On Wednesday, March 19th, we had another eventful bargaining session with Einstein:
We are happy to announce that we were able to reach our third tentative agreement with Einstein on Union Security. This article will help us ensure we are able to continue building a strong Union after we have ratified an agreement with Einstein, with the necessary resources to enforce all the rights, protections, and benefits we win in our contract.
Additionally, we presented counter proposals for nine articles: Appointments and Reappointments, Discipline and Dismissal, Employment Records, Grievance and Arbitration, Health and Safety, International Postdoctoral Fellow Rights, Training, Union Rights and Access, and Workload. In these counter proposals, we are standing our ground by rejecting Einstein’s continued efforts to lower the status quo, ignore standards for unionized postdocs at other New York City institutions, and establish provisions that are not enforceable. Some examples of Einstein’s out-of-touch provisions that we rejected are:
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Einstein seeks to establish a 6-month probationary period, undermining just cause protections.
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Einstein refuses to give postdocs sufficient notice of non-reappointment to plan for the next steps in our lives and careers.
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Einstein fails to be transparent and refuses to provide instructions for postdocs to access their employment records.
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Einstein refuses to pay for required training up front, putting a financial burden on postdocs who would need to get reimbursed.
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Einstein is rejecting basic protections against unreasonable workloads established in other postdoc union contracts.
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Einstein denies postdocs the right to a conference meeting to respond to allegations before being disciplined.
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Einstein avoids its responsibility to maintain safe buildings and a healthy work environment, placing the burden on postdocs.
During our presentation, we again pointed out where Einstein had regressed from previous positions they had already agreed to months ago. Their response was, “We just changed our proposals.” This shows that Einstein is not taking us and our demands seriously. On the contrary, they blatantly accuse us of not bargaining in good faith as we maintain our position on key issues for postdocs or move towards Einstein when there are alternative ways to address those issues while being responsive to Einstein’s concerns.
Einstein also gave us three counter proposals on Job Posting, Research Integrity, and Workspace and Materials. Since we spent the entire session discussing the counter proposals we brought to the table for Einstein, we ran out of time to discuss these articles, but we hope to pick them back up at our next bargaining session. Still, upon our first review, Einstein’s counter proposals again fail to engage with our demands by re-asserting their initial position from last year in October or even going further away from us in many instances.
Our next in-person session is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, from 3:00 PM to 5:30 PM ET. Click here to RSVP if you’d like to attend this or a future session and see the process firsthand!
We will also hold a town hall on Thursday, April 3, 2025, from 4:00 to 5:00 PM ET (Price Center Room 451) to update you on recent developments and answer all your questions. Please click here to RSVP.
You can access the full text of these proposals using our online bargaining tracker.
As always, we encourage you to reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback by simply replying to this email.
In Solidarity,
Juliane Grimm
Postdoctoral Fellow, Cell Biology
ERU-UAW Bargaining Committee