Cary Nelson, then President of the American Association of University Professors, wrote an article on the benefits of faculty unions not only for faculty but for the campus and local community. It was published in Academe and Academe Online, where this excerpt is from.
1. The faculty must be organized to advocate for its professional values, principles, and responsibilities, including its support for student rights.
2. The community would benefit from much wider and more organized faculty participation in campus life.
3. A faculty union can forge effective alliances between faculty members and other employee groups on campus and in the community.
4. The teaching profession deserves true faculty representation, where all faculty members—full- and part-time alike—are represented by a body that is obligated to consult fully, to take direction from its constituents, and to report to everyone about all its deliberations, findings, and recommendations.
5. A union composed of dedicated citizen-scholars will guarantee the basic human rights of everyone in the campus community—students, faculty, and staff. Indeed, collective bargaining itself is a human right for all employees.