Posts tagged Higher Education Labor United
First-Ever Bargaining Compact Unites Higher Ed Unions Across Northeastern US
May 5, 2026 // Together, they drafted a document called the Amherst Compact. While it is largely aspirational, it commits HELU to working “to coordinate bargaining priorities that raise the floor for workers of all job categories across the most densely-unionized region of the U.S.,” the Northeast. Moreover, the agreement pledges solidarity across job titles, even on campuses where multiple unions represent workers in different employment categories — buildings and grounds; clerical; custodial; food service; research; security; or teaching — and regardless of whether the workers are employed by university hospitals or degree-granting bodies.
Graduate Unions: Why Student Workers at University of California, Temple, More Are Striking
March 27, 2023 // HELU was founded in 2021 in an effort to fill those shoes. At a digital summit that July, members of 75 unions and labor organizations convened to draft a “vision platform” laying out everything from their legislative commitments (like Sen. Bernie Sanders’s College for All Act) to their support of student debt cancelation. The endgame is a unified academic labor movement capable of securing public investment and reorienting higher ed to “prioritize people and the common good over profit and prestige.” To date, 130 unions and affiliated groups representing over half a million workers have endorsed the platform. The first step in realizing this vision, says Jaime, who attended the 2021 summit, is to build union density. “Transforming academia is not going to happen in one single contract campaign. We have to organize workers in every single university in order to achieve real change,” he says.