Rutgers' Unionized Healthcare Workers Accuse School Of Union Busting

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Unionized healthcare workers, including nurses and hospital service workers, held a rally Tuesday outside Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, to bring attention to what they say is union busting at the hospital.

The healthcare workers say ever since Rutgers partnered with Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, both the state university and the hospital have been transitioning union-contracted work to private, non-unionized workers.

Some of the jobs at RWJBarnabas the unions say are being transferred to non-union positions include medical faculty, Advanced Practice Nurses (APN), nurse clinicians, research nurses, staff nurses, social workers, genetic counselor and pharmacists.

Tuesday's protest also included workers at the as-of-yet-unopened Cancer Institute of New Jersey, run by both RWJBarnabas and Rutgers.

The unions rallying Tuesday were HPAE, which represents nurses at the Cancer Institute; AAUP BHSNJ, which represents Rutgers medical professors and staff; and the Committee of Interns and Residents (CIR) at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

There have been allegations for the past several years that RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers have tried to phase out unionized jobs, ever since Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences fell under the control of RWJBarnabas Health in 2018.

"Since the inception of the affiliation with RWJBarnabas Health, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences has committed that there would not be a transfer of employees from Rutgers to RWJBH," said a spokesman for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, in response to Tuesday's rally. "We have continued to hire people into Rutgers, even as existing employees depart, depending on our needs. Of course, hiring in general and in particular in healthcare has become harder after the pandemic."