Contract Impasse Enters Third Year, Sister College Signs New Agreement

While full-time faculty at Middlesex College have been without a contract since July 1, 2020, Brookdale Community College, among the top-ranked community colleges in New Jersey, recently settled a five-year contract with its full-time faculty.

The Brookdale contract, which is binding from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2027, was signed by representatives of both the college and its full-time faculty on Sept. 21, according to a copy of the contract obtained by Quo Vadis.

The agreement will see salaries for Brookdale’s full-time faculty increase by 3% in its first year, by 3.25% in its second and third years and by 3.5% in its fourth and fifth years, according to the contract.

Patricia Payne, president of Local 1940 American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — the union representing full-time faculty at Middlesex College — said Middlesex’s administration should follow Brookdale’s lead and pay its full-time faculty a fair wage increase.

“This is clear evidence that other [community] colleges are not settling for the same terms being offered by the Middlesex administration, as [the] college president … has incorrectly stated on several occasions,” said Payne.

Mark McCormick, president of Middlesex College, said he was not comfortable responding to the settlement details reported in this article because Quo Vadis did not indicate how it had verified the Brookdale contract to be the official and final version.

According to an expired contract between Middlesex College’s Board of Trustees and Local 1940 AFT, faculty at Middlesex received a raise of 2.5% on their base salaries for each year covered by the agreement, which spanned July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2020.

Minimum salaries at Middlesex, according to the terms of the contract when it expired, are as follows: $55,853 for assistant instructors, $61,970 for instructors, $73,618 for assistant professors, $87,258 for associate professors and $102,969 for professors.

Effective Sept. 1, 2022, minimum salaries at Brookdale are as follows: $65,246 for instructors, $75,306 for assistant professors, $83,937 for associate professors and $92,935 for professors, according to the college’s new contract.

This year, Brookdale is ranked first in the state by Niche and third by both BestColleges and Academic Influence, according to their respective websites.

For its part, Middlesex College is ranked number 10 by BestColleges and number 20 by Academic Influence.

Middlesex does not appear in Niche’s ranking this year.

Payne said, “Perhaps this is why Brookdale is rated the number-one [community] college in the state — because they invest in and value their faculty and students.”

On entering negotiations for a new four-year contract in February 2020, Local AFT 1940 asked Middlesex College for an annual increase of 3.5% on all base salaries, according to a PowerPoint published by the union.

The college countered with an offer to raise salaries by 0% in year one, by 2.5% in year two and by 2.25% in years three and four, according to the PowerPoint and a document provided by McCormick.

However, to faculty who elected not to switch to the Chapter 44 healthcare plan, according to the document, the college offered an on-base raise of 1% in years two through four.

“Chapter 44 … saves enrolled employees thousands of dollars in reduced employee contributions and costs the college more than $500,000 each year,” according to the document.

The college also offered all full-time faculty a one-time payment of $2,500 in year one, irrespective of their choice of healthcare plan, according to the document.

The negotiations between the college and Local 1940 AFT have since stalled, as previously reported by Quo Vadis, with neither party willing to accept the other’s terms.

McCormick said, “The college’s offer to (Local 1940 AFT) is fair, respects the accomplishments and efforts of our faculty and is consistent with union settlements at other public employers in New Jersey, including other community colleges and Middlesex County.”

In terms of the average nine-month equivalent salary paid to full-time faculty in 2020-21, Middlesex College ranked first among two-year colleges in New Jersey at $85,240, according to an article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education on Jan. 3, titled “How Much Has Faculty Pay Changed Over Time?”

At $75,423, Brookdale Community College ranked fourth, according to the article.

The total amount each college paid its full-time faculty in salaries in 2020-21 can be found by multiplying the number of faculty at each institution by their average salary.

That year, Middlesex employed 141 full-time faculty, according to the article, while Brookdale employed 192.

It follows that, in 2020-21, Middlesex paid its full-time faculty a total of $12,018,840, while Brookdale paid its full-time faculty a total of $14,481,216.