Victories: Highlighting UCW's Recent Success

UCW members across the country have fought hard for the betterment of conditions for the workers on their campuses. These victories run the gamut from raises to fee eliminations, and each win has contributed to the improvement of working conditions for graduate and undergraduate workers, non-tenure track professors, and staff. Higher education cannot exist without the labor of our members, and we continue in our efforts to see our work justly rewarded. Some of our past victories include:

2023 - Campus workers in Wisconsin affiliate to become UCW-WI
2023 - Graduate Workers at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) won stipend raises
2023 - Graduate workers at the University of Virginia fought back against late paychecks and win
2022 - Graduate workers in Tennessee won the elimination of fees for graduate assistants
2022 - Graduate and undergraduate workers at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture win the repeal of an unfair policy removing workers from their jobs without notice
2022 - Graduate and undergraduate workers at the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture win a $2/hour raise for graduate workers and wages instead of fee waivers for undergraduate workers
2022 - Louisiana State University graduate workers won the elimination of graduate student fees through a change in state law
2022 - UTK Academic Advisors won $6,000 base pay raises.
2022 - UTK won $15 minimum wage and salary compression adjustments.
2022 - University of Southern Mississippi won significant minimum wage increase after petition drive and rally
2021 - UTK Lecturers (non tenure track faculty) win base pay raises up to $9k as a result of a multi-pronged campaign fought since 2019
2021 - Graduate workers at the University of Virginia win the reinstatement of an advisor to member’s dissertation committee
2022 - UCW-GA wins the elimination of the $450/semester special institutional fee for all graduate workers through multi-pronged campaign that engaged campus leaders, the Board of Regents, and the state government
2021 - University of Kentucky wins $15 minimum wage
2021 - Adjuncts at Virginia Commonwealth University win the renewal of 6 contracts
2020- UCW-GA wins mask mandate after petition with 10,000 signatures and significant press attention
2018 - 2020: New UCW locals start going public in Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Florida, Colorado, Arizona.
2017 - UCW Tennessee won historic victory halting the outsourcing of thousands of facilities workers across the entire state.

For a history of UCW campaigns and victories prior to 2015, check out the UCW TN website.