HELU Blog

From Jason Wozniak, Associate Professor at West Chester University, PA, Member of APSCUF, Delegate to HELU from The Debt Collective In 2024, Debt Collective – the nation’s first debtors’ union – became a dues-paying HELU member organization. At Debt Collective we believe that debt is fundamentally a labor issue. When labor is weak and unionization […]

From Carolyn Kube MT (ASCP), Vice President for Professionals, United University Professions (UUP) at SUNY, HELU Steering Committee Member and Outreach Committee Vice Chair Just as faculty and staff say, “Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” healthcare workers say, “Our working conditions are our patients living or dying conditions.”  Higher Education Labor United (HELU)

From Jesús Fernández, TUGSA-AFT Local 6290, HELU Steering Committee Member and Outreach Committee Chair During the last weeks of the Fall 2024 semester, the HELU Outreach team met with several members of United Steelworkers Local 1088. USW Local 1088 represents academic and staff workers in colleges and universities around the Pittsburgh area. After the meeting between

From Katie Rainwater, Cynthia Patterson, Leon Hardy, and Maureen McCormick of United Faculty of Florida. On November 1, 2024, the Tampa Bay Creative Loafing reported some 400 services workers at University of South Florida (USF) would be transferred to the Compass Group, a giant corporate “family” of foodservice and facilities service companies. Under this transfer,

Katie Rodgers, PhD. Lecturer at UC Davis, is President of UC-AFT. UC Berkeley administration has called for a hiring freeze for lecturers for the 2025-26 school year. These teaching faculty are represented by UC-AFT and teach 30-40% of the credit hours across the University of California. Union members are organizing against these detrimental prospective cuts.

From Geoff Johnson, Part-time Faculty Rep California Community College Council (CFT) and CTA/CCA Part-time Faculty Issues Committee Chair For those outside California, know that the pushback on cuts to higher ed is happening. A mass rally and march, the March in March, will be taking place on March 4th, 2025 in Sacramento. The march will

Jenna Chernega, Ph.D, President of Inter Faculty Organization (IFO), Winona State University Thanks to Minnesota’s new North Star Promise program, enrollment in public and tribal higher education is increasing for the first time in over a decade. This initiative, which the Inter Faculty Organization (IFO) and other unions organized hard to win, was implemented in

From Brendan McGovern – President, United University Professions, Binghamton As we prepare for the incoming Trump administration, the challenges ahead for unions and higher education are likely to intensify. The formation of Campus Labor Councils (CLCs) is an essential strategy to build unity, reinforce our collective power, and protect our rights. By joining forces, campus

From Bill Shields, retired Chair of the Labor and Community Studies Program at HELU member AFT Local 2121, City College of San Francisco. The Italian education union, the Federazione Lavoratori della Conoscenza, (FLC) went on a 1-day strike on October 31, with demonstrations, sit-ins and flash mobs in 40 cities. Bargaining on a national basis