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. […]
July 2026 HELU Chair’s Message Read More »
by Faith Ericson, delegate to HELU from the Minnesota Inter-Faculty Organization (IFO) 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
Throughout June, we connected with hundreds of HELU member unions, leaders, delegates, at-large members, and fellow workers across the broader higher ed labor movement. At Labor Notes in Chicago, it was incredibly energizing to spend time in person identifying shared concerns, discussing coordinated strategies, and gearing up for federal fights necessary to rewrite the future
June 2026 HELU Chair’s Message Read More »
by Scott Douglas In early 2026, the Long Beach Community College District in Long Beach, California, agreed to an approximately $18 million settlement in a class-action wage-and-hour lawsuit brought by adjunct faculty. The case was backed by the California Teachers Association, which retained outside plaintiff-side employment counsel to litigate the claims. The significance of this
by Gregory Wolmart, Ph.D., Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Film and Media Arts, Temple University; Vice-Chair of Adjunct Constituency Council, Temple Association of University Professionals (TAUP) 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
Reflections on Solidarity and Zero-Sum Thinking from a Cross-Tier Nomad Read More »
by Holly Clarke, Adjunct Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York; member, Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) and Executive Committee John Jay College; member, HELU’s Contingency Task Force and NCOC. I’ve been an adjunct lecturer for more than thirty years at the City University of New York (CUNY). I’m a member
From Levin Kim, HELU Chair and member of UAW 4121: What’s next? In the months leading up to May Day, higher ed workers from coast to coast built power around a simple but powerful set of demands to assert a worker-centered vision for higher ed. More importantly, workers, students, and alumni on campuses and metro
May 2026 HELU Chair’s Message Read More »
By Geoff Johnson, At Large member of HELU and President of the AFT Adjunct/Contingent Caucus At the AFT National Convention in Washington, DC on July 16-19, 2026, the Adjunct/Contingent Caucus will present a resolution calling for AFT to create model language and legislation for Due Process rights for Contingent faculty. This resolution is backed by
Due Process Resolution for Contingents at AFT Convention Read More »
Helena Worthen with Lauren Lassabe Shepherd, HELU individual member, historian of American colleges and universities, author of Resistance from the Right: Conservatives and the Campus Wars in Modern America (University of North Carolina Press, 2023), Inventing the Liberal University (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming), and co-editor of Degrees of Liberation (SUNY Press, forthcoming). Listen to
How the Crackdown on the Encampments Revealed Higher Ed’s MAGA Consensus Read More »
The United Faculty of Florida (UFF) is a statewide union representing close to 10,000 public higher education workers in Florida. UFF has chapters in all public universities (12 in total). We have 16 chapters in the state college system and 4 graduate student chapters. UFF represents mostly instructional faculty and instructional support faculty. HELU asks: In