[New Brunswick, May 19, 2024] – This weekend, May 17-19, Higher Education Labor United (HELU) hosted its Founding Convention. The Convention brought together over 185 educators, staff, students, and organizers from across the country for three days of learning, discussion, and organization-building. Delegates from more than 40 HELU Member Organizations participated in-person at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and online via Zoom.
The Convention’s agenda included ratification of the Constitution & Bylaws, Officer & Steering Committee elections, panel discussions, and networking opportunities. HELU’s General Assembly accepted resolutions and reports from HELU’s committees and the Contingency Task Force.
HELU is pleased to announce the 2024-2026 HELU Officers and Steering Committee:
- Officers
- Chair: Mia McIver, UC-AFT Local 1474
- Vice-Chair: Levin Kim, UAW 4121
- Secretary-Treasurer: TJ Acena, AFSCME Local 328
- Steering Committee Representatives
- Part-Time Adjunct/Contingent Faculty: Anke Wolbert, EMUFT Local 9102
- Full-Time Contingent Faculty: Joseph Ramsey, Faculty Staff Union (FSU/MTA/NEA)
- Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty: Bret Benjamin, United University Professions (UUP)
- Student Workers: Jesús Fernández Cano, TUGSA-AFT Local 6290
- Clerical, Technical, and Research Staff: Sean O’Brien, Wayne Academic Union Local 6075
- Healthcare Staff: Carolyn Kube, United University Professions 2190
- Community Colleges: Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela, Faculty and Staff Federation of Community College of Philadelphia, AFT 2026
- Statewide Systems: WON – Rebecca Givan, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
- Non-collective bargaining advocacy organizations: Aimee Loiselle, Scholars for a New Deal for Higher Education (SFNDHE)
- Non-collective bargaining jurisdiction organizations: Emily Steinlight, AAUP-Penn
The Convention’s General Assembly meeting affirmed HELU’s statement on the ongoing violence against campus protestors. In the near future, HELU will build supportive spaces and resources for campus coalition work related to these protests; organizing against the swift violence workers and students have encountered; the political, historical, & social moment in which we are operating; and how to stand in solidarity in the midst of all this.
Moving forward, HELU intends to focus its energies on National Coordinated Organizing and Politics & Policy. Specifically, it intends to launch a national roadshow for Higher Ed for All and other issues facing the sector. HELU also intends to build its coalition membership as a wall-to-wall, coast-to-coast higher ed labor movement.
About Higher Education Labor United (HELU):
Higher Education Labor United (HELU) is a growing national organization founded in 2021 to unite workers throughout U.S. higher education. HELU is a coalition of local labor unions and other related organizations that brings together staff, student workers, adjunct, contingent, and tenured faculty, postdocs, university health system workers, and others. HELU comes together to create and pursue a unified vision for higher education and to add our strength to a reinvigorated U.S. labor movement. HELU is currently made up of 48 member organizations representing over 200,000 higher education workers. Delegates of these member organizations decide HELU’s direction and priorities. Member organizations also financially support HELU’s work through solidarity pledges.
Contact:
- Helena Worthen, Media & Communications Co-Chair, helenaworthen@gmail.com
- Evan Bowman, Media & Communications Co-Chair, bowmanev@ohsu.edu
- Tracy Berger, Staff, HELU, info@higheredlaborunited.org
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