BY ROBERT OVETZ

The wave of unionization in higher education over the past decade has resulted in a new breakthrough. The first exclusive student worker union at a community college has been certified by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). While there are some unionized student workers at private colleges and public universities, most student workers are included in larger bargaining units. The union with the largest number of students in the bargaining unit is the California State University Employees Union, which added about 20,000 students in 2024.

Located in rural Gilroy, California, the 117 members of the bargaining unit represented by the independent Gavilan Student Workers Union (GSWU) work as peer tutors, mentors, and library and office assistants. GSWU was certified by the PERB on March 6, 2026, after the Gavilan Joint Community College District voluntarily recognized the new union.

Recognition was a formality because GSWU had already achieved important victories in the months after being formed. In an interview, Payam Barghi, GSWU cofounder and interim vice president, explained how the students began self-organizing in October 2024 by forming a five-member organizing committee. The committee recruited about eight other workers that helped with different projects, zines, newsletters, videos, editing, and building a website, GSWU.org, that helped organize support from campus student workers.

The workers began organizing a “march on the boss” by acting as an unofficial union. Their meeting with the superintendent and testimony at the board of trustees led to negotiations that resulted in an impressive 17 percent wage increase, $480 one-time bonus, and free campus parking in June 2025. Voluntary recognition followed in March 2026.

GSWU’s successful organizing demonstrated that even precarious public sector workers can organize effectively without explicit labor laws. Formal recognition is helpful, but not a precursor to organizing for power and winning changes in the workplace.

“We are proud to be the first community college student workers union in the nation, but this victory is bigger than Gavilan,” Interim Vice President Payam Barghi told me in an interview. “We are the first, not the last, and we hope GSWU serves as a model for student workers across the country and shows them what is possible.”

According to my research, confirmed by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College, City University of New York, and the UC Santa Cruz Center for Labor and Community, GSWU is the very first exclusively student-based worker union at a community college in the US. While the first, it is certain to be followed by other unionization efforts at community colleges, because there is an urgent need for them.

Recent studies of community college and California State University students in California have found that a large number of students are housing and food insecure, with many homeless and even sleeping in their cars, circumstances many of my students have experienced. Many of my community college students are working one or more jobs because local and state minimum wages are far too low in one of the most expensive metropolitan areas of the country.

At the bargaining table since March, GSWU is now focused on achieving a $22 minimum wage, rehire rights, holiday pay, and mental health paid time off. Considering the high rate of mental health issues among college students, PTO will be a critical lifeline for many student workers.

Today, GSWU joins unionized community college students who are members of community college staff unions in Arizona, Connecticut, and Minnesota.

The campus conditions of community college students and their precarious status as campus workers make GSWU a successful model for student workers at the many community colleges around the country that have high turnover of students.

As GSWU Interim President Alyssa De Jesus explained in a statement issued by the union, “This is an empowering first step for workers. It paves the way for collaborative work between community colleges and their student workers across the country. It shows everyone involved that student work is real work.”

Robert Ovetz is a rank-and-file organizer with the California Faculty Association, senior lecturer in political science at San José State University, and teaches at two community colleges. He is the author and editor of six books on the global labor movement.