HELU Blog

Higher Education Labor United (HELU) to Host Founding Convention at Rutgers University May 17-19, 2024

[New Brunswick, May 15, 2024] – Higher Education Labor United (HELU) is pleased to announce its Founding Convention, scheduled to take place at the Labor Education Center at Rutgers University and online May 17-19. The Convention will bring together educators, staff, students, and organizers from across higher education labor to address pressing issues facing workers […]

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Higher Education Workers Condemn College & University Crackdown on Peaceful Protestors

Higher Education Labor United (HELU) stands with many others in the U.S. labor movement in condemning the arrests and disciplinary actions recently taken by a growing list of college and university leaders at Cal Poly Humboldt, Columbia, Emerson, Emory, NYU, The Ohio State University, Yale, the Universities of Minnesota, Southern California, Texas at Austin, and

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HELU is Hiring: Convention Coordinator

Higher Education Labor United (HELU) urgently seeks temporary staff through the beginning of July 2024 for the position of Convention Coordinator.  The Convention Coordinator serves as the lead for the planning and execution of HELU’s founding convention this spring, including all social organizational infrastructure (physical logistics and social, i.e., across HELU member and prospective member

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A HELU Roundtable in Los Angeles

From Mia McIver, UC-AFT On February 17, 2024, HELU partnered with UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) to host an exciting roundtable conversation in Los Angeles. 50 participants joined in to discuss building coalitional power, politicizing our labor struggles, and expanding the labor movement in higher education. We were welcomed by Loretta

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March 28 – The Big Con in Higher Ed: How Consulting Firms Are Transforming the University and How to Fight Back

Thursday, March 28, 20247pm ET/6pm CT/5pm MT/4pm PTVirtual Forum on Zoom – Register here Please join us for a discussion with experts tracking the methods and impact of these firms and possible tactics to oppose them. Lisa Levenstein (University of North Carolina, Greensboro) will facilitate a conversation with: Part of #LaborSpring Co-sponsored by: Register here.

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National Day of Action for Higher Ed: Get Involved

AAUP-Penn is working together with many higher ed unions, AAUP chapters, HELU members, and student organizations across the country to plan a National Day of Action for Higher Education that will take place on April 17. The aim is not just to beat back the current attacks on academic freedom and on campus protests, DEI bans, and devastating budget

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HELU’s Contingency Task Force: Building Movement in March!

From Joe Ramsey HELU’s Contingency Task Force (CTF) works to center the concerns of contingent faculty (both part-time and full-time), and to raise consciousness more broadly about the way that labor precarity erodes academic freedom and the common good mission of higher education. We also work to develop and share strategies for building faculty solidarity and

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Is HELU’s “wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast” too ambitious?

From Helena Worthen No. Wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast is just the simplest way to state where we’ve got to go in order to eliminate contingency, reclaim academic freedom and get back higher education as a public good. “Wall-to-wall and coast-to-coast” may be ambitious, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. HELU is just the current front

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Maryland Higher Ed Workers Advocate for Passage of Collective Bargaining Law

From Marcus Johnson, Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park and a member of AAUP-AFT. This year, University System of Maryland graduate workers and faculty are once again backing legislation that would recognize collective bargaining (CB) rights for graduate assistants, faculty librarians, full-time and part-time faculty. When the National

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Medical Residents and Fellows in Oregon Health & Science University House Officers Union Ratify Second Contract by 96%

From Evan Bowman, IT Project Coordinator at OHSU and IT Chair of AFSCME Local 328, which represents over 8,000 healthcare workers. Portland, OR – The House Officers Union (AFSCME Local 4820) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) has overwhelmingly voted to ratify their second three-year contract, with 96% of members voting to approve (OHSU

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