During the last couple of weeks we have bargained with Einstein over their intention to change the status quo healthcare benefits offered to Postdoctoral Fellows for fiscal year 2025. During these sessions, Einstein presented their new external legal counsel Michael Volpe and his assistant Taylor Bleistein from the Venable law firm who replaced David Brodsky from Montefiore.
On December 2nd, we had our 7th bargaining session where Einstein showed strong opposition to most of the items in our side letter. After the two-hour discussion they agreed to drop the 7% increase in the premiums for the MonteCare PPO plans but stated that the increase in the deductible and the co-pays would remain since Einstein had already negotiated these changes and they couldn’t be reversed.
On December 5th, we presented our counter proposal to the side letter during our 8th bargaining session, where we demanded a reduction in the MonteCare PPO premiums to account for the increase of co-pays and deductible rates and to make this plan more affordable for postdocs. During the session, Einstein stated that while they are unwilling to lower the premiums, they are willing to reimburse postdocs for the increase in the cost of the deductible and the emergency and urgent care co-payments. We have received a written counter proposal from Einstein, and we expect to finish bargaining with Einstein over their proposed changes no later than Tuesday next week.
At our session on Thursday, we presented our counters for Discipline and Dismissal, and Grievance and Arbitration. Due to the changes on Einstein’s team we went over some questions raised in the past and explained our demands again.
Einstein’s bargaining team presented their counters for Recognition, Appointments and Reappointments, Intellectual Property, and Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment, and completely rejected our Appointment Security proposal. We were disappointed to see that Einstein did not work from our proposal drafts, instead offering entirely new language. Due to lack of time and the fact that Einstein’s new team refused to use redlining in their counters (a common technique for showing what has changed from proposal to proposal), as both sides have been doing until now, we were unable to fully discuss their counter proposals before the session ended.
Despite these setbacks, we are thrilled to have achieved a major victory by defending the current levels of our healthcare benefits. This is a big win for our Union and a testament to the strong support and participation of postdocs across campus so far.
Our last bargaining session of this year is on December 19 (Thursday), 1 pm to 5 pm. You can RSVP here to attend.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
In Solidarity,
Silvia C Hernandez, Medicine- Cardiology
ERU-UAW Bargaining Committee