Happy May Day! Join our social with other unionized postdocs, this Friday 05/03!
Yesterday, we met with the Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) administration for our third bargaining session. We are pleased to report that we made progress in a number of areas relevant to our non-economic proposals.
Two weeks after our last session, we received counter-proposals from WCM on 7 out of the 20 articles we proposed on April 15th: Recognition, Discipline and Dismissal, Grievance and Arbitration, No Strike No Lockout, Union-Management Committee, Travel, and International Researcher Rights. We made important progress towards agreement in these areas. However, we were also disturbed by attempts by WCM to weaken basic rights that are standard at Sinai and Columbia, including by lengthening the grievance process indefinitely and removing protections against delays for travel reimbursements.
WCM also introduced an additional article, Terms of Agreement, that would remove WCM’s obligation to bargain with us during the term of our future contract. We fought hard for the right to bargain as equals with WCM, and this article would only lower standards for other unionized postdocs in the city.
At our last session, we discussed the importance of referring to postdocs correctly as employees in our contract. Yesterday, WCM responded by proposing the term “Postdoctoral Employee” to refer to unit members, which we agreed reflected adequately our role at the institution. Subsequently, we were able to reach tentative agreements (TAs) on Recognition, Union-Management Committee and No Strike No Lockout. We made it clear that these agreements are provisional until we reach full agreement on our broader package of non-economic articles, including those related to conflict resolution like Grievance and Arbitration and Discipline and Dismissal.
At the end of the session we discussed scheduling more bargaining dates after our two upcoming sessions on May 21st and June 4th. We were disappointed that WCM was unwilling to commit to any additional dates before July 16th, creating a delay of roughly 6 weeks. We hope to continue the conversation between sessions and address remaining non-economic proposals in our next bargaining session. RSVP for an upcoming session here.
Finally, please join us for a social event this upcoming Friday, May 3rd at 6PM, organized by UAW Local 4100, bringing together postdoctoral workers from across New York City. We are part of a national movement to improve academia – come celebrate our growing power and recent wins! RSVP Here!
Summary of provisional tentative agreements:
Recognition: would codify official recognition of WCMPU-UAW
No Strike No Lockout: would prevent work stoppages during the term of the agreement.
Union Management Committee: creates a joint committee between the union and WCM to meet regularly during the life of the contract on matters related to our contract.
In solidarity,
Sahar Jalal, Radiology
WCMPU-UAW Bargaining Committee