When the president of Colorado WINS learned that the president of the United States might be targeting Denver next in his anti-immigration campaign of terror, she knew how she’d begin to mobilize. One simple thing Diane Byrne does is deck out her activists in matching T-shirts. Wearing union colors promotes team spirit and builds confidence, she says. The AFT Public Employees program and policy council, meeting in New York City Feb. 5-6, abounded with tips to help locals mobilize. PPC chair Gary Feist, president of North Dakota Public Employees, recommended finding members who can tell a personal story to draw media attention. With more media on the issue, he said, legislators will become more motivated to fix the problem.

Federal immigration actions are rapidly expanding, with deadly consequences. The killings of poet Renee Nicole Good and nurse Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have brought intense focus on the use of excessive force. An AFT webinar, co-hosted by AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang on Jan. 28, featured experts on immigration and the law. It highlighted AFT resources and showcased how our locals are showing up to minimize fear and trauma.

It is clear that higher education is under attack. The Trump administration has frozen funding for science, from cancer research to reproductive care; has hamstrung student financial aid programs; has stripped colleges and universities of diversity, equity and inclusion programming; has strangled affirmative action designed to expand access to college; and is demanding that some institutions sign a “compact” that forces them to adopt Trump’s ideology in exchange for federal funding.

PATFA recommends part-time faculty read this June 7, 2025, essay from Trish Riley, chair of the UMS trustees, on the status of the budget for the University of Maine System:

The University of Maine System is an engine of educational attainment and economic mobility. Now is the time for the Legislature to fund it adequately. Building on her past support, Gov. Janet Mills proposed a 4 percent annual appropriation increase for our system in her final biennial budget. Last month, three-quarters of the Maine House and the entire state Senate endorsed this essential funding. But the recently enacted continuing services budget for fiscal year 2026-27 flat funds the university system, exacerbating decades of disinvestment when we can least afford it. While the state once funded 72.5 percent of the system’s operations, our inflation-adjusted appropriations have declined for decades and now pay just 43 percent of UMS education costs, far less than the 55 percent rightly provided for public K-12 schools.

As a union Local of the American Federation of Teachers, PATFA is both local and national. The retooling involves keeping PATFA-AFT members informed and involved on three tracks at the same time: System, state, and federal. We bargain directly with the System; we advocate jointly with the other unions in Augusta; and we advocate in Washington through AFT.

When the president of Colorado WINS learned that the president of the United States might be targeting Denver next in his anti-immigration campaign of terror, she knew how she’d begin to mobilize. One simple thing Diane Byrne does is deck out her activists in matching T-shirts. Wearing union colors promotes team spirit and builds confidence, she says. The AFT Public Employees program and policy council, meeting in New York City Feb. 5-6, abounded with tips to help locals mobilize. PPC chair Gary Feist, president of North Dakota Public Employees, recommended finding members who can tell a personal story to draw media attention. With more media on the issue, he said, legislators will become more motivated to fix the problem.

Federal immigration actions are rapidly expanding, with deadly consequences. The killings of poet Renee Nicole Good and nurse Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minneapolis have brought intense focus on the use of excessive force. An AFT webinar, co-hosted by AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang on Jan. 28, featured experts on immigration and the law. It highlighted AFT resources and showcased how our locals are showing up to minimize fear and trauma.

It is clear that higher education is under attack. The Trump administration has frozen funding for science, from cancer research to reproductive care; has hamstrung student financial aid programs; has stripped colleges and universities of diversity, equity and inclusion programming; has strangled affirmative action designed to expand access to college; and is demanding that some institutions sign a “compact” that forces them to adopt Trump’s ideology in exchange for federal funding.

PATFA recommends part-time faculty read this June 7, 2025, essay from Trish Riley, chair of the UMS trustees, on the status of the budget for the University of Maine System:

The University of Maine System is an engine of educational attainment and economic mobility. Now is the time for the Legislature to fund it adequately. Building on her past support, Gov. Janet Mills proposed a 4 percent annual appropriation increase for our system in her final biennial budget. Last month, three-quarters of the Maine House and the entire state Senate endorsed this essential funding. But the recently enacted continuing services budget for fiscal year 2026-27 flat funds the university system, exacerbating decades of disinvestment when we can least afford it. While the state once funded 72.5 percent of the system’s operations, our inflation-adjusted appropriations have declined for decades and now pay just 43 percent of UMS education costs, far less than the 55 percent rightly provided for public K-12 schools.

As a union Local of the American Federation of Teachers, PATFA is both local and national. The retooling involves keeping PATFA-AFT members informed and involved on three tracks at the same time: System, state, and federal. We bargain directly with the System; we advocate jointly with the other unions in Augusta; and we advocate in Washington through AFT.