In October 2020, online publication, The Forge, published a two-part issue on unions and progressive activism in higher education. Activists at universities across the country write about organizing, research, and bargaining for their jobs and for the future of higher education. Many members of the Bargaining for the Common Good network wrote articles for this special issue and we invite you to read and share the below articles:

• “Here’s How We Not Just Reopen, But Transform Higher Education,” a letter on the future of higher education from the Bargaining for the Common Good network.
• “United We Fight at Rutgers,” on fighting austerity at Rutgers University from Todd Wolfson and Christine O’Connell of Rutgers AAUP-AFT
• “The Other College Debt Trap,” a primer on exposing debt financing at colleges and universities from Corey Sherman and Lisa Cody of SEIU 1021
• “A Higher Ed Agenda for the Common Good,” on the ongoing on fight for racial and economic justice in California from AFSCME 3299’s Liz Perlman
• “UnKoch Everything: Tactical Lessons Toward Structural Transformation,” Jasmine Banks of UnKoch my Campus writes on challenging racial, class, and gender hierarchies to build equitable campuses
• “Contract Personalis: How Georgetown’s Graduate Workers Organized to Win,” Jewel Tomasula and Daniel Solomon Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees discuss their campaign
• “How to Win a Contact in a Pandemic,” Sam Klug of Harvard Graduate Students Union and Dennis Hogan and Audrey Massmann of the Brown Graduate Labor Organization discuss graduate student organizing in the time of COVID-19
• “Organizing at the Frontier of Higher Education,” Julie Kushner discusses the past, present, and future of higher ed organizing. 
• “The Waiting Game: Fighting Delay as a Union-Busting Tactic,” Tyler McAndrew on organizing the first faculty union at the University of Pittsburgh.
• “The Abolitionist Strike,” Erin Markiewitz of GEO AFT-MI 3550 speaks on a strike by graduate workers at the University of Michigan for safe, police-free campuses.
• “We Were All Exhausted: On the Natural Alliance between Football ‘Student-Athletes’ and Contingent Faculty,” Jason Stahl writes on building solidarity between collegiate-level athletes and collegiate faculty
• “Fighting for Mental Healthcare in the Ivory Tower,” Tif Shen of UNITE HERE 33 writes about organizing for mental health care for students and campuses 
• “Fighting Neoliberal Universities in States without Bargaining Rights,” our friends at UCW-CWA, Karly Safar, Kate Diedrick, and Melanie Barron write about their innovative campaigns on campuses in states without bargaining rights
• “Digital Organizing against the Neoliberal University,” on organizing on Maryland campuses in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic from Stuart Katzenberg and Todd Holden of AFSCME Local 3