AAUP Unionism

As we’ve seen increasing attacks against our right to teach, research, and advocate for higher education as a public good, we also know what we have to do in response: organize with even greater purpose. We’re starting with workshops run by Jane McAlevey’s Skills to Win program. The program helps hone and develop member and leader organizing skills so that we can stand together, fight back, and build a better future for ourselves, our students, and higher education.

Organizing is a democratic form of building and maintaining an active membership base in order to effect change. The main principle behind successful organizing, and behind the formation of AAUP chapters, is collective action. When faculty speak and act with one voice, they demonstrate a large-scale commitment to the issues around which they organize. Effective organizing results in more equitable handbook and contract language, more robust shared governance, and better educational policies.

For more than a half century, unions have proven effective in struggles to defend tenure, protect academic freedom, and secure “a sufficient degree of economic security to make the profession attractive to men and women of ability.” Four main factors distinguish AAUP unionism: a commitment to academic freedom and shared governance, local autonomy, an emphasis on organizing, and dedication to organizational democracy.