their final exams, instead of going on strike in the summer, when their message would have been less effective.

Li's lawyers are Mark Scirocco of Scirocco Law in Morristown, and Daniel Suhr, of Hughes & Suhr in Chicago.