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SEIU 503 HIGHER ED BARGAINING UPDATE Read in Spanish

Bargaining begins with clear member priorities

Our team entered opening statements focused on fair wages, protected benefits, sustainable workloads, job security and union power.

By SEIU 503 Higher Ed Bargaining Team

Published

Higher Education Bargaining 2026 graphic announcing that bargaining starts in February.
Image courtesy of SEIU Local 503.

Bargaining officially begins this Thursday! At 10am, Executive Director Melissa Unger will read the opening statement drafted by the members of your bargaining team, including our expectations based on bargaining survey results. We will also take this time to present the "Fighting for Higher Education" bargaining petition, which has been signed by the majority of Higher Ed union members!

Zoom Meeting Guidelines:

If you are joining via Zoom, please keep the following in mind:

  • Attendees will be muted throughout the session.
  • If you choose to turn on your camera, ensure that there are no inappropriate or offensive background images or objects.

We encourage you to create a sea of purple with our Higher Ed Zoom/Teams backgrounds, please download any of the available options from our bargaining webpage. There are options for desktop computers and smartphones. Join the meeting at this link:

Thursday at 10am

Keep building our power

Sign the strike pledge, talk with coworkers and follow the bargaining hub for the latest actions and updates.

Sign the strike pledge View the bargaining hub

Source note

This update was originally published by the SEIU 503 Higher Ed Bargaining Team and is republished here in Local 083's news format. View the original bargaining page.