Imperfect Unions in Higher Education: How Inside-Outside Strategies Form and Why They Matter

• In Event: Navigating Resistance, Fostering Survival, ad Cultivating Belonging: Exploring Strategies for Thriving in Challenging Environments

Abstract

This study examines the limitations of staff unions in higher education and how they exist as imperfect entities in these particularly challenging times (i.e., neoliberalism). More specifically, the paper addresses how academic workers like clerical staff form inside/outside strategies despite union protections and why these strategies are essential and emergent. Qualitative data presented in this paper explores workers' critiques of staff unions, how they experience them, and how they organize to improve their working conditions and mitigate work-related tensions resulting from these critiques and experiences. This study has significant implications for research and practice in the areas of unions/work and higher education organization, administration, and management.

Author

• Jordan N. Harper, Morgan State University