On Friday, September 19th, and Tuesday, September 30th, we had our 27th and 28th bargaining sessions with the Einstein administration.
During these sessions, one of our aims was to reach a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Einstein on their proposed changes to the benefits provided or offered to Postdoctoral Fellows and their dependents for 2026 before the open enrollment period starts on Monday, November 10, 2025. We reached an agreement with Einstein to maintain the status quo on these benefits, consistent with 2024 levels, including Postdoctoral Fellows’ share of the total premium for each plan, as well as the co-payments and deductibles for services under each plan. Increases have been implemented for other employees at Einstein since 2024. However, as we are still bargaining for a first contract, Einstein will cover the increases for Postdoctoral Fellows using the same reimbursement system agreed upon last year (see Section 3 on page 2 of the MOA). Read the full agreement here.
In the last session on September 30th, Einstein presented their counterproposal on Health and Safety, with the help of Jared Shapiro, Associate Vice President of Environmental Health and Safety at Einstein. We were able to ask questions to better understand Einstein’s rationale for their proposal, in an effort to identify areas where we can be responsive to reach an agreement. One stance we find particularly concerning is Einstein’s refusal to commit to not requiring us to continue working in an environment that poses a threat to our health and safety, even after it has been reported to them. While they reiterate that they will follow the law, their unwillingness to agree to this in our contract is distressing and a sign of Einstein’s resistance to make enforceable commitments beyond the status quo.
Einstein also invited Christopher Eichstedt, Director of Conflict of Interest and Research Compliance Officer at Einstein, to walk us through Einstein’s proposed changes to the Einstein-Associated Start-Up Companies and Related Conflicts of Interest Policy that applies to postdocs, and the portion of our Intellectual Property proposal that covers our PIs having to disclose their conflicts of interest to us. We’ll continue our discussion of postdocs’ rights to Intellectual Property at our next bargaining session when Janis Paradiso, Director of the Office of Biotechnology and Business Development at Einstein, will join us.
We finished the session presenting our counterproposals for Employment Records and Union Rights and Access. With both proposals, we sought a compromise acceptable to both Parties to move closer to a tentative agreement (TA). For example, we proposed an alternative electronic record system for employment records access that is more in line with what Einstein expressed they are capable of implementing and, in Union Rights and Access, we accepted to provide Einstein with a roster of Postdoctoral Fellows who we designate as officers and/or stewards at least once a year as long as release time is given to any postdoc who is administering the contract. We hope the movement we made in these proposals addressed Einstein’s concerns and helped us push the negotiations forward.
Our next in-person session is scheduled for Monday, October 13, 2025, from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM ET. Click here to RSVP if you’d like to attend this or a future session and see the process firsthand!
As always, we encourage you to reach out with any questions, concerns, or feedback by simply replying to this email.
In Solidarity,
Silvia C Hernandez, Medicine – Cardiology
ERU-UAW Bargaining Committee