From Levin Kim, HELU Chair and member of UAW 4121:
We started off 2026 with an energetic Northeast Regional Bargaining (NERB) summit that brought together representatives from 55+ unions across the Northeast to collectively author the Amherst Compact outlining shared bargaining priorities around topics like compensation, job security, academic freedom, health care, leave, and more.
We were also proud to rally behind our colleagues in Minnesota at the forefront of the Trump Administration’s escalation of attacks on immigrant communities by deploying ICE agents into the state in the name of “immigration enforcement.”…
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Contingent Faculty Working Conditions: Ways Forward
As contingency spreads throughout the higher ed workforce, pushback is happening. A wage theft lawsuit in Long Beach, California, will garner thousands of dollars for California part-timers, and the AFT has just passed a resolution for due process at their convention. What will happen next? These three articles about ways forward, by delegates from Minnesota, New York, and Philadelphia, were first presented at a zoom conference last April.
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by Faith Ericson
After serving in two educational unions, I have seen real work to improve conditions for contingent faculty. My roles have included executive committee service, contingent faculty committee work, bargaining, and legislation. One obstacle is encouraging contingent faculty involvement. Not because unions do not care, or contingent faculty do not care. If that were the explanation, the solution would be easier: offer incentives, tell heartfelt stories, and show what the union can offer.
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by Holly Clarke
I’ve been an adjunct lecturer for more than thirty years at the City University of New York (CUNY). I’m a member of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the faculty and staff union for CUNY. More than half of faculty across the country are contingent workers who teach without job protections, with low pay, and with few benefits. This adjunctification of the university has been decried for years.
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by Gregory Wolmart
I want to speak about obstacles to cross-rank solidarity by way of a short personal narrative — first as a tenure-track professor who was denied tenure, and now as an elected adjunct representative in my union, where I recently helped negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. What I’ve come to believe is this: the tier system is not a credential-based, let alone merit-based hierarchy of positions. It is a managerial technology, and it disciplines all of us, on every tier.
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Higher Ed Labor in the News
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