Sign up to attend the next bargaining session on Wednesday, July 30th!
Last Wednesday, we met with WCM in person for our 32nd bargaining session.
At the beginning of the session, we were encouraged to see WCM make further progress in several areas, including moving from offering as little as zero days notice to 30 days notice for layoffs, matching what they already offered faculty. While this is still insufficient, especially for international postdocs who would be forced to uproot their lives in the event of a layoff, it shows that WCM is slowly coming to understand the importance of sufficient notice to all postdocs at WCM.
Bizarrely, when we pushed WCM to commit to longer timelines, they claimed that while they wanted to do so for the majority of us who are on visas, they could not because then having shorter timelines for domestic postdocs short could be considered discriminatory.
We were also disappointed to see WCM continue to insist on the ability to lay off postdocs at any time, not just when financial circumstances make layoffs necessary. When we pushed them on this, they simply reiterated their belief that they should have the right to conduct layoffs whenever they choose.
WCM also countered on Force Majeure, including by limiting it to economic emergencies and lengthening the amount of notice to two weeks from 48 hours. Neither of these changes addresses the fundamental issue: with Force Majeure WCM would be able, with limited notice, to unilaterally change the salaries and benefits that we’ve been fighting to win if we didn’t reach an agreement with them in a few short weeks. WCM was clear that they would use this provision to reduce our hard-won salaries for an indefinite period and that they believe the conditions for triggering Force Majeure have already been met. We will continue to insist on not having any provision that allows WCM to reduce our wages while expecting us to perform the same amount of work.
Our next scheduled in person bargaining session will take place on Wednesday, July 30th from 12pm-4pm (sign up here!). Please let us know if you have any thoughts or questions.
In solidarity,
Dagan Marx, Postdoctoral Associate in Biochemistry
On behalf of the WCMPU-UAW Bargaining Committee