After fearing the National Labor Relations Board under President Donald Trump would roll back graduate students' power to unionize, campus organizers are energized under President Joe Biden.
“This is the single biggest new union filing in any industry, definitely this year if not this decade,” said UC Berkeley student researcher Tanzil Chowdhury. “Seventeen thousand new workers just joined the labor movement, which is historic.”
As higher education hires more adjuncts, it also relies on them more. Colleges and universities can’t fulfill their teaching mission without them — which gives part-timers more power, if they choose to use it.
As corporations fail to meet worker demands, they are increasingly encountering a labor force that isn’t going to take it. They are striking; they are picketing; they are demanding fair contracts. They are forming new unions. It's a beautiful thing.
Margy Wilkinson participated in the Free Speech Movement, helped secure a contract for UC Berkeley classified workers, led KPFA and fought to preserve the character of South Berkeley.
After months of activism by Sodexo employees, the company has decided to change the way it calculates hours for full-time jobs and allow several thousand workers back on the company health care plan.
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