In higher ed today, the wisdom of marrying the labor and racial justice movements is once again apparent, Karin Alejandra Rosemblatt writes. When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., the civil rights leader was in town to lead a march in support of the city’s striking sanitation workers. The march and the protests leading up to it had been organized by a coalition of civil rights and labor leaders. Today, the labor and racial justice movements must remember that history as they come together again to defend the steps institutions of higher education have taken toward greater racial justice.
The three Rutgers University faculty and staff unions that went on strike for one week in April have reached tentative contract agreements that would provide salary increases and new job benefits to 9,000 educators, researchers and clinicians. The deal includes protections from caste-based discrimination and additional paid leave for postdoctoral workers. It comes on the heels of a one-week work stoppage in April, the first in the university's 257-year history.