Collective Bargaining

Angela Hewett Named Director Of Organizing And Services

Angela Hewett has joined the AAUP staff as director of the Department of Organizing and Services. Over the last nine years Hewett has worked in a variety of roles within the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) at both the national and the local level, most recently as staff coordinator with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West. She previously served as an assistant professor of English at George Washington University, where she helped organize a bargaining unit of more than 1,600 contingent faculty members.

Part-Time Faculty In Michigan Say Yes To Union

In October, contingent faculty at Northern Michigan University voted to become a part of the existing AAUP collective bargaining chapter, which already represented tenured and tenure-track faculty.

The vote was 54–5 in favor of “accreting,” or adding onto the existing union, which means that one hundred contingent faculty members will join the existing three-hundred-person bargaining unit. Those eligible are contingent faculty teaching at least eight credits a year.

I Want to Be a Member of a Graduate Student Employee Union Because...

A union will stand up for my economic interests.

  • I want a voice in establishing both my working conditions and the rights and standards of the profession.
  • Graduate student employees deserve to receive a living wage in exchange for their work.
  • By working collectively, graduate student employees can make certain that their compensation is a campus priority.
  • I cannot concentrate on my professional development if I am distracted by economic insecurity.

New Faculty Union at University of Oregon

This spring, faculty members at the University of Oregon filed union authorization cards with the state Employment Relations Board and came to an agreement with the administration, clearing the way for union certification.

The Call to Organize

The AAUP has recently seen more new collective bargaining organizing opportunities than we have in years. In a successful solo campaign, we helped faculty at Bowling Green State University form a union, and—together with the American Federation of Teachers and groups of dedicated faculty activists on each campus—we made history with successful organizing campaigns at two research universities: the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Oregon.

Summer Institute Offers Skills, Networking, and Fun

About two hundred faculty members and other higher education professionals gathered at Roosevelt University in Chicago from July 26 to 29 for the AAUP’s Summer Institute, cosponsored by the AAUP’s Collective Bargaining Congress and Assembly of State Conferences. The event is geared toward both unionized and nonunionized faculty activists at all types of institutions.

Academic Unionism Statement

In November 2005, the AAUP Council endorsed the adoption by the Collective Bargaining Congress of the following document as a statement of principles. (The AAUP Collective Bargaining Congress was a sister organization of the AAUP that operated from January 1, 2013 until December 31, 2019, after which its programs were folded into the AAUP.)

Chapter Organizing

The main principle behind successful organizing, and behind the formation of AAUP chapters, is collective action. When faculty speak and act with one voice, we demonstrate a large-scale commitment to the issues around which we organize.

Organizing in Challenging Contexts

This page provides a short overview of the common challenges that academic workers face when they seek unionization. It then describes the special legal and ideological challenges that some faculty and graduate students face in their bids to form higher education unions. It concludes with a primer on strategies that academic workers have used to overcome some of these challenges.

Resources on Collective Bargaining

These are resources about the topic of collective bargaining generally. If you are interested in organizing a chapter, please see our organizing resources here. If you want to organize a state conference, or have questions about collective bargaining, please e-mail [email protected].

AAUP Policy Statements, Reports, & Analysis

Statement on Collective Bargaining. 2017 revision.

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