The Point: Union Strength is Needed to Meet the Moment

4/24/2025

On April 8, as part of a National Day of Action to defend higher education called by Higher Ed Labor United (HELU), the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) held a statewide teach-in on the attacks facing higher education and how we can organize in response.  Over 250 members from 12 different Massachusetts higher ed campuses participated, in-person and online, ranging from MA community colleges and state universities, to UMass campuses, including faculty, staff, grad workers, and undergrad students. 

The event centered the power of union solidarity and the urgent need for coalition-building across student, community, and labor groups to meet this moment. The discussion led to some great ideas for further action.

Our own newly activated FSU member Helen Poynton, from the College of the Environment, kicked off the teach-in off with her stirring remarks below. 

Additional resources from the April 8 Teach In can be found at the bottom of this email.                                           

-Joe Ramsey

4/8 Teach-In Co-organizer (with Joanna Gonsalves, President, MSCA/MTA)

FSU Delegate to Higher Ed Labor United (HELU)

Teach-in Speech

Helen Poynton, FSU

I am a professor of environmental science at UMass Boston.  I am a rank-and-file member of the Faculty Staff Union; I am just like many of you.  For fourteen years, I read the emails sent out by the union leadership and appreciated their dedication to collective bargaining and standing up for shared governance.  But I was too busy to get involved.

Then all the sudden, studying the sex of blue mussels became controversial. Supporting students of color in undergraduate and graduate research programs became political and two students in my lab lost funding and opportunities.  Across UMass Boston, faculty, students and staff have been feeling these impacts: 11 stop orders, 4 terminated grants, and almost 35% of our funded projects are considered vulnerable. 

Meanwhile, at sister universities across the country, scientific research is being held hostage, and the Trump regime’s demands for its release are suppression of academic freedom and free speech, shuttering of degree programs devoted to social justice, and cooperation in the kidnapping and deportation of our students. Many university leaders are capitulating to these demands, some even welcoming the political cover to silence dissent and crush academic freedom.

And, the universities not targeted in the first round of attacks, are sticking their heads in the sand.  But make no mistake, with how easily the Trump administration took down Columbia, they are now emboldened, and no school or university will be able to hide for long.  We have already witnessed students on our campuses losing their visas. What is next?

We cannot wait to find out.  In this moment we cannot wait for university administrators to act to protect us or our students, because they likely never will.  We should never expect them to.

In these times, we must come together, as the rank and file of our union, and organize.  Like they have done at Harvard where faculty and alumni letters, and student protests forced their administration to resist the Trump Administration’s “ongoing attacks on American universities [that] threaten bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and inquiry.”  Like faculty at Rutgers University calling on the Big Ten Public Universities to Establish a Mutual Defense Compact to fight against the “significant threat to the foundational principles of American Higher Education” from the Trump Regime.

Steve Striffler reminded us recently in The Point, as faculty, staff, and students, we are “THE UNIVERSITY.”  And only through our solidarity with each other and solidarity with our sister universities can we resist the attacks on our funding, our academic freedom, and our community. 

Why turn to our unions?  Throughout history unions have brought us some of the most significant gains through collective action.  But not just in the past.  Union Strength has been growing – and from the wildcat West Virgina Teachers strike of 2018, to the University of California Academic Workers Strike in 2022, we have seen Union Strength is winning. 

This is not going to be easy.  But doing nothing will be harder, as our funding and freedom continue to be taken away.  Join me, and join our unions, as we strategize and co-create a culture of resistance.

We are the rank and file, and we are THE UNIVERSITY.  Let’s get to work!

Additional 4/8 MTA Higher Ed Teach-In Resources:

Link to Teach-In Kick off panel (Introduced by MTA Pres. Max Page & NEA Vice President Princess Moss)

Link to the Teach-In Breakout Questions

Link to the Teach-In Summary, Take Aways, and Next Steps

Link for taking an action now: Urge Your State Legislators to Support Public Higher Education

Link to the Rutgers Resolution (referenced by panelist Helen Poynton)

Link to the MSCA Statement of Support for Students and Campus Workers (referenced by panelist Ben Alberti)