By Kathleen Hernandez, CWA Local 1031 President
As seen in the Jersey City Times
Op-Ed: The NJCU-Kean Merger Must Protect the Rights of All Staff
As a union president representing dedicated public employees in the NJ State Colleges and Universities (state’s higher education system), I have been advocating for our members prior to (watched with keen interest) the proposed merger between New Jersey City University (NJCU) and Kean University. This consolidation, born from NJCU’s financial distress, and caused by previous management, is presented as a necessary path to stability and continued service to students. We do not oppose this vision. In fact, we support a merger that strengthens our public universities and preserves educational opportunities. CWA Local 1031 has been part of mergers with the former UMDNJ, Rutgers, Rowan and Montclair State University. Worker’s rights were not sacrificed during these mergers.
However, our support is not unconditional. In fact, the current draft of the enabling legislation, S.4881, contains concerning provision: language that treats NJCU employees as “new” employees upon transfer to Kean, stripping them of all accrued seniority.
This is not a minor technicality. It is a real threat to the job security and dignity of hundreds of staff, from administrative professionals and maintenance workers to IT specialists and support personnel. These are the individuals who kept the lights on, the systems running, and the campuses functioning through years of challenge, including the pandemic and the financial mismanagement that led to this crisis. To now brand them as “new” hires is a betrayal of their service and a blatant erosion of their civil service rights.
The ramifications of this “new employee” designation are severe and far-reaching. Seniority is the backbone of workplace fairness. It governs protections during layoffs, influences opportunities for promotion and transfer, and is a core component of the collectively bargained contracts these workers have been covered by (honored) for years. To erase this earned credit is to place a bullseye on their backs, making them the most vulnerable in any future restructuring or budget cut. It effectively strips them of their contractual and statutory job security protections the moment they walk into their new, consolidated workplace. This creates a dangerous and unjust two-tier system within the merged institution, and it sets a perilous precedent for every public college and university, school district and civil servant across our state. While the amended bill rightly protects the tenure and status of faculty—a victory we acknowledge—it cynically abandons the staff, unilaterally rewriting the rules of civil service. It imposes a punitive “working test period,” a probationary status that suspends their hard-won just-cause protections.
This maneuver shakes the foundational civil service principles that guarantee fair treatment and recognize earned standing. If this is allowed to stand, it signals to every other institution facing consolidation that decades of employee service and collectively bargained rights can be voided with the stroke of a pen. How can we speak of a “merger of equals” when one group is welcomed with its full history intact, while another is told its years of commitment—the very foundation of a stable workforce—now count for nothing? The precedent set here will echo far beyond this merger, threatening the job security of public employees everywhere. We are told this merger is about building a stronger future. You cannot build a strong future on a foundation of fear and inequity. Morale will be decimated, institutional knowledge will be devalued, and a precedent will be set that in New Jersey, during consolidations, the workers who are the lifeblood of our public institutions are disposable.
The fix is straightforward, fair, and non-negotiable. The legislature must amend this bill to:
1. Eliminate the “working test period” for transferring NJCU staff, immediately restoring their full job security protections.
2. Institute a one-year moratorium on layoffs following the merger to provide true stability.
3. Protect Seniority. Ensure that all employees from both NJCU and Kean retain the
seniority they have earned. Their service is continuous and must be recognized as such.
4. Mandate genuine effects bargaining with all unions to ensure a fair transition.
We stand ready to support a merger that is fair and forward-looking. But we will strongly oppose any plan that seeks to resolve a financial crisis caused by mismanagement of previous NJCU leadership on the backs of the dedicated public servants who are the solution, not the problem. The state must honor the work and the worth of every employee. Do not let this merger be remembered not for saving a university, but for sacrificing the people who made it run.
