HELU Articles
February 2026 HELU Chair’s Message
From Levin Kim, HELU Chair and member of UAW 4121: What would it look like for the higher ed labor movement to make our collective power visible on May 1st, 2026? Yesterday, HELU delegates came together for the first General Assembly of 2026. In addition to reviewing and approving reports on HELU activities over the…
Northeast Regional Bargaining “Amherst Compact” Gathering Endorsements
Bret Benjamin, United University Professions and Co-Chair, HELU National Coordinated Organizing Committee The participants in the Northeast Regional Bargaining Conference produced a higher ed bargaining platform they called the Amherst Compact to guide coordinated collective bargaining. It is now gathering formal endorsements from the 55 unions that sent participants as well as other locals in the…
House and Senate Hearings for University of Maryland non-tenure track faculty: Collective bargaining for non-tenure-track faculty
Karin Rosemblatt, HELU delegate and UAM-UMD (United Academics of Maryland, University of Maryland) President In states where there are holes in public sector collective bargaining enabling legislation, the fight for the right to unionize and bargain has to take place in the legislature and on the ground. On February 10, 93 University of Maryland-College Park colleagues…
Solidarity Wins: Alex and Yan Are Home
Brendan McGovern, UUP (United University Professions), Binghamton Chapter President On February 17 and 18, UUP member Alcibiades “Alex” Lazaro Ramirez González and his husband, CSEA member Yannier “Yan” Vázquez Hidalgo, walked out of federal detention and back into the arms of their union family. Their ordeal began last October when they arrived at a scheduled…
Loud conversations in the union hall: Teachers and students during the Minnesota ICE “Metro surge”
Faith Ericson, Delegate to HELU from the Minnesota Inter-Faculty Organization (IFO) There is a student I haven’t seen since the first week of the semester. He’s in the National Guard and has been deployed to respond to the mayhem brought on by the “Metro Surge” in the Twin Cities. Another student tells me she watched…
Who decides what we teach?
Mike Budd, Delegate from United Faculty of Florida In our continuing series on what’s happening in Florida, including this and this, here’s the latest news on the state of Florida’s attacks on the teaching of sociology and the fightbacks by UFF and its allies. On Feb. 18, 2026, the United Faculty of Florida (FEA/NEA/AFT/AFL-CIO), sponsored…