Advocating for workers at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University
UCW-Arizona unites Arizona's diverse public university workforce to address the critical issues we all face.
Our mission is to champion and defend the interests and well-being of all university workers, as well as to build and sustain social and economic justice in our workplaces and communities.
We have FOUGHT FOR and WON
Wage Increases
ASU full-time non-tenure eligible faculty got a new starting salary of $60,000
ASU full-time non-exempt staff received raises, bringing them up to $20/hr
ASU grad students have received raises averaging 13% for the past two years, up from 6.5% in the four years prior to UCWAZ.
UA staff minimum wage was increased to $15/hr, two years ahead of the timeline
UA student minimum wage was increased to $14.50/hr
Grad student fees bundled with tuition at UA (means paying RA/TAs don’t have to pay fees)
Job Protection
Saved 50 faculty jobs in the UA Writing Program from being “non-renewed” in May, 2023
Got two employees reinstated after university retaliation regarding Palestine Teach-in during November, 2023
Shared Power in University Governance Structures
UCW members in leadership positions in Faculty Senate, Student Government, and Staff Council to move our agenda through “official channels”
WHAT WE DO AS A UNION
We accomplish our goals as a union through a combination of organizing university workers, mobilizing on important issues, and performing community and political action.
MOBILIZING
For university workers, mobilization is a three-part process of building a structure to support taking action, educating ourselves about problems facing our universities, and taking collective action to solve collective problems.
We mobilize around the shared issues we care about, such as stopping unnecessary pay cuts and layoffs, ensuring our health and safety, dismantling structural racism and other forms of oppression on our campus, as well as protecting public higher education from private and corporate entities.
ORGANIZING
We grow our movement for workplace justice through organizing. We do so by asking everyone—including you— to join and build our union membership. We can no longer act alone. Now is the time.
Central administrators continue to ignore our concerns and the safety and well-being of its workers, students, and the surrounding community. We ask each university employee to join UCW Arizona and join the fight to protect and improve the university we love.
COMMUNITY & POLITICAL ACTION
We are building collective power to improve higher education and our working conditions. The problems we face aren’t unique. But the state of Arizona is at the bottom of the list in support for higher education and student financial aid, and at the top of the list in privatizations that compromise our public purpose. Our state spends more on prisons than it does on all of its colleges and universities combined.
None of these things will change overnight, since there are powerful forces arrayed against us. We unite with other community groups who have been taking action to influence elected officials to support public higher education and its workers —the people who make public higher education work.
Are you afraid of being fired at any time for any reason, basically at the whim of the senior leadership?
This organization is for you.
Do you wonder why graduate students in other departments are treated so differently than in yours?
This organization is for you.
Are you tired of being ignored by the senior leadership when you request transparency in university decision making?
This organization is for you.
Join our wall-to-wall union of faculty, staff, and student employees, building our collective power to advance academic justice in fulfilling our universities' public missions.
JOIN US
Everyone who works or has worked in higher education in Arizona can join the United Campus Workers of Arizona, Local 7065.
Interested in joining but not affiliated with a public university? You can join as a non-voting community supporter!
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Contact Us
Looking to connect to learn more about becoming a union member? Reach out to us at info@ucwaz.org.
Looking for a media contact for quotes, stories, and statements? Reach out to us at info@ucwaz.org.