HELU Blog

By Michelle Granger, Contract Action Team Lead, NMSU-NEA; HELU-NM Delegate We know that current attacks on higher education are really attacks on the middle class and the workers who support our economy. It’s a hard time to be a worker in higher education. But when things get difficult, opportunities are born! In New Mexico, HELU

By Brendan McGovern, UUP Binghamton Chapter President As higher education unions prepare to gather in Chicago on October 24, groundbreaking protections negotiated by United University Professions are helping shape a national labor response to artificial intelligence. When higher education union members from across the country gather at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) on October

By Michelle Lacey, AAUP Louisiana On the afternoon of May 1, 2026, a group of Tulane faculty, staff, and affiliates gathered in the pouring rain on Poydras Street in downtown New Orleans, eagerly awaiting the outcome of negotiations that had been ongoing since the fall of 2024. When a representative emerged, they finally heard an

By Tracy Berger, HELU Communications Coordinator and member of United Campus Workers Colorado At MIT, an alliance between property service workers and graduate students shows the power of wall-to-wall organizing for living wages and workers’ rights against a shared, well-resourced management. On October 23, workers with SEIU Local 32BJ will bargain for the first time

By Seth Kahn, APSCUF member and faculty at West Chester University I knew we were in for a good day before the “Affordable College Now!” rally even began. By the time our bus of about 60 students, faculty, and staff from Cheyney and West Chester Universities got there, the scene was already LOUD. A student

A response to Evan D. Morris, “Postdocs Aren’t Burger Flippers: Why Unionization Is a Bad Idea” in Inside Higher Ed. 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

By Sean O’Brien, Wayne Academic Union (WAU AFT-AAUP Local #6075) 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. Wayne Academic Union was not alone in this. It

A response to Evan D. Morris, “Postdocs Aren’t Burger Flippers: Why Unionization Is a Bad Idea” in Inside Higher Ed. by Tessa Barber, M.A. 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

Unionization mends the pitfalls of temporary employment that can bring a student or faculty member’s untenured progress to a halt. Written and edited by Katya Incle, Allison Brown, and Jamie Dietrich, members of United Campus Workers of Arizona – CWA Local 7065 A response to Evan D. Morris, “Postdocs Aren’t Burger Flippers: Why Unionization Is