For Immediate Release

April 16, 2026

UUP joins a coalition of over 50 higher ed unions in the first-ever agreement.

United University Professions, America’s largest higher education union, strongly supports the Amherst Compact, a first-ever agreement by leaders of more than 50 unions to coordinate bargaining priorities that raise the floor for workers of all job categories across the most-densely unionized region of the country for higher education.

Higher ed unions from Maine to Pennsylvania are part of the Amherst Compact, which comes as UUP and three Rutgers University unions— Rutgers AAUP-AFT, AAUP-BHSNJ and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union—are negotiating new contracts. UUP’s Negotiations Team and state representatives have been working on a new agreement since February; the contract runs through July 1.

The timing for the initiative is good; dozens of higher education unions across nine Northeast states— Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania — will be negotiating new contracts over the next year.

“By standing together, higher education unions can use their collective power to push for gains that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise,” said UUP President Fred Kowal. “A regional bargaining strategy can help raise the standards of employment for unions out there negotiating new agreements. As a founding member of Higher Education Labor United (HELU), UUP believes in working together with our union colleagues to help each other realize the best possible agreements we can negotiate for our members.”

“As UUP is at the bargaining table right now, it’s great to know that higher ed unions across the Northeast are working in collaboration to set new standards for bargaining demands,” said UUP Chief Negotiator Bret Benjamin.

The Amherst Compact was drafted Jan. 9-10 at the Northeast Regional Bargaining Summit in Amherst, Mass. The summit was organized by HELU, a national higher ed union organization formed in 2021 to create and pursue a unified vision for higher education. More than 225,000 higher ed and allied workers are affiliated with HELU through their unions and organizations.

Over 50 unions — representing higher ed workers in jobs ranging from food service and custodial work to doctors, researchers, academics and professional staff —attended the summit and voted to approve the Compact.

Abigail Cooke, a member of UUP’s contract Negotiations Team, said that knowing that other unions have won concessions from management helps union members when they’re at the table.

“It doesn’t sound like such an impossible demand when you know other unions have fought for the same thing or are edging close to it,” Cooke said. “I think the Compact is going to embolden us all to fight in concrete ways to make higher ed the place we know it can be.”

The Compact sets out targeted areas for coordinated organizing:

• Fair compensation;
• Strengthening job security and fair working conditions;
• Expanding accessible health care and benefits;
• Paid leave rights and protections;
• Supporting research, professional development and career advancement;
• Ensuring academic freedom;
• Creating a safe and healthy workplace;
• Centering workers in implementing new technology;
• Protecting and expanding collective bargaining rights.

“Higher education is the fastest growing sector in the U.S. labor movement, and the Amherst Compact shows that workers of all kinds are joining together to address the systemic challenges we face through collective bargaining over wages and working conditions and addressing broader issues of governance, funding, and public policy through building political power,” said HELU National Chair Levin Kim.