Contributed by the North Central Florida Central Labor Council
From the high-profile flops to replace University of Florida President Fuchs, to the blatantly political appointments and installations, to top-down decisions deeply out of step with the UF workforce, it’s increasingly apparent that, even off the football field, our state’s flagship university has lost its bearings.
It’s clear to anyone who’s been watching that UF is the ultimate target in Ron DeSantis’s aggressive campaign to remake Florida higher ed in his own image (see: tinyurl.com/Iguana2475).
But it’s an image that few find alluring. Increasingly, UF employees are either (a) leaving the institution for greener pastures, or (b) cowering in place hoping to slide under the radar long enough to reach retirement or option (a). But there is an option (c), and that is to take part in UF’s long, proud history of resistance to tyranny.
United Faculty of Florida (UFF) (see: https://uff-uf.org/), currently representing a sizable portion of UF’s faculty, was founded in 1968 in the face of state-sponsored repression, and won its first collective bargaining agreement in 1976. It has safeguarded academic freedom, helped keep guns off campus, improved wages and protected retirement, and won important benefits such as sabbatical and parental leave.
Graduate Assistants United (GAU) (see: https://www.ufgau.org/), an affiliate of UFF, won the right to collective bargaining in 1979 and has since won sick leave, raises, tuition waivers, and subsidized healthcare, among other victories.
Both unions organize under the pithy slogan “UF works because we do!” Both have been repeatedly targeted by the FL legislature, (see: tinyurl.com/Iguana2476) kneecapping them by ending their members’ rights to voluntarily deduct union dues from their paychecks, and then through a series of increasingly onerous requirements that make it harder for them to even exist. But they have fought on and have served as one of the few organized forms of resistance to our state’s war on public education.
But even together, the two unions only represent a slice of UF’s huge workforce. A much newer union, United Campus Workers (UCW), (see: ucwfl.org/) is seeking to join the struggle by organizing everyone at UF not already affiliated with UFF or GAU into one big union. Originally born out of a living wage campaign at the University of Tennessee, United Campus Workers formally affiliated with the Communications Workers of America in 2003 and has spread throughout the south, representing thousands of workers seeking better wages and working conditions in so-called “right to work” states. UCW currently has members at UF, FSU, and FAMU, and has big plans to grow into a fighting force pushing back on efforts to undermine higher education workers.
If you’re frustrated with the direction that UF and the rest of higher ed is heading here in FL and want to help turn the tide, here are some significant ways that you can help:
If you know ANYONE who works in higher ed in Florida, whether at UF or otherwise, ask them if they are part of their union. Tell them about United Faculty of Florida and its affiliates throughout the state (see tinyurl.com/Iguana2477), tell them about United Campus Workers, https://ucwfl.org/, and please encourage them to join. Unions are our single greatest weapon against state tyranny and the oligarchs that are holding our communities and our economy hostage.
Please support UCW’s current campaign to reinstate remote work at the University of Florida. Anyone, even folks who are not UF employees, can sign their petition, which they are using as an organizing tool on campus and plan to present to administration once they reach 1,000 signatures. You can find the petition at tinyurl.com/Iguana2478, or share this QR code if that’s easier than using the link:
And lastly, as we’ve talked about repeatedly in recent months, let’s get to work asap on making some changes to our legislative delegation. Pro-labor forces have had a good run recently and we’ve got a little wind in our sails. Let’s seize the momentum and put our state and federal legislators on notice that campaign 2026 starts now!