United Academics-AAUP/AFT Local 4996 is the largest union in the University of Alaska system. We are led by an Executive Board of seven officers elected from and by our dues-paying membership: our president, secretary, treasurer, and four organizational vice presidents. The Representative Assembly (RA) is also elected from and by our dues-paying membership.
United Academics also has support staff: Contract Manager, Organizing Manager, and external accounting and legal services. Together, they work closely with the UNAC Executive Board, the RA, and bargaining unit members to ensure that all elements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) are consistently followed and our membership is informed about current issues.
United Academics members who have questions or concerns are welcome to talk with an RA member, the Organizational Vice President from their MAU, the Contract Manager, Melanie Arthur, or the Organizing Manager, Kate Quick.
United Academics is affiliated with the following organizations:
- American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
- American Federation of Teachers (AFT)
- Alaska Public Employee Association (APEA)
- Alaska AFL-CIO
Background
In 1976, our former sister union, University of Alaska Federation of Teachers (UAFT), whose members are now part of UNAC, was organized by community college faculty under the name Alaska Community College Federation of Teachers (ACCFT). ACCFT became UAFT following the merger of the Alaska community college system with the UA system.
United Academics was organized in 1996 to represent faculty and postdoctoral fellows not covered by the UAFT CBA or unit definition. UNAC ratified our first contract in 1998. Together, these unions led to positive changes to faculty workloads and wages throughout the UA system.
In 2018, UAFT merged into UNAC, creating one union for all UA faculty and postdoctoral fellows who work at least 51% FTE. UNAC is proud of the vast array of duties performed by our bargaining unit members.
UA WORKS BECAUSE WE DO!
Objectives
Your union supports shared governance by ensuring that faculty and post doc working conditions are fair, safe, and in compliance with the current collective bargaining agreement. The union’s governing body is composed of faculty, many of whom have served or are serving on faculty senates. The CBA, along with the faculty senates’ handbooks (UAA, UAF, UAS), and the Board of Regents Policy & Regulations, stipulate the conditions and parameters of our bargaining unit members’ positions, promotions, and evaluations – whether tenure or non-tenure.
Successful shared governance happens not through a few engaged faculty, but when all faculty are informed, active, and involved.
The UNAC Executive Board and Representative Assembly members – and Faculty Senators – represent you. You are their constituent. They are supposed to bring your concerns and ideas to their respective governing body for discussion and potential action. They can only do that if you make them aware of your concerns and ideas.
Our United Academics organizational objectives, as stated in our Constitution, are as follows:
- Facilitate more effective cooperation among faculty at the University of Alaska for the promotion of the interests of higher education, teaching, research, and service, and in general to increase the usefulness and advance the standards, ideals, and welfare of the profession.
- Protect and advance the professional status and interests of all faculty.
- Promote the diversity of unique academic interests and capabilities at each campus within a unified university.
- Defend academic freedom at the University of Alaska.
- Sustain and enhance governance at the University of Alaska.
- Support and promote the purposes of the national constitutions of the AAUP and AFT as they relate to higher education.
- Join AAUP in its commitment to protect faculty by taking measures, including censure, against colleges and universities practicing illegal or unconstitutional discrimination, or discrimination on a basis not demonstrably related to the job function involved, including but not limited to age, sex, disability, race, religion, national origins, marital status, or sexual orientation.
- Promote educational programs, opportunities, and research at the University of Alaska for the benefit of the people of the State of Alaska. Obtain and maintain satisfactory terms and conditions of employment through the collective bargaining process.