We entered our 26th bargaining session on Monday hoping that WCM would take significant steps towards reaching a fair agreement with needed protections and increased benefits for the postdoc community. We were pleased to see that after weeks of increased organizing by postdocs, WCM gave us their first real response on paid parental leave. However, they continued to refuse to make progress on probation, discrimination, or any of our other core economic priorities.
In response to pressure from our rally and our letter to the Dean, WCM increased its paid parental leave offer from eight to twelve weeks. Under the proposal they shared during the session, postdoc parents who have been employed for over three months would receive 12 weeks of leave at 67% salary. After a year of employment, that amount would increase to 100%. In the interest of reaching agreement quickly, we shared a “supposal” (an outline of a potential counter we could make to resolve the article) with WCM in which we would agree to twelve weeks of leave, on the condition that this benefit be available for postdoc parents from the beginning of our employment. For new postdoc parents on the job market, failing to offer paid parental leave from the start of appointments would make WCM less competitive compared to institutions like Sinai, where leave is immediately available.
Despite this movement on parental leave, WCM failed to meaningfully change their positions on our other core priorities. They continued to insist on a three month probationary period, no paid time off for renewing our visas, no morning shuttle from Roosevelt Island, no rent caps, no relocation assistance, and no support for childcare costs.
On Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment, WCM continued to push for delayed access to our neutral grievance procedure for survivors of sexual harassment, but shortened this delay from a maximum of 6 months to 4 months. As we noted in the session, WCM’s previous position included postdocs having immediate access to the grievance procedure in these cases. We urged WCM to return to their previous position as quickly as possible and stop unnecessarily delaying bargaining with this regressive move.
We were also deeply disappointed to see WCM propose a new article nearly a year into bargaining, Force Majeure, which would give them the right to unilaterally alter our contract once it is ratified, which they claimed to want in the event that they are targeted by the Trump administration.
While we are not obligated to bargain over this article and made clear that we see no need for it to be included in our contract, it is an alarming sign that WCM will not commit to protecting our community in these times of rising authoritarianism and attacks on science.
WCM’s move on parental leave is a positive sign, but we still have an urgent need for increased protections and equity for our community, especially at a time when our careers and livelihoods are under attack.
We will keep fighting until we reach a contract that protects our community. Please look out for next steps in this fight in the coming days.
In solidarity,
Krithika Karthigeyan
WCM Bargaining Committee