Higher-ed works because we do.
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who we are
West Virginia Campus Workers aims to build worker power by organizing across all paid WVU campus roles–giving workers the power to create real change. WVCW founding members represent a diverse alliance of workers organizing across the University over the past year to build a strong membership advocating for social and economic justice in higher-ed. While West Virginia law prevents us from bargaining collectively with our employers, our constitutional freedoms of speech and assembly empower us to become a union by acting like one.
In recent years, WVU workers have increasingly voiced frustrations over a wide range of issues, including the restrictive cost of graduate student fees, lack of support for employee well-being, and the University’s laissez-faire response to COVID-19 rates in the campus community. These issues can be addressed through consistent and thoughtful organizing of our WVU communities. Like proud West Virginian Hazel Dickens once sang, “Working people, use your power, the key to liberty! There ain’t no way they can ever keep us down!
Thank you to everyone who attended our graduate worker SNAP action! With your support this event helped raise critical awareness of the poverty level wages made by graduate workers at WVU–we even made the news!
This event was just the beginning. Sign up to join the fight for living wages and an end to student fees at WVU!
FACULTY ACTION UPDATE
ORGANIZING WORKS!
STATEMENT BY FACULTY MEMBERS OF WVCW:
Dear colleagues,
As you may have heard, the administration has withdrawn its proposed Procedures for Appointment, Annual Evaluation, Promotion and Tenure after the University Assembly voted against their final draft. We are happy that the administration respected the voice of faculty, and proud of the role that members of West Virginia Campus Workers played in mobilizing to protect academic freedom and due process. This victory is a demonstration of what is possible when faculty work together.
The fight over promotion and tenure policies will likely continue, and we are already aware that harmful austerity measures will be coming down from the administration in the coming months. For the voices of faculty and our campus worker colleagues to play a meaningful role in the policy and budgetary decisions that impact our work and lives, we must be strategic and united–in a word, organized.
We call on all faculty–tenure-track and non-tenure track–to join West Virginia Campus Workers, a growing union for all academic workers at WVU, and register for our next faculty organizing committee meeting. Together we have the power to address our shared concerns, achieve our common goals, and protect the future of higher education in West Virginia.
Solidarity!
West Virginia Campus Workers
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