Who We Are

Our History
In 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, groups of concerned students, staff, and faculty formed at both Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Arizona (UA). At ASU, the group was called ASUCCC and at UA, it was called CAJUA. Both of these groups were deeply concerned with the universities’ plans of how to handle the pandemic. On Labor Day in May of 2020, members of CAJUA publicly affiliated with Communications Workers of America, officially creating United Campus Workers of Arizona (UCWAZ). In the first two weeks, 293 members joined. In December 2020, members of ASUCCC also began to join the newly formed wall-to-wall union. By January 2021, UCWAZ had over 500 members.
Who We Are
The United Campus Workers of Arizona Local 7065 (UCWAZ) is part of the national Communications Workers of America (CWA) union. We join our fellow higher education workers at the University of Colorado, the University System of Georgia, and the University of Tennessee, among others. CWA locals represent workers in a variety of industries, including telecommunications, flight attendants, journalists, tech workers, and other campus workers like us.
United Campus Workers is a union that is committed to “wall-to-wall” organizing. Wall-to-wall organizing means that everyone, regardless of job title, unites together to build power and resources to sustain our movement for justice and address specific-job concerns. This model of unionization takes advantage of the solidarity that we can build across all higher-education workers in Arizona to affect change on a greater scale. Our power is in our numbers!
UCWAZ One-Pagers
Download the flyer below that explains who we are, what we do, and how you can get involved.
Download the flyer in English hereDescargue el boletín en español aquí



Some Context: The History of Labor Organizing in Arizona
It’s impossible to appreciate Arizona’s labor histories without some knowledge of the colonial and racial construction of the state.
After the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848) and the Treaty of Mesilla (1854), the United States took over what we now know as the state of Arizona and had to confront governing sizable, diverse populations of Indigenous peoples and ethnic Mexicans. Historically, this has been a violent, asymmetrical process of restrictions, expulsions, and, occasionally, cooperation. During times of economic prosperity, workers from different backgrounds have been encouraged to partake of robust demands for labor--historically, the jobs that helped build Arizona’s economic base were mining, agriculture, cattle, and railroads. From these times came policies like the Bracero Program or the Wheeler-Howard Act, both which were meant to grant some economic autonomy and opportunity to migrant and Indigenous workers during the Roosevelt administration, respectively.
However, in times of economic crises, workers--especially non-white workers--have been blamed, maligned, and punished over perceptions of “taking jobs away” from white workers or otherwise benefitting, unfairly, from market forces or government policies. During these periods, there have been mass deportations and repressive policing against non-white populations, in general, and non-white workers who attempt to organize. Structural acts like the “repatriation” of 1 million Mexican people during the Great Depression; or the violent response from Arizona Rangers to striking mine workers in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico in 1906; or the policy known as “outing” wherein Indigenous youth attending the Phoenix Indian School would be contracted out to mostly white families to work as housemaids or fieldhands in order to condition them to manual labor while also providing inexpensive workers for people of means.
Higher Education Organizing
We know that union-membership nationally and globally is on the rise. Last year, the U.S. Department of the Treasury released a "first-of-it's-kind" factsheet on labor unions, highlighting the importance of unions in strengthening the middle-class and benefitting the economy.
Read the fact sheet hereThe U.S. Department of Labor, in a piece titled Why unions are important, states that unions are vital to protecting the “health, safety, wages, and retirement security of working Americans.” And, according to UnionTrack, approximately 60% of the employees who engaged in work stoppages in 2023 were “educators, researches, or other academic professionals.” (2024)
The American Association of University Professors posted these findings in the Spring of 2023:
- Over two-thirds (68 percent) of faculty members in US colleges and universities held contingent appointments in fall 2021, compared with about 47 percent in fall 1987.
- Nearly half (48 percent) of faculty members in US colleges and universities were employed part time in fall 2021, compared with about 33 percent in 1987.
- About 24 percent of faculty members in US colleges and universities held full-time tenured appointments in fall 2021, compared with about 39 percent in fall 1987.
The report concludes, "Overreliance on contingent appointments, which lack the protection of tenure for academic freedom and the economic security of continuing appointments, threatens the success of institutions in fulfilling their obligations to students and to society." (AAUP, 2023)
Who We Represent
The United Campus Workers of Arizona advocates for workers at Arizona State University (ASU), the University of Arizona (UA), and Northern Arizona University (NAU).

Join Us
We organize to build independent power as staff, students, and faculty.
We mobilize to create positive change on campus.
We take political and community action to influence the decisions that affect all of us.
Join Your UnionUCWAZ In the News
Read about us in the news! Click the button below to read news articles written about us and our press releases.
News Stories About UCWAZ
