As you may know, Einstein tried to unilaterally change the benefits offered to Postdoctoral Fellows for 2025. Over the past few weeks, our bargaining committee negotiated with Einstein’s team to prevent the potential worsening of our benefits. On December 10th, we held our 9th bargaining session, during which Einstein and the Union finalized discussions on the benefits for fiscal year 2025.
We are thrilled to announce that our bargaining efforts have led to an agreement with Einstein effectively preserving the status quo for the healthcare benefits available to Postdoctoral Fellows. Although the cost of the MonteCare PPO healthcare plan is set to increase—including higher deductibles and emergency/urgent care co-payments—Einstein has agreed to reimburse postdocs for these additional costs. As a result, the cost of healthcare for postdocs will remain unchanged for fiscal year 2025. Einstein also agreed to extend the open enrollment period for Postdoctoral Fellows until the end of the year to give us enough time to choose our benefits.
Importantly, we emphasized the need for improvements beyond maintaining the status quo, which we will continue fighting for in future negotiations over our Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In addition to the healthcare benefits, the Flexible Spending Account and the 403(b) retirement income plan are included in the agreement memorializing the increase of the IRS contribution limit.
This agreement marks a major victory in preserving our current healthcare benefits. It is a testament to the collective strength and active participation of postdocs across campus, and a significant achievement for our Union.
As always, we encourage postdocs to reach out with any questions or thoughts.
In Solidarity,
Rohan Misra, Genetics
ERU-UAW Bargaining Committee