Sign up for our “Picket to Protect Science” on Wednesday, Aug. 6th, from 12 PM to 1 PM!
Last Thursday, July 24th, we had our 33rd bargaining session with the WCM administration.
This was a small group session with a subset of members from both sides, which was scheduled in order to try to continue making progress before our next full session on July 30th (sign up to attend here!).
During the session, we provided a new package counter proposal. In our counter, we made substantial movement toward WCM on our Emergency Layoff article, including:
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Shifting the criteria for an emergency layoff closer to what exists in other unionized postdoc contracts;
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Removing our proposed transitional funding period before a layoff occurs;
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Adjusting the process for meeting with the administration about a potential layoff to be more predictable;
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Accepting WCM’s proposed process for shifting between labs; and
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Accepting much of WCM’s proposed language on how postdocs could be offered a vacant position in their lab after a layoff occurred if funding is re-secured.
Based on these significant changes, we made it clear to the administration’s team that we believe they do not need a Force Majeure clause in our contract in order to have the flexibility to address unexpected losses of research funding, especially given that we have already agreed to appointment minimums of one year. We were disappointed to see WCM express the desire to have us counter some version of Force Majeure, but we were glad that the administration said they would work on a response to our proposal at our upcoming session on July 30th.
We stressed that we want to reach an agreement with them as soon as possible, so that we can instead focus on working together to advocate against the ongoing attacks on higher education and research funding. However, we also made it clear that we cannot agree to provisions that would allow WCM to reduce our wages mid-contract and make us work for less.
In order to make more progress, it is critical that the WCM administration see that a majority of postdocs see it as urgent that we reach a fair agreement NOW, so we can effectively do our research and concentrate on organizing at the city and national levels to fight back against funding cuts.
To make this clear to WCM, postdocs are organizing an informational “Picket to Protect Science” on Wednesday, August 06, 2025, from 12 PM to 1 PM ET. This will be an opportunity to show WCM what a strike could look like if they continue to refuse to reach an agreement that includes a fair process in cases of loss of appropriate funding.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
Caitlin Williams
Pediatrics, Postdoctoral Associate
WCMPU-UAW Bargaining Committee