by Andrew Williams

YOU'VE FINALLY DECIDED to take action. The class cancellations and last minute re-hirings, low wages, second class status are no longer tolerable. But rather than leaving a profession you love, you decide to improve the job you already have. Before you know it, you've called some colleagues whom you suspect feel the same way, and as you get together for a meeting you realize you've formed an organizing committee. Now, your committee faces a series of choices. What specific changes should you demand? Which issues are most important to the most people? Where else on campus should you look for supporters? And not least among the choices: which union--if any--should you seek out for assistance?

Those who already know something about higher education unions know that three organizations stand out as obvious choices: the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association. Each of these claims numerous union contracts in higher education and represents tens or hundreds of thousands of academic employees. Lately, another far less obvious union has begun showing up in academic union organizing, the United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW).

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