About Us

About the Teaching Assistants Union

We are a labor union that represent over 500 Teaching Assistants at Western Michigan University. We are affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers at the state & national level, as well as the AFL-CIO as an afffiliate locally in the AFL-CIO South Center Labor Council.

We are a member driven, member run organization. We have democratically elected leadership. Our executive board members are TAU members in different departments across campus, elected on a yearly basis. Our current board members are:

President Thomas Fisher (PhD- Clinical Psychology)

Vice President of Contract

About AFT Higher Education

The AFT represents higher education faculty (including both full- and part-time), professional staff and graduate employees, in all sectors of higher education—public and private, two-year and four-year institutions of higher education. MORE

History of the AFT

Learn the history of the AFT, including the union's founding in Chicago in 1916, its affiliation with the AFL-CIO, its battles for workers and human rights and its continued work to uphold the proud traditions on which the union was created.

AFT Mission Statement

The American Federation of Teachers is a union of professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families and our communities. We are committed to advancing these principles through community engagement, organizing, collective bargaining and political activism, and especially through the work our members do.

About the AFT

Learn more about the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which was founded in 1916 to represent the economic, social and professional interests of classroom teachers and is an affiliated international union of the AFL-CIO.