On Wednesday, researchers from across campus attended a workshop with Mount Sinai postdocs on how they won their historic first contract last year, and discussed ways we can urge WCM to make greater progress.
On Wednesday, President Trump’s Executive Branch placed the National Institutes of Health under an unprecedented set of restrictions, including a communications blackout, a travel ban for nearly all employees, and a complete hiring freeze. This means that many of the NIH grants that fund academic workers’ research and have already passed peer review are now in limbo.
UAW Postdocs across the country are organizing to call on our congressional representatives on Thursday, 1/30, at 3pm to demand these restrictions be lifted immediately. Please click on the link below to join.
Click here to join a phone bank and share your story
Any slowdown in grant funding will have dramatic consequences for scientific research around the country and for the American economy. Delays in grant funding and gag orders on the NIH also delay research in fields like cancer, diabetes, avian flu, and other critical public health concerns. Academic workers must take immediate action to tell our congressional representatives that restrictions on the NIH must be lifted, so that this agency can continue its work, and ensure that American scientific research continues without interruption. Please click here to sign up to join your fellow workers in demanding these restrictions be lifted.
Share your story. Personal stories about how academic workers’ research has been impacted by these restrictions is a critical component to making a strong case to legislators. If, like me, you have already been affected or fear that you may be, and are willing to share your story, please click here to provide details, and a fellow worker will follow up with you.
23rd Bargaining Session Update (1/14/25):
Last Tuesday, January 14th, we held our 23rd bargaining session with WCM, where we continued our discussions on many of the remaining key sticking points in our proposed contract articles. We were frustrated to see WCM continue to reject provisions that are increasingly standard for unionized postdocs at Mount Sinai and elsewhere.
WCM began the session by proposing new language in the Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment article that doubled down on their efforts to delay the grievance timeline in cases of sexual harassment. WCM’s newest proposal would force a survivor of sexual harassment to put their grievance on hold for up to six months.
WCM claims that we should have to experience this delay in order to match what Cornell University has agreed to with graduate student workers in Ithaca. However, what Cornell has agreed to at another campus with another group of employees should not be used to deprive us of rights we deserve. Furthermore, WCM’s offer also represents a regressive move from language we already agreed to previously this past fall during our bargaining sessions, and is a violation of WCM’s legal obligation to bargain in good faith. We know that WCM is willing to agree to immediate access to the full grievance process for sexual harassment issues because they already agreed to it previously, and we will continue to push back against this unlawful change.
During the remainder of the session, we received answers to questions we asked WCM at previous sessions to aid in developing counter proposals, including Leaves of Absence and Housing. We also continued to push WCM to explain why they are opposed to making improvements in areas that are important to a majority of us, and reflect standards set by other unionized postdocs in the city, including paid time off for renewing visas, funds to support childcare and other costs, timely access to housing at the start of appointments, and capping rent increases at 2%.
Please join us at our next bargaining session with the administration on Monday, February 10, from 12:00pm – 4:00pm. Additionally, stay tuned for upcoming actions where we can demonstrate to WCM that their continued insistence fewer rights and less financial support than our unionized peers is unacceptable.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
In Solidarity,
Dagan Marx, Biochemistry
WCMPU-UAW Bargaining Committee