From Levin Kim, HELU Chair and member of UAW 4121:
Precarity continues to persist as an increasingly permanent feature of higher ed institutions. Postdocs across the sector are organizing to change that. Hugo Plombat is one of 1,500 Postdocs at the University of Michigan (UM-PRO) currently fighting for a first contract that includes a fair pay scale, increased job security and immigration protections, and family leave after unionizing last year. They are joining a growing movement of early-career scientists and researchers across the country that has been growing over the last twenty years. In 2008, thousands of Postdocs at the University of California system won the first Postdoc union with UAW Local 5810 (now UAW Local 4811). Since then, countless Postdoc unions have formed, including the Postdocs at the University of Washington (UAW Local 4121) that won collective bargaining rights by changing state law in 2018.
Earlier this year, Postdocs at Washington State University expanded early-career researchers’ power in our state after winning a first contract and joining UAW Local 4591. Across the country, a strong majority of Postdocs at Yale voted to join Unite HERE Local 33; Northwestern Postdocs started negotiating a first contract after forming NUPU-UE Local 1151. Postdocs at Columbia, Mt. Sinai, and Weill Cornell are part of building worker power across New York City with UAW Local 4100.
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✨ FEATURED EVENTS ✨
October 24 | Chicago, IL
Against the AI Campus: Building Power in Higher Ed
HELU and our partners in UIC United Faculty AFT Local 6456 are hosting a day-long deep dive into higher education, EdTech, and AI. This workshop is aimed at: understanding and producing contract language that protects workers; strategizing together to create a national organizing model against the technoligarchy; creating legislative frameworks locals can take to their state legislatures and Congress; and deepening workers’ understanding of the issue.
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September 26 | 1pm ET | Pittsburgh, PA
Fair Contract Rally TOMORROW at CCAC
AFT Local 2067 at the Community College of Allegheny County is engaged in a contentious contract negotiation over fair compensation, benefits, and working conditions. They are hosting a Fair Contract Rally this Saturday, September 26 at 1 PM at CCAC Allegheny campus, 808 Ridge Ave. on the North Shore. Learn more here.
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by Caro Pirri
On August 14th, I sat down with Jen Goeckeler-Fried, Chair of the Bargaining Committee for the staff union at Pitt, to talk about her experience with bargaining. This is a transcript of highlights of our conversation.
“We’re all workers. We are all fighting for the same things. We want respect; we want our work to be valued and compensated fairly. It doesn’t matter if you’re a grad worker, a staff member, or faculty – you deserve a safe workplace, you deserve that respect, you deserve to have a say in your working conditions.” – Jen Goeckeler-Fried
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by Sean O’Brien
Higher ed unions were activated after HELU’s Michigan Senate Candidate Town Hall. After personally interacting with several candidates, each of whom presented a clear vision for higher education and labor, local unions wanted to get involved.
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Postdocs are workers, and workers should organize!
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Responses to an argument against postdoc unionization published in Inside Higher Ed.
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by Hugo Plombat
I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Michigan (UM), where I study climate science and oceanography. I am also an international researcher from France and a member of the University of Michigan Postdoctoral Researchers Organization (UM-PRO), a new union representing 1,500 postdocs at UM.
Postdocs are full-time employees with PhDs who conduct much of the research that universities are known for. We run experiments, mentor students, write papers and grants, develop new technologies, and produce cutting-edge knowledge. Postdocs develop life-saving medical treatments, study climate change, and make discoveries that shape the future of humanity. Yet for decades, postdocs had no say over the conditions under which we work. That is beginning to change.
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written and edited by Katya Incle, Allison Brown, and Jamie Dietrich
We couldn’t help but wince at the unwieldy ideas about unionization in higher education in Evan D. Morris’ recent article. It seems he’s too far removed from postdoc needs to understand the purpose of union safeguards. Instead of questioning why he wrote this piece in the first place, we offer here insights he may have overlooked on the importance of unionization.
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by Tessa Barber
I am a graduate student. I am an employee of my university. One of those identities does not supersede the other. Instead, they live in tandem. My institution expects me to switch those roles like hats when they justify why I deserve labor rights in some cases but not in others. The claim that graduate assistants and postdocs don’t “need” unions because our relationship to our supervisors is one of mentorship rather than employment is not new. This backward framing has reared its ugly head on a number of occasions. It’s the reason postdoc and graduate student employee labor has whipsawed between “employee” and “non-employee” status under the NLRB for decades, leaving workers’ basic protections hostage to definitional disputes.
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Higher Ed Labor in the News
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We invite you to support HELU’s work by making a direct financial contribution. While HELU’s main source of income is solidarity pledges from member organizations, these funds from individuals help us to grow capacity as we work to align the higher ed labor movement.
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