Wave of Higher Ed Union Strikes Swells Nationwide

Rutgers University. The New School. University of Michigan. The University of California. Temple University. University of Illinois at Chicago.

These are some of the schools embroiled in a wave of recent strikes in higher education in the U.S., as workers in the industry demand improvements from their institutions for their ongoing labor.

Unions in higher ed may go on strike after months of bargaining and impasse in negotiations on issues and demands from higher ed employees such as wage increases, better working conditions, and reliable job security.

Dr. Ruth MilkmanJob security in higher ed is one of the biggest issues, particularly for those in lecturer and adjunct positions at schools, said Dr. Ruth Milkman, chair of Labor Studies department at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Labor and Urban Studies. The nontenure-track roles come with little job security if there is no multi-year contract, leaving some of these instructors with no guarantee from semester to semester whether their jobs will be there so they can teach and earn income, Milkman said.

For part-time faculty members at The New School in New York City – where almost 90% of its instructors are part-time – one key concern in their 2022 strike was adequate compensation for coursework done outside of the classroom, including grading, syllabus-building, writing letters of recommendation, holding office hours, responding to student emails, and course preparation, Zoe Carey said at the time. Carey is president of ACT-UAW Local 7902, a union representing more than 4,000 part-time and adjuncts, student educators, and healthcare workers at New York University and The New School.

“The New School is pleased to have reached a strong, fair, five-year contract with ACT-UAW Local 7902, the union representing our part-time faculty, a contract that increases compensation significantly, protects health care benefits, and ensures that part-time faculty are paid for additional work done outside the classroom to support our students,” reads a May 1 statement from The New School. “The new contract allows our community to move forward fully focused on continuing to provide our students with an exceptional academic experience."

In a 25-day strike from Nov. 16 to Dec. 10, 2022, union members called for this compensation pay while the school argued that the rate listed in their contracts was inclusive of all work for a class, Carey said. But the fact that some other unions and labor battles have come away with winning such compensation proved helpful, she said.