The series contains records pertaining to the AUCE’s efforts to advocate for their members and bargain as a collective unit. Record types include agendas, minutes, and dockets of the Annual Conventions and Special Conventions held by AUCE, agenda and minutes of the meetings of the General Membership, contracts documenting the collective agreements between the workers and employers, and records of conferences, strikes, working conditions, news releases, as well as training records on stewardship, bargaining, striking and picketing.
While many of the records relate directly to equal pay, increased benefits, and cost-of-living increases, the advocacy and bargaining efforts of the union also changed in response to the changing provincial government and University of British Columbia administrative measures.
With the 1983 election and the introduction of the Social Credit Government, the union worked with other labor organizations throughout the province, forming the province-wide Solidarity Coalition to resist the conservative measures being proposed through legislation. The records also reflect the related efforts to defeat Bill 19, introduced by Bill Vander Zalm in 1987, which directly affected labour unions and their right to strike.
The union also directly opposed choices made by the UBC administration including a decision to bring in Ritchie & Associates, a management consulting firm to assess efficiency in the workplace, as well as budget cut-backs. This resulted in the formation of the UBC. Campus Community Alliance. These and other specific efforts are documented in the series.

Activities of the executive included the formation of the Union Constitution and Bylaws, executive elections, as well as executive meetings and correspondence. Record types consist predominantly of minutes of meetings, but also include election statements and ballots, correspondence, constitutions, by-laws, and amendments. Minutes of meetings include information on financial decisions, related Union struggles, statements of solidarity, planning for any upcoming strikes and strike support efforts, as well as issues the membership has sought to bring up with the executive, and the status of the union as whole.

The series contains records pertaining to the AUCE Provincial and Local 1 and CUE committees. Record types include agendas, minutes, correspondence, newsletters and other material of the following committees: Provincial Affiliation Committee, Provincial Health and Safety Committee, and Local One Committees of: Working Conditions Committee, Communications Committee, Grievances Committee, Merger Committee, and Strike Committee, and CUE Communications committee.

Records found in the Strike and Contract Committee files document the contract negotiations undertaken by Local 1 of the A.U.C.E., some of which resulted in members striking while negotiations continued.

Health and Safety Committee records contain pertinent information to occupational safety legislation and workers' compensation.

Communications Committee records predominantly consist of newsletters of AUCE Local 1, including the Local 1 monthly newsletter, bulletins for special membership meetings, and, post- 1985, the CUE newsletter.

Grievances Committee records contain the records of union members who reported a grievance to the union.

While the AUCE began as an independent union, for several years it was debated whether to affiliate with a larger union, and which one. Various members opposed or supported these efforts, for different reasons, and the records of the Provincial Affiliation committee relate to these differences between independent and national/international unions.

In 1985 the A.U.C.E. Local 1 seceded from the AUCE provincial, and merged with the CUPE to become the CUPE Local 2950; this process is described in the Merger Committee records. The physical order in which all records were received has been maintained; original order has been re-constituted intellectually.

The series consists primarily of photographs and news-clippings of union members and union activities, along with other publications, and ephemera.

Publications include reports from the UBC University Librarian, British Columbia policy research and reports, and newsletters from the International Women’s Year in English and in French.

News clippings from The Ubyssey, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, and other newspapers document the press coverage of strikes and labour issues in British Columbia.

Ephemera includes metal pins supporting union efforts, posters, a scrapbook documenting the 1992 CUPE 2950 strike at UBC, as well as fliers and bulletins for union strikes and meetings.

Photographs span from the early 1970s until 2009 and include images of AUCE and CUPE workers on strike, at national conventions, and in meetings.. The series also contains original and photocopied newspaper clippings, buttons, typed reports on the history of the union, posters, fliers, bulletins and publications kept by the union as reference material.

Series consists of records pertaining to the organization and activities of AUCE's Local chapters 2 through 6. Local chapters are as follows: Local 2, Simon Fraser University (SFU), Local 3, Notre Dame University of Nelson, Local 4, Capilano College, Local 5, College of New Caledonia, Local 6, Teaching Support Staff at SFU (TSSU). Series is comprised of the efforts of these local chapters including strikes, bargaining, and organizing new members. Many records in the Local 2 files relate to the arrest and consequential support for eighteen students and workers on the picket line while on strike at Simon Fraser University.
Record types include correspondence, strike records, constitutions, collective agreements, newsletters, pamphlets, and secession records.

Series consists of incoming and outgoing correspondence and related materials of Association of University and College Employees, Local 1. Record types include letters, newsletters, job descriptions, news clippings, meeting minutes, nominations for union positions, and agendas of meetings.