HELU’s Wall-to-Wall and Coast-to-Coast Report – January 2025

From the HELU Blog:

Why should healthcare unions join HELU?

Profiteers have taken over our hospitals and put patients’ lives on the line. They are forcing the closure of hospitals that do not make a profit. Insurance companies tell us how and when to treat our patients. The corporatization of both academia and healthcare are ruining the quality of education and health respectively for many of our students and patients. 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.”… Read more.

United Steelworkers Local 1088 is Newest HELU Member

HELU keeps growing thanks to locals like 1088 who agree with our theory of change and also carry it on their workplaces to build a higher education system that works for all. Our strength and coalitional capacity increases thanks to the engagement of members within their locals carrying our strategic vision and program…. Read more.
 

“Alone our debts are a burden, but together they give us power.”

Debt permeates nearly all aspects of today’s neoliberal higher education landscape. Our students accumulate mountains of debt while studying, and faculty labor under unpayable debt burdens which are particularly burdensome for contingent faculty, who often work multiple jobs so they can make student loan payments. The universities we teach and learn in are drowning in billions of dollars of debt owed to Wall Street…. Read more.
 

The NCSCBHE 2024 Directory: A Boon to Unions, Researchers and Educators

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 National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining for Higher Education and the Professions… Read more.

Defend the University: Lessons from Brazil & Argentina on Resisting Fascist Attacks on Higher Education

Wednesday, January 29 at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT

Universities in the United States are under conservative and neoliberal attack. The Trump administration has promised to intensify the assault on higher education. In this Jubilee School discussion, leading Argentine and Brazilian scholar-activists that have fought to defend their public universities from the Milei and Bolsonaro regimes will share lessons on how to defend higher education against fascist attacks. Register here.
 

Coalition for Action in Higher Education: National Day of Action Organizing Call

Friday, January 31 at 2pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT

On April 17, we will hold a National Day of Action for Higher Education to assert our collective power to organize for higher education and protect the common good. Before April, we’ll be hosting a series of national organizing calls to plan the Day of Action events. Our first call is Friday, January 31, at 2pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT. Register here.
 

Winning Healthcare in Minnesota and New Jersey for Contingent Faculty: Lessons from Oregon and California

Wednesday, February 12 at 6pm ET/5pm CT/4pm MT/3pm PT

On April 17, we will hold a National Day of Action for Higher Education to assert our collective power to organize for higher education and protect the common good. Before April, we’ll be hosting a series of national organizing calls to plan the Day of Action events. Our first call is Friday, January 31, at 2 pm ET/1pm CT/Noon MT/11am PT. Register here.
 

Coalition for Action in Higher Education: Antisemitism, False Charges of Antisemitism, and Building Resistance Workshop

Thursday, February 20 at 5pm ET/4pm CT/3pm MT/2pm PT

Part of building mutual solidarities, resistance, and narratives to fight false accusations of antisemitism is through widespread political education. PARCEO will share its approach and issues it addresses in its curriculum on antisemitism from a framework of collective liberation, as well as challenges that arise. Register here.
 

Want to support our work? Make a contribution.