What is UAP?
United Academics of Philadelphia, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) Local 9608 is a metro-wide union that seeks to unify and support the over 15,000 professional and non-professional staff, and adjunct and non-tenure-track faculty currently working in Philadelphia-area colleges and universities. As a vital but often underrepresented element of higher education, we believe that together we can accomplish what we cannot achieve as individuals.
To ensure respect, security, fair pay and benefits from our institutions of employment, UAP is advocating for the unionization of all staff and contingent faculty at Philadelphia-area institutions of higher education. As colleagues, we will share resources, help each other organize, and create avenues for professional development and advancement in the field of higher education. UAP works to establish transparency at local institutions of higher education and focuses on creating and implementing solutions to problems that affect students, faculty, and staff across higher education institutions in Philadelphia.
The AFT now represents over 300,000 higher education members in all types of institutions, from small community colleges to world-class research universities, across the country. As an AFT affiliate, UAP has the resources to evolve with industry trends in the region and nationwide as means of strengthening the careers of our members.
TOGETHER WE CAN ACCOMPLISH WHAT WE CANNOT ACHIEVE AS INDIVIDUALS
Our Democratic Structure
Have you been contacted by a colleague about an organizing effort on your campus? Congratulations! You have the opportunity to be part of building workplace democracy in Higher Ed!
UAP is an AFT Union Local with a unique, democratic structure. We are an “umbrella local” supporting and representing workers at multiple places of employment. We support contingent faculty and staff to organize at any Philadelphia-region college or university, and we’ll continue to grow as we support new groups of workers to form UAP Bargaining Units at their schools.
UAP offers support on acheiving transformative improvements to rights, protections, and benefits, including pay increases, access to health insurance & other benefits, job stability, academic freedom, and more. Each campus community has its own needs, and our Bargaining Units each have their own unique approach to winning improved working conditions — based on the actual needs of the faculty or staff at their campus.
UAP supports Higher Ed workers to win collective bargaining through voluntary recognition, an NLRB recognition election, or a private election agreement with the employer. After winning recognition, each UAP Bargaining Unit develops a Bargaining Survey to collect robust data from members in order to establish that Bargaining Unit’s specific priorities for organizing and contract negotiations. Each Bargaining Unit then assembles their own Bargaining Team, and elects a Chapter Chair, and Delegates to the UAP Local Delegate Assembly.
The UAP Executive Board is made up entirely of working higher ed faculty & staff, elected from the membership of our Bargaining Units and Non-Collective-Bargaining Unit. UAP Leaders and our Organizing Staff provide support on campaign strategy, contract negotiations, strategic research, communications, and data, to allow Higher Ed faculty and staff to help build and maintain strong Bargaining Units while also continuing to focus on their day-to-day work.
Have questions about our structure or a campaign on your campus? Email us here!
UAP’s History
In 2013, United Academics of Philadelphia was launched as an ambitious and innovative experiment that sought to address the corporatization of higher education by organizing faculty based on geography and the logic of the academic job market. UAP emerged as a combative force — an organization that would serve both to improve working conditions at individual universities in the Philadelphia metro-region, and to provide resources and community for faculty and staff throughout the region.
Since our founding, we have supported adjunct faculty to organize at Temple University with TAUP, and the Faculty & Staff Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia as they leveraged the power of their workers to win contracts. We won our first bargaining unit in 2017, for adjunct faculty at Arcadia University, and in 2018 successfully negotiated a contract with yearly increases for every adjunct, improved access to healthcare, and more meaningful job security. In 2019, our members ratified our constitution, and we became a chartered Local of American Federation of Teachers. In 2020, UArts Faculty, both part-time and full-time, won their bargaining unit and began negotiating their first union contract with UAP. In 2022, UArts Staff, both full-time and part-time, won their bargaining unit and began negotiating their union contract with UAP. In 2022, Arcadia Adjuncts ratified their second union contract. In 2024, UArts Faculty ratifed their contract just before launching a strike vote. In 2024 & 2025 UAP played a pivotal role in supporting UArts faculty & staff during the catastrophic closure of the University, pushing for impact negotiations, filing a class action lawsuit, and supporting members’ bankruptcy claims. In 2026 Arcadia Adjuncts will negotiate their third contract, and we expect to go public with a new collective bargaining campaign!
Throughout all of these campaigns, we’ve also continued to build our community and provide support for non-bargaining members across the city who are teaching at universities where UAP does not (yet) have a formal presence, by leading Student Debt Clinics & Unemployment Workshops, hosting networking barbeques & happy hours, and providing trainings on how to organize your colleagues.
