HELU Articles
January 2025 HELU Chair’s Message
From Mia McIver, HELU Chair, UC-AFT Local 1474 Dear HELU Members and Friends, As higher ed workers, many of us are experiencing mounting attacks on our scientific research, humanistic inquiry, and politico-socio-cultural analysis, not to mention our very personhood. The premises of our common educational project–knowledge, expertise, teaching, and learning–are targets of suspicion, while our…
The NCSCBHE 2024 Directory: A Boon to Unions, Researchers and Educators
From Joe Berry, Delegate to HELU from AFT 2121, City College of San Francisco; Member, Outreach Committee The new 2024 Directory of Bargaining Agents and Contracts in Institutions in Higher Education by William A Herbert, Jacob Apkarian, and Joseph van der Naald is an excellent update of the last 2012 comprehensive directory issued by the…
“Alone our debts are a burden, but together they give us power.”
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…
Why should healthcare unions join HELU?
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)…
United Steelworkers Local 1088 is newest HELU member
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…
November 2024 HELU Chair’s Message
From Mia McIver, HELU Chair, UC-AFT Local 1474 Dear HELU Members and Friends, During our November 2024 General Assembly meeting, HELU delegates from around the country took stock of our current situation. Higher ed staff, student workers, contingent faculty, and tenure-line faculty from public and private institutions, from community colleges, state schools, and research universities,…