After a long week of intense negotiations in Trenton and spirited demonstrations across Rutgers University’s campuses, three striking unions remain on picket lines as the standoff entered its fifth day Friday.

As reported by NJBIZ, Rutgers AAUP-AFT, the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and AAUP-BHSNJ voted to strike Easter Sunday – marking the first in Rutgers’ 257-year history – with picket lines launching Monday at locations around the school’s New Brunswick, Newark and Camden campuses. On April 10, Gov. Phil Murphy called the sides to Trenton to help broker talks.

Those discussions have continued each day until the wee hours of the night. And while the two sides say that some progress has been made, no deal has been reached as talks resumed Friday with an all-day bargaining session planned and negotiations expected to continue over the weekend.

An April 14 press release put out by the striking unions revealed that a tentative agreement was reached on one core proposal, which union leaders said would be transformative at Rutgers: That non-tenured, full-time professors – who currently must be reappointed at the end of their contracts with the university – will become eligible for “presumptive renewal,” meaning they would not have to reapply.

“This is game-changer for faculty members who haven’t had the protection of tenure,” said Rutgers AAUP-AFT President Rebecca Givan. “We’ve taken an important step toward confronting the precarity faced by over 70% of the educators, researchers, and clinicians at Rutgers. Now the administration needs to finish the job by assuring adjunct faculty that they, too, will have real job security and won’t have to reapply every semester.”

Securing more protections for non-tenured professors has been at the core of these discussions, in addition to economic aspects that are being hashed out.

In that press release, Givan said she was hopeful the two sides were closer to an agreement, but that issues that are critical goals for members remain unresolved.

“We’ve already accomplished more in a few days than we did in months, thanks to Gov. Murphy’s invitation for us to bargain in Trenton and the strength of our members on the picket line,” said Givan. “But hard issues remain, and we have some distance to go before we have a contract.”

Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway posted his own update about the talks on the school’s website Thursday, after promising to regularly update the Rutgers community throughout the week.

“I am writing to honor that promise by informing you that the university and the unions have been holding marathon contract negotiation sessions for the past three days in the State House in Trenton, supported by Gov. Murphy’s staff and two state-appointed mediators. Today’s session began late this morning, following Wednesday’s negotiations that ended after midnight, and we anticipate today’s session will be lengthy,” Holloway wrote. “Although I wish negotiations had already been completed by now, the university and the unions continue to make progress toward reaching an agreement. As negotiations continue, please know that the academic success, well-being, and progress of our students remains our utmost priority.”

The strikes have snarled Rutgers campuses as picket lines have grown in size and energy throughout the week, aided by perfect spring weather here in the great Garden State and giving the demonstrations a festival-like atmosphere, with music, singing, chanting and more. Pictures and videos of those festivities have spread across social media.

According to both sides, Murphy’s presence in the talks has accelerated things, despite the differences that remain, especially after negotiations had essentially broken down ahead of the strike, with the unions working without a contract since last summer.

His presence has also – for now – held Rutgers off from any legal actions or court injunctions forcing members back to work, with the school instead trying to hash things out at the bargaining table in Trenton.

“We’re going to keep everybody at the table. I said this publicly and privately,” Murphy told WNYC’s Nancy Solomon during this week’s “Ask Governor Murphy” radio call-in show. “We’re going to stay there until we get this done.”

This story still remains fluid and NJBIZ will have the very latest developments as they play out.