Posts tagged academic freedom
HACC faculty reject administration’s latest contract offer, potential strike on horizon
October 2, 2025 // HACC faculty voted 91% against the college’s contract proposal, citing pay and working condition concerns. Union leaders will meet Monday to consider next steps. Withrow emphasized that the union’s goal was not about one side winning. Rather, she said, "a strong contract ensures that the people who teach and support students every day have a fair voice in the conditions that make learning possible." The union is affiliated with the Pennsylvania State Education Association and represents faculty at HACC campuses in Adams, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lebanon and York counties.
Chicago Teachers Union secures clean energy wins in new contract
April 22, 2025 // If approved, the contract will result in new programs that prepare students for clean energy jobs, developed in collaboration with local labor unions. It mandates that district officials work with the teachers union to seek funding for clean energy investments and update a climate action plan by 2026. And it calls for installing heat pumps and outfitting 30 schools with solar panels — if funding can be secured. The Southeast Environmental Task Force led the successful fight to ban new petcoke storage in Chicago, and the group’s co-executive director Olga Bautista is also vice president of the 21-member school board. People for Community Recovery was founded by Hazel Johnson, who is often known as “the mother of the environmental justice movement.” And ONE Northside emphasizes the link between clean energy and affordable housing.
Virginia Tech graduate students and staff are launching labor unions
September 7, 2023 // It’s an effort that has been in the works for three years, as the groups have quietly recruited members while, across the country, campus labor unions have gained attention. On Tuesday, members of the United Campus Workers of Virginia Tech (UCW-VT) and the Virginia Tech Graduate Labor Union (VT GLU) will team up in a rally on the Blacksburg campus. They hope going public will attract new members and draw attention to their efforts to press university administrators for improvements for campus workers at all levels. Together, the unions have a potential membership of about 20,000 people affiliated with Tech.
Unions Against Teachers
August 29, 2023 // Many teachers comply, despite disagreement with the union, simply to avoid perceived or actual liability. Among those who don’t, many would rather quit than get dragged to court or end up in the local news over a political dustup.