Our unionized postdoc colleagues across NYC shared this video message with us ahead of our election!
Voting starts Wednesday in our historic union election! Find more information on our new election page, including an open letter signed by our colleagues across departments on why so many of us are voting yes this week.
Since many of us began talking about forming a union more than a year ago, we’ve had conversations with coworkers across departments, held town halls, and met with other NYC researchers at community events. We are proud of the unprecedented participation by our colleagues in this process, and the conversation we have established about the value of our work as researchers. We hope to continue that conversation through the process of collective bargaining.
The Einstein administration has repeatedly expressed their preference that we vote “no” on Wednesday and Thursday, including through an email and video today from Dean Tomer. It is disappointing that Dean Tomer would frame our union as a “third party intermediary” rather than recognizing that, as postdocs, we are the union. This language seems particularly out of touch after more than 80% of postdocs signed up in support of forming our union, and postdocs from across departments delivered a letter to Dean Tomer urging him to remain neutral and meet with us, receiving no response. As postdocs, we will decide our priorities for negotiations democratically, and we will elect representatives from among our fellow postdocs to bargain with Einstein, as thousands of unionized postdocs have done before us.
You may also have noticed that the text linking to einsteinpostdocfacts.com in Dean Tomer’s “Video Message” email mentions ADUSA Transportation and Washington, D.C. drivers. After some research, we believe that Einstein has re-used the template of a pre-existing website (https://dc01driversvoice.com), with similar questions that seem aimed at encouraging D.C. grocery drivers to vote “no” in their union election just one month ago. This is not surprising given that the consultant Einstein hired to speak with us last week specializes in “leading company campaigns in union organizing drives”, according to his website.
Our reasons for voting “yes” have not changed, and we are excited to take this critical next step toward joining nearly 120,000 academic workers in the UAW across the country.
If you have any remaining questions, take a look at our side-by-side response to Einstein’s FAQ and don’t hesitate to reach out at info@einsteinpostdocunion.org.
Best,
Paulina Alatriste González, Cell Biology
Member of ERU-UAW Organizing Committee