This document provides a history of the relationship between higher education faculty and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Highlights include the first AFT higher education local formed in 1918, the role played by the union in the expansion of the G.I. Bill following World War II, increased activism in the 1950s and 1960s to win collective bargaining rights and contemporary efforts to advocate for contingent faculty. The strength of AFT has been garnered over decades of mobilization, research, lobbying, public persuasion and negotiations at the bargaining table, but, although the landscape of American academia may change, the organization strives to retain its core commitment to the voices of faculty and professional staff in the academic workplace. [This document was produced by AFT Higher Education, a division of the American Federation of Teachers.]