academic labor

University of California is Cracking Down on Workers and Dissent

by Rafael Jaime

The arrest of three UC labor activists on vandalism charges related to chalking a sidewalk with pro-labor slogans show that the university will throw its commitment to free speech out the window when it comes to playing hardball with graduate workers, says one grad union leader. 

Turning Universities Red

by Steve Fraser

American colleges were built to serve the children of elites and maintain the social order they dominated. Despite fears of liberal indoctrination on campus, growing labor movements including all workers are the only way that colleges will really make a more egalitarian society. 

Ohio Unions Link Academic Freedom and the Freedom to Strike

Ohio public sector unions say that a bill limiting faculty's power to strike is reminiscent of previous efforts to disempower public workers in the state, and are closing ranks around academic workers. 

How Media Discussions of Tenure Distort its Meaning and Undermine Academics

by Deepa Das Acevedo

Tenure absolutely does not provide "a job for life" for anyone, but the belief that it does is used to justify political attacks on academics. 

The Labor of Teaching and Administrative Hysteria

by Elise Archias and Blake Stimson

Although diversity and cultural sensitivity administrators often embrace (and arguably encourage) student complaints about ideas presented in the classroom, students are more harmed when administrators use those complaints to undercut the expertise and autonomy of faculty who have effective ways of teaching difficult material.

Faculty and Librarians Must be Allies in the Fight to Save Higher Ed

by Emily Drabinski

"A robust defense of free expression requires an equally vociferous defense of the institutions where that speech is most widely celebrated. The fight for higher education must be a fight for the library as well."

DeSantis's Real Campus Attack is on Labor

by Dan Royles

"I’m exhausted because I teach U.S. history, including African American and LGBTQ+ history, at a public university in Florida." This places the author at the intersection of DeSantis's public attacks on verboten ideas and his quieter steps to gut tenure protections for the state's faculty and union representation for all educators in Florida.  

U. of Michigan Faculty Shouldn't Flatter New President while the Administration Busts Unions and Politicians Trash Higher Ed

by Silke-Maria Weineck

Top administrators increasingly share with conservative politicians a "desire to refashion universities in the image of the American workplace, where at-will employees do what they’re told by feudal overlords who have poems commissioned in their praise."

Rutgers Strikers Ran the Table; Is This the Way out of Higher Ed's Crisis?

by Jonathan David

Three Rutgers unions, representing instructors in different professional positions, won by modeling the kind of solidarity that university workers need to fight back against the privatization and corporatization of public higher education. 

Rutgers Unions Suspend Strike after Big Gains

Although unions representing graduate workers, lecturers, and full-time faculty must approve them, a framework for agreement has been reached that would deliver significant gains in wages and other demands. 

If Universities are a Culture War Battleground, it's Time for University Workers to Fight Together

by Jeff Kolnick

"If higher education loses out in the culture wars, so too will American democracy. Our only hope is to enter the fray with our own culture in mind, and to insist on respect. If we stay on the sideline, we will lose."

A Faculty Union Can Fight for More than Money

by J. Faith Almiron

"What exactly does the university offer to students who take on enormous, as-yet unforgivable debts—without reliable teachers?"

Graduate Student Strikes Fight Back Against Decades of Austerity, Seek to Revive Opportunity

Participants in these actions explain that the goal isn't only pay and benefits for graduate student workers, but returning public higher education to a state of accessibility for millions of students and opportunity for millions of workers after decades of budget cuts and privatization. 

Why are Universities so Disrespectful of their Organized Workers?

by Maximillian Alvarez

From teaching assistants to cafeteria workers, labor exploitation and union busting are the shady underside of the modern university, according to three scholars active in the academic labor movement. 

Is the Loss of Collegiality about Manners or Workloads?

by Paula Marantz Cohen

If the campus conversation is a lost art for both professors and students, a big part of the solution must be restoring the time – and security – to talk. 

Rearranging Deck Chairs at AHA?

by Jacob Bruggeman

"If professional history is history, it isn’t due to academic politics — it’s because of the sharp contraction and possible collapse of the job market." What are the profession's ostensible leaders going to do about it? 

North Dakota Prof: Tenure Reform Bill is About Silencing Whistleblowers

by Eric Grabowsky

A professor says that, aside from academic freedom implications, a bill proposed to reduce tenure protections is aimed at intimidating critics of the university system's management. 

Academic Workers Looking to History for Organizing Strategies in Antiunion States

The United Public Workers of America were pioneers in organizing academic workers across professional and occupational lines, until being red-baited. 

Another Casualty of the Academic Job Market? The Relatable Professor

by Elizabeth Stice

As the academic job market demands a degree of excellence and achievement in young scholars that was unknown for earlier generations of faculty, are the shrinking ranks of the faculty being filled with professors who struggle to relate to their students? 

Temple Revives Old-Time Union Busting against Grad Students

by Heather Ann Thompson

Temple's decision to revoke the tuition remission of striking grad students (and threaten their ability to complete degrees) is the kind of hardball tactic that bodes ill for workers in every workplace in America, and a reminder of the need to understand the country's labor history.