College and university administrators have no shortage of stressors on their plate as the academic year draws to a close. That long list often includes managing faculty and staff relations — a tall task in an industry that faces one of the highest unionization rates in the country.

Dozens of universities in the Northeast will engage in collective bargaining talks this year, but administrators should be aware of a new development before taking their seat at the bargaining table: more than 50 labor unions that represent faculty and staff on 125 campuses from Maine to Pennsylvania have joined a regional compact, committing to pursue common bargaining objectives.

The allure of the so-called Amherst Compact does not come from novel policy goals. The compact lists garden variety goals on familiar bargaining topics, including compensation, job security, working conditions, health care, paid leave, professional development, career advancement, academic freedom, and AI in the workplace. Instead, the compact's major selling point seems to be its promise of unprecedented cross-campus, cross-union, and cross-state collaboration and coordination. 

There is no guarantee the Amherst Compact will live up to the hype its proponents are preaching. For one, the sheer size and diversity of its membership may potentially backfire. Member unions represent workers in roles ranging from food service and custodial work to doctors, researchers, academics, and professional staff — this variance increases the likelihood of incompatible interests. This internal misalignment can make it difficult to develop proposals that adequately address the day-to-day realities for workers, engendering dissatisfaction, weakened solidarity, and infighting, particularly if one group believes its interests are being traded away to secure gains for another. 

The compact's influence may also be limited by the diversity of institutions its unions are bargaining with. A private liberal arts college's economic circumstances fundamentally differ from those of a public land grant university, and a bargaining strategy that works for one may be unfeasible for the other. 

How will this novel approach fare in practice? Time will tell. Either way, the next round of collective bargaining under this compact will be a learning experience.