As part of her work as NCHE vice president, Mackey has galvanized MEA and NEA participation in a new initiative to organize various labor unions representing workers at colleges and universities — known as Higher Education Labor United (HELU).
“HELU is connecting the dots so that everybody’s communicating and working together, rather than having all these individual efforts happening in different places. It doesn’t matter if you’re UAW or AFT or NEA — we’re all unions, and we’re all working for the same stuff.”
The new coalition has helped to coordinate national opposition against federal threats to academic freedom and research funding at public institutions of higher learning, Mackey added.
“It’s already bringing collective action. It’s already bringing recognition of here’s what’s happening in one state and how it moves to another state — here’s the pattern.”
