UCWGA - 2026 Elections
We're organizing for a voice on our job. We're voting for a voice in our politics. United Campus Workers is the union for everyone who works in our state’s higher education system - staff, faculty, graduate employees and students alike. This election, we’re voting together for champions for workers rights and public education. But to see the change we know we need, it will take more than just the top of the ticket, and more than just the ballot box. While we’re voting up and down the ballot, we’re also organizing a union. Join us to make our voices heard, and to stand up for the dignity and respect we deserve. In United Campus Workers we are fighting for living wages, to protect our jobs, for securing our benefits, and for freedom and democracy on campus.
Why Elections Matter for Campus Workers
Higher Ed is under attack. And it's politicians who are leading the charge. Georgia's public colleges and universities should be institutions of higher learning, an investment in Georgia's young adults - in Georgia's future. They should be places where students, faculty, and staff come together with curiosity and a shared commitment to taking on tough problems in the hopes of building a better tomorrow for all Georgians.
But politicians - working for wealthy donors, corporate interests, and real estate tycoons - have a different vision for higher ed. Instead of places for shaping students into well-rounded thinkers, innovators, and civic-minded citizens, they see our colleges and universities as factories to pump out compliant workers unable to think for themselves. Instead of places where faculty produce cutting-edge research that saves lives and address global problems, they see our colleges and universities as threats to the status quo that enriches them at our expense. Instead of places where the custodial, maintenance, and administrative staff that keep these institutions running are paid a living wage, they see our colleges and universities as "unprofitable" and in need of further cuts. Instead of an investment in a brighter, more equitable and democratic future, they see our colleges and universities as nuisances to be starved of funds and slowly killed by thousands of tiny cuts.
As public institutions, we are at the whims of politicians at every level. Congress makes decisions about student loans, Pell grants, research funding, and more. The state legislature determines the amount of funding for higher ed, and the governor appoints the Board of Regents, which determines how state funding is distributed across the University System of Georgia and also sets policies that impact all campus workers. Whether our issue is remote work, academic freedom, a living wage, cost of living adjustments, parking, health insurance, protection from discrimination and harassment, or job security and opportunity, our ability to win is limited when the University System of Georgia and our government are under the control of anti-higher ed politicians and their wealthy cronies.
While we organize for power in our workplaces, we must also fight to elect folks who share our vision of higher ed as an investment that generates value beyond mere dollars and cents. We must fight to elect folks who support labor and the expansion of collective bargaining rights to public-sector workers like ourselves. Politicians alone won't save us, but by electing politicians who share our vision, our path to building worker power and winning the things that matter to us will be less treacherous. As the United Campus Workers, we will make sure that our colleges and universities work for us, our students, and their families, not corrupt politicians and their wealthy puppet masters.