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A Midtown HACC campus in Harrisburg on Dec. 8, 2025. Unionized faculty had a two-day strike in November, a rarity for Pennsylvania’s community colleges. (Whitney Downard\/Pennsylvania Capital-Star)<\/p>\n
With frustration mounting, unionized faculty at a central Pennsylvania community college came to an unusual decision in the early days of November this year: they were going to pressure HACC administrators at the negotiating table by leaving their classrooms for a two-day strike.<\/p>\n
But while nearly every community college in Pennsylvania has a union, picketing professors are a rarity in the commonwealth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such collective action doesn\u2019t happen on a whim, as Chris Lilienthal told the Capital-Star. Lilienthal works as the assistant director of communications with the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which represents roughly 1,000 local union associations at K-12 schools and community colleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Harrisburg Area Community College<\/p>\n
\u201cStrikes are very rare, both in the community college setting or the higher education setting, as well as in the K-12 setting,\u201d said Lilienthal, speaking generally. \u201cIt\u2019s really a situation where the negotiators on the teachers (or) faculty side have really hit a wall and they\u2019re not getting anywhere with the school or college.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The full union membership votes on whether to pursue a strike \u2014 a decision union chapters at HACC and Luzerne County Community College made last month. But while HACC\u2019s professors spent two days striking, unionized faculty at Luzerne Community College avoided such action<\/a> when contract negotiations restarted.\u00a0<\/p>\n Similarly, the Community College of Philadelphia was able to reach a contract with faculty before a strike occurred<\/a> last spring.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur members, they don\u2019t want to go on strike; they want to be in the classroom,\u201d said Lilienthal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lilienthal said negotiations for first contracts with new unions can often be lengthy, but called the three-and-a-half year process at HACC \u201cvery unusual.\u201d The community college has campuses in Harrisburg, Lancaster, York, Gettysburg and Lebanon.<\/p>\n Negotiations took several, contentious turns, including arrests<\/a>, alleged violations of transparency laws<\/a> and accusations of union-busting<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite the rocky road, union president Christine Nowik said she\u2019d do it again.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI would absolutely advise it. I advise it for any industry at this point. Collective power is, at this point, the only power,\u201d Nowik told the Capital-Star.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nowik, an English professor at HACC\u2019s York campus, became president roughly one month ago, just before the strike began.<\/p>\n For their part, HACC administrators said they were \u201cgrateful\u201d to reach the agreement, which was unanimously approved<\/a> by the Board of Trustees last week. Most releases since the Oct. 2 vote by the union authorizing the executive committee to strike have included minimal updates, instead emphasizing the following \u201ccore principles\u201d in a contract:<\/p>\n Prioritizing student successSupporting the affordability of its offeringsProviding all employees with comparable benefitsIncreasing wages for all employees while ensuring fiscal stability, as outlined in the College\u2019s\u00a0strategic plan\u00a0<\/a>Background<\/p>\n The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions reports that the number of unionized faculty grew 7.5% between 2012 and 2024<\/a>, while graduate student employee unionization increased by 133%.<\/p>\n The center, based out of Hunter College in New York City, tabulated 902 collective bargaining units in higher education into a lengthy directory, including student and staff agreements. Each state governs and funds their community college system in a unique manner, complicating efforts to neatly categorize schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n The states with the highest numbers of unionized faculty are California (93,705), New York (87,848) and New Jersey (25,549). Over three-quarters of Hawaii\u2019s faculty (76%) have union representation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Pennsylvania has 17,786 faculty members that are part of a union, roughly 26% of all faculty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faculty members at public, two-year institutions \u2013 like HACC \u2013 were slightly more likely to belong to a union than not \u2014 whereas public and private schools were the opposite. Fifty-two percent of faculty at two-year institutions belong to a union, compared to 33% of public, four-year faculty members and 8% of those teaching at private schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the center\u2019s directory, just one of the commonwealth\u2019s 15 community colleges doesn\u2019t have a faculty union: Erie County Community College.\u00a0<\/p>\n