For Immediate Release

February 4, 2026

United University Professions, America’s largest higher education union, today opened negotiations for a new contract with New York state.

This is the first time in decades that both sides have agreed to begin contract talks so soon in the process. That prospect has UUP negotiators hopeful that a tentative agreement could be reached before the union’s 2022-2026 contract expires July 1.

“We appreciate the governor’s willingness to start negotiations now instead of starting them later and risk having our contract expire,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “Such an early start hasn’t happened in recent memory.”

“Our aim is to bargain a new contract before the current one expires and we’re hopeful that we can get it done,” said UUP Chief Negotiator Bret Benjamin.

While UUP’s current contract with the state has an expiration date, the pact doesn’t actually end. Under the Triborough Amendment, a Taylor Law provision, UUP’s contract terms—agreements pertaining to salary, benefits and working conditions—continue until a new contract is ratified.

To excite members about the upcoming negotiations, UUP held a virtual contract kick-off meeting Feb. 3. Eight hundred members joined Kowal, Benjamin and members of UUP’s Negotiations Team in the meeting.

“We want to work hard and get the best possible contract done before our current contract expires,” Kowal told members at the meeting. “We’re going in absolutely, completely prepared as never before with the stated intention that we’re ready to go.”

Benjamin said that UUP’s main issues for the new contract are salary and compensation; job security, especially expanding access to permanency; maintaining affordable, accessible health care; and addressing artificial intelligence concerns and protections against federal overreach into grant funding, health care and higher education.

“Our negotiations team has been working hard on a comprehensive set of ambitious, transformative proposals and the team members are looking forward to getting to the table,” Benjamin said.

In August 2023, UUP members overwhelmingly approved a new four-year contract with the state that delivered across-the-board raises for each year of the agreement; per-course minimum increases for adjuncts and part-time faculty; retention awards; minimum salary increase for UUP’s lowest-paid academic ranks and professional grades; and a zero increase in basic health insurance costs.