The energy behind the creation of HELU came from people in organizations like the Debt Collective, Scholars for a New Deal, the unions representing workers at Rutgers University (which were forced into joint action by the university’s austerity response to Covid-19), Jobs with Justice, the multiple arms of the contingent faculty movement, and the Bernie Sanders campaign. The campaign secured the inclusion of labor issues in the scope of the College for All Act, which was backed by Senator Sanders and Senator Pramila Jayapal, but those issues were eliminated when the proposed legislation was absorbed into Biden’s Build Back Better Act. However, the need to form an ongoing national coalition was growing. The people working on HELU wrote a “vision platform” laying out the details. This platform was soon endorsed by about 120 local labor unions and organizations.
