We’re excited to share that we resumed bargaining in person this year last Wednesday, February 5th, with our 11th bargaining session. Thank you to all our colleagues who joined us as observers. Your participation is key to this process.
True to our goals, during the session, we continued pushing for a fair and equitable contract by presenting counter-proposals on key issues, including:
These counter-proposals reflect our commitment to advancing the bargaining process by incorporating Einstein’s language when it aligns with and respects postdocs’ demands. However, we firmly rejected any provisions that sought to limit our ability to grieve issues or undermine postdocs’ rights.
In response to Einstein’s proposals on International Researcher Rights and Individual Development Plans, we adopted Einstein’s language as a foundation but expanded it to ensure that these articles cover essential rights more comprehensively. Our proposals strengthen protections and bring these provisions in line with standards at other institutions. For this reason, we proposed that the Individual Development Plans article be renamed Professional Development to reflect the necessary skills that should be acquired for a postdoc’s success over the long term as a professional researcher.
With only fifteen minutes remaining before the meeting was scheduled to conclude, Einstein responded with counter-proposals on Discipline and Dismissal, Employment Records, Grievance and Arbitration, Health and Safety, Job Posting, Training, and Workload. After quickly reviewing these seven counter-proposals, in combination with three counter-proposals presented to us at our last session on Workspace and Materials, Union Rights and Access, and Union Security, our main takeaway is that Einstein’s position has moved further away from ours in the past months, despite our efforts to move the process forward. Every one of these proposals was regressive or showed no movement toward our position and failed to follow the pattern of bargaining we’ve established over the first three months of negotiations, undermining our progress toward securing fair conditions for all postdocs.
It’s clear that Einstein is badly out of touch with why we voted to form our union more than six months ago. We remain committed to holding Einstein accountable and pushing for a contract that truly reflects our needs. Stay tuned for upcoming actions and ways we can convey the urgency of reaching a fair contract. Our collective power will make the difference.
Our next in-person session is scheduled for Friday, February 28th, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM ET. Click here to RSVP if you’d like to attend this or a future session and see the process firsthand!
You can access the full text of these proposals using our online bargaining tracker.
As always, we encourage postdocs to reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback.
In Solidarity,
Paulina Alatriste and Silvia C. Hernández
ERU-UAW Bargaining Committee