The following remarks were delivered on Monday, September 16 at the press conference held at Community College of Philadelphia to announce the Statement of Unity.
My name is Mia McIver. I teach as a contingent faculty member at UCLA. I serve as the elected chair of Higher Ed Labor United.
HELU is a nationwide coalition of 50 member unions and organizations. HELU is building a wall to wall, coast to coast higher ed labor movement to reclaim higher education as a public good.
Today our movement is taking action. College in this country should be something that everyone has access to and everyone benefits from. That’s why higher ed workers across this country are fighting back against the big money interests and corporate takeovers that are hollowing out our colleges and universities.
Today we’re speaking with one unified voice to stand up for college education, stand up for university research, stand up for good jobs, stand up for opportunity for all.
The coalition of unions backing the Statement of Unity is unprecedented. We’re here to say together that we have faith in the value of higher education. Labor is standing up for higher ed.
Some have lost confidence that a college degree is worth it. That’s understandable. State funding for higher ed has plummeted. That’s why tuition is sky high and student debt is crushing. Indebted students are being taught by indebted faculty.
When students and their families pay those tuition bills, when they make those never-ending student loan payments, where does the money go?
Not to college teachers, the vast majority of whom are underpaid part-timers with no job security.
Not to campus service workers, who clean the dorms but can’t afford housing themselves.
Not to college and university staff, who struggle to stay in the middle class.
Not to researchers, who have to raise the money for their own salaries.
Not to student workers, who can’t make ends meet while pursuing their degrees.
And that’s because higher ed has become effectively privatized. The profits and benefits are flowing just to a select few, not to the many to whom they rightfully belong.
As a contingent faculty member myself, I’ve seen the way that our academic departments are starved for funding, even in wealthy institutions. UCLA raised 5 billion dollars and still pays contingent teaching faculty only $18,000 a year.
Part-time, temporary, and precarious faculty are employed as gig workers and asked to provide a college education on poverty wages.
It’s intolerable. It’s unsustainable.
That’s why it’s time to rededicate our colleges and universities to education and research in the public interest.
It’s time to demand that colleges and universities provide full-time, secure, in-sourced jobs with thriving wages. Higher ed workers must be able to enjoy the same opportunities we promise to unlock for our students.
It’s time for full public reinvestment in our nation’s community colleges, technical schools, state universities, and research institutions.
Because we need, and students deserve, higher ed for all.