Member Benefits
How to Join
En Espanol
The AFT’s higher education affiliates have been generating a flurry of activity: This fast-growing sector of our union has two brand-new affiliates, at Ohio University and Nevada State University, and five affiliates that are celebrating groundbreaking contracts. In a landscape that includes relentless attacks on higher education funding and academic freedom, these gains are especially significant and show the importance and promise of union solidarity.
New affiliates join the union
At Ohio University, nearly 800 faculty members won the right to collectively bargain after the State Employment Labor Relations Board certified their vote to join the union on March 24 . Their new affiliate, the United Academics of Ohio University, join faculty at 12 unionized campuses across the state who are members of the AFT and the American Association of University Professors.
The final vote was a long time coming: Faculty have been considering unionization since 55 faculty members were fired during the early days of the pandemic in 2020. The petition to unionize was filed in 2024. Top concerns—as the union plans to negotiate its first contract—are job security, faculty voice, shared governance and low wages.
“Faculty working conditions are student learning conditions,” said David LaPalombara, a professor in the School of Art and Design. “When instructors face unstable contracts and unfair wages, it impacts the classroom. Unionization ensures that faculty can dedicate their full energy to teaching, research and student success.”
“I am so proud to be part of OU faculty coming together to vote yes for our union,” said Rachel Terman, an associate professor in sociology. “I am looking forward to a faculty union that works with the administration to do what is best for students, faculty and higher education in Ohio and particularly Southeast Ohio.”
In April, Nevada State University faculty voted to join the AFT through the Nevada Faculty Alliance, an AFT-AAUP local that includes all eight of the state’s institutions of higher learning. NSU is the fourth collective bargaining unit among those schools: Truckee Meadows Community College, Western Nevada College, and the College of Southern Nevada also have collective bargaining. Great Basin College; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and the University of Nevada, Reno, maintain AAUP advocacy chapters. The Desert Research Institute is also an affiliate of NFA.
The NSU vote, which took place April 1 and 2, was overwhelming: Members voted 104-8 to join the union. Among the issues driving the vote were advocating for a safe workplace, fighting for faculty voice and shared governance for decision-making on campus, and improving low and/or stagnant pay.
“This win is the result of countless conversations, collective courage and a faculty who care deeply about one another, our students and the mission of Nevada State University,” said Corey Fernandez, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Counseling. “We are so proud to have reached this point—and even more excited to begin the next chapter: negotiating a contract that protects what we love about NSU and ensures it remains a place where we can all thrive.”
Tenacity and powerful actions lead to contract wins
Faculty at the University of Oregon were on pins and needles as a tentative agreement eluded the United Academics-UO bargaining team—just hours before the spring semester was about to start. They’d already taken a strike vote. Would they be in class the next morning? Or would they be on a picket line?
The bargaining team persisted, the agreement went through, and faculty were able to start the semester without the disruption of a strike—and with their new contract in place.
While leaders hope to win more the next time around, the agreement features some important gains, including higher salary floors. More importantly, the union’s show of confidence and the way members demonstrated that they were ready to strike, if necessary, has commanded respect and paved the way for more meaningful participation in university policymaking and self-advocacy among faculty through the power of the union.
Hundreds of people showed up to the union’s final in-person bargaining session, and a practice picket turned out to be a moving testament to solidarity, complete with union songs led by a music professor. Three other unions on campus—classified workers, graduate workers and undergraduate workers—as well as community members, joined United Academics-UO members at the event, swelling the crowd to 400-500 people and inspiring participants with the power of collective action. That power will expand beyond local advocacy, says UAUO President Mike Urbancic, to create a “more cohesive, active and organized” union that is ready to face larger threats to higher education writ large. “That’s another win,” he says.
Plans are already underway to support the UO Student Workers Union as they fight for a fair contract, to use union voices to advocate for pro-education policy at the state Legislature, and to defend academic programs and research that are increasingly threatened by funding cuts.
At Portland State University, faculty and academic professionals were days away from a strike vote when a tentative agreement was reached March 26. The ratification vote will wrap up April 22.
PSU-AAUP leaders have called their tentative agreement a “strong four-year contract,” including a cost-of-living increase in 2025 that exceeds inflation, 3 percent raises for 2026, and inflation-indexed raises for the remaining two years of the contract. There are also market salary adjustments to bring some of the lower-paid employees up to market. And, says David Kinsella, PSU-AAUP vice president for collective bargaining, because there is “a bit of a budget crisis” at PSU—and there were several layoffs this year—the union fought for and won layoff protections including longer notice periods and stronger language around shared governance regarding layoffs.
The union also won additional compensation for academic professionals who use multiple languages in their work. It was able to demonstrate the need for this provision by bringing members to the table to convey their experiences interacting with multilingual students and their families. In fact, says Kinsella, having members attend bargaining sessions and even share testimony helped move the contract along, as did a seasoned bargaining team, strike preparation and “practice picketing.”
United Faculty of Illinois State University fought for 13 months to negotiate its first contract as the ISU administration stonewalled negotiations, refusing to offer faculty the working conditions, fair wages and benefits they need to be able to support students. Members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if necessary. UFISU’s tenacity and determination won out, though, averting the strike and winning a tentative agreement in early April. Some of the hard-won highlights include paid parental leave, a workload policy to help address chronic overwork and a pay package that will better allow the university to attract and retain top-quality faculty.
Another Illinois union, the University of Illinois Springfield Instructors United, also came close to a strike with its first-ever contract. In the end, the union’s full-time, nontenure-track faculty gained fair workloads and pay to ensure faculty can provide the best possible learning environment for students. “It has been a long and challenging road to secure this first agreement, but we are pleased that [the administration] worked with us in the end so we can stay in the classroom with our students,” said Scott Fenton, UIS English instructor and a member of the union negotiating team. “That is where we want to be.”
Another long bargaining process took place for the Faculty and Staff Federation of Community College of Philadelphia, where faculty and staff bargained for 15 months and averted a strike, reaching a tentative agreement in late March. The agreement offers wage increases, reduced class sizes, four weeks of paid parental leave for full-time employees and more.
[Virginia Myers]