HELU in the News

Higher Ed Labor United can build on more than 25 years of previous organizing—and starts off with a deeper base and broader vision. READ: Helena Worthen in Convergence: “Can HELU Ride the Tiger?”

“We are all campus workers”: New coalition confronts crisis in higher ed with coordination and collaboration READ: Tracy Berger, Aimee Loiselle, Trent McDonald, and Helena Worthen in Convergence: “Higher Ed Labor Unites for All: Faculty, Staff, and Students” 

“How do we have power?” Stacy Davis Gates asked hundreds of academic workers on Zoom this January. The answer, she explained, was to “expand the definition of labor and union,” to bring in members of the communities in which Chicago public schools are situated, building coalitions to amplify demands and grow a movement for equity and justice—an approach called

We in the U.S. have never had a national strategy for dealing with the adjunct/contingent problem in higher education, even as this precarious workforce grew to nearly 75 percent of all faculty in colleges and universities. Instead, organizations have risen and faded, always confronting the competition among the traditional faculty unions. Higher Education Labor United

Disaster capitalism is being applied to colleges and universities at all levels, cutting classes while expanding casualization of the faculty. Not surprisingly, the mainstream media has chosen to focus attention on tenure, not on the overall conflict in the higher ed industry. READ: Joe Berry and Helena Worthen in New Politics: “Tenure Is the Easy Target

“Over the last 50 years of steady decline, higher ed workers, across categories, have been overworked, underpaid, disrespected, demoralized, denied dignity, and faced increased job insecurity.” Walters said watching the creation of HELU has been inspirational with its “unwavering commitment to what our educational institutions ought to be, and the power we are building to

Few in academia have taken the degradation lying down. A new wave of organizing that has taken place during the pandemic stands out for its emphasis on solidarity and coalition building. This organizing is grounded in specific places and systems, but workers have also used this moment to make connections around the country. READ: Ian

Decisions about when and how to reopen campuses, modalities of instruction, class size, tuition, campus services and facilities, staffing levels, and working conditions have been dictated not just by the human needs of those who work or those we serve, but by the bottom-line priorities of upper administrators. READ: Linda Ai-Yun Liu and Joe Ramsey

This summer, over 300 higher ed faculty, staff, and student leaders and activists from dozens of union locals in 30 states (representing over 400,000 higher ed workers!) came together to form a new nation-wide coalition: Higher Ed Labor United (HELU). Coming from across faculty ranks and staff job categories, including both tenure track and contingent faculty, undergraduate and graduate student workers, HELU is united in the belief that we need a higher education system that takes equity seriously, works for all, and puts the common good first.