Leaders of a campus workers’ union at USC are working to give a voice to all university employees amid changes to higher education by the Trump administration.
The United Campus Workers of South Carolina is one branch of a larger union across the southeastern United States dedicated to raising awareness for all of the employees on the USC campus.
According to Josh Dunn, the chair of the steering committee for the union, its goal is to give a voice to those who work at public universities statewide, including, faculty, support staff, and students.
Kelley Kennedy, co-chair of the union, said the organization advocates for better working conditions for all university employees, including better benefits, wages and campuses overall.
Higher education is a political issue, and they hear politicians, state legislators and high-level administrators talk about it, and people in classrooms and on campuses do not have a voice, according to Kennedy.
“It feels really important and timely to build more of a voice because I think those are also the folks who have the strongest vision for why higher education matters,” Kennedy said.
According to U.S. News, the Trump administration has dealt with higher education issues, such as trying to get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion programs, revoking international student visas, making threats to remove funding from colleges and universities, and more.
Some of these changes have had an effect on USC students. Several international students had their visas revoked at USC earlier this year.
The USC chapter of the union started in 2020 as a response to feeling forced to return to work in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and low wages, Dunn said.
According to Kennedy, when the union first started, it was able to attain higher wages for graduate students and healthcare benefits for full-time graduate student workers.
“Continuing to advocate for a living wage for graduate students, staff and faculty is still a key part of what we do,” Kennedy said.
According to Dunn, cost-of-living adjustments is one of the biggest issues when it comes to the union's work, as despite rising prices, wages have not increased over the past few years.
In March of 2024, the union presented a petition to USC's administration, calling for minimum wages and salaries for campus workers to be increased. Some of the changes it wanted was for the minimum wage to be $20 an hour or $40,000 a year for salaried employees. Currently, the minimum wage is $15 as of July 2023.
The South Carolina chapter currently has about 150 members, Dunn said. It is composed of campus workers who are both students and full-time staff. However, this doesn’t change how the union advocates for each of its members.
“I think one of the things when you think about what a union is and what it does, is it provides a vessel for workers to advocate for themselves,” Dunn said. “So student workers might have a different set of needs than full-time faculty or full-time staff, but we can only know that by coming together and learning where those common needs are.”
One of these members is graduate biological sciences student Naomi Pooja Jacob, who’s been part of the union for a little over a year. She said she has seen budget cuts have a negative impact on her family, and having unions on their side helped them get their jobs back.
For Kennedy, each member’s employment role doesn’t matter, as she believes the union stands together.
“Being a wall-to-wall union means that we can learn about those opportunities to stand in solidarity with each other,” Kennedy said.