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Resolution Honoring Phil Kugler of the American Federation of Teachers on His Retirement
In June 2021, the AAUP's national Council approved the following resolution.
WHEREAS Phil Kugler has devoted nearly half a century to the labor movement and to the cause of working people everywhere, serving as the American Federation of Teachers’ (AFT) Director of Organizing and Services and also Special Assistant to the President, and
WHEREAS Phil Kugler has played a significant role in the growth of unionization across the education sector during this same time period, including the growth of faculty militancy in higher education and union solidarity between higher education unions and other labor unions, and
WHEREAS Phil Kugler has consistently recognized that core AAUP issues such as academic freedom and faculty voice in decision-making are fundamental values in the academic labor movement, and that AAUP and AFT were both strengthened when we jointly organized faculty, and
WHEREAS Phil Kugler played an instrumental role in negotiating the 2008 Joint Organizing Agreement between the AAUP and the AFT, and in the negotiations of the three successor agreements between the two organizations, and
WHEREAS the “value added” of the AAUP-AFT joint organizing partnership has resulted in 11,000 faculty and academic workers being brought into the academic labor movement and covered by collective bargaining agreements that reflect a strong commitment to AAUP’s values, and
WHEREAS this partnership has now grown into collaboration in other key programmatic areas such as legislative policy work, and a national campaign to reclaim higher education as a public good,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the AAUP National Council honors Phil Kugler on his vision and leadership; his half-century service to the labor movement, including the higher education labor movement; his steadfast commitment to and solidarity with workers in the U.S. and around the globe; his deep understanding of academic freedom and faculty voice as fundamental union issues; and his tireless advocacy on behalf of higher education as a common good.
