At the close of nominations on Thursday November 8th, at 5:00pm, seven (7) people have accepted their nominations for the CPW-UAW bargaining committee.<\/p>\n
Medini Annavajhala – Medicine – Infectious Diseases<\/p>\n
Steven Cook – Biological Sciences<\/p>\n
Sonny Harman – Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics<\/p>\n
Melissa McKenzie – Pathology and Cell Biology<\/p>\n
Hila Milo Rasouly – Medicine – Nephrology<\/p>\n
Tulsi Patel – Pathology and Cell Biology<\/p>\n
Andrew Zaharia – Zuckerman Institute<\/p>\n
In accordance with the notice of nominations, since the number of candidates does not exceed the number of positions, the candidates are hereby elected to the CPW-UAW bargaining committee by acclamation. In response to the notice of nominations, one additional individual volunteered to serve as an alternate without accepting nomination. As the committee starts meeting soon, it will discuss how to involve a potential alternate.<\/p>\n
Over the past six years, I have gotten to know Columbia quite well \u2013 first as a graduate worker in Environmental Engineering and now as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Medicine Department. I chose to stay here for a postdoc because I love the work I do and the people I work with. Immediately, though, I began hearing from postdocs and Associate Research\u00a0Scientists about how many felt resigned to not having a voice in any decisions regarding their\u00a0pay and benefits, grievance procedures, and feeling valued as an academic employee. During\u00a0my 4 years as an organizer for the Graduate Workers of Columbia and now the Columbia\u00a0Postdoctoral Workers (CPW), though, the stories I have heard and the workers I have met\u00a0have given me hope. Standing together as a unit will show the administration of Columbia\u00a0what is important to us and what we need in order to be productive, healthy, and motivated\u00a0workers, much of which does resonate across titles and experience levels. A few issues that I personally feel strongly about include: fair pay covering rising living costs (scaling NIH-recommended minimums based on cost-of-living indices for NYC), adequate health resources (physical AND mental), and protections for workers filing sexual harassment or unfair labor\u00a0practice claims to ensure their protection from retaliation. I would be honored to represent\u00a0CPW by serving on the Bargaining Committee because I truly believe that negotiation with\u00a0university administration on an even, legally-backed standing is the best way to serve<\/p>\n
My name is Steven Cook, and I am a second-year Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the\u00a0Department of Biological Sciences. I have been involved with union organizing and the\u00a0organizing committee for the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers (CPW-UAW) for almost my entire\u00a0time at Columbia. Having grown up in a union household, and previously a member of SEIU\u00a01199, I have a long-standing interest in unionization and workers\u2019 rights. I strongly believe that\u00a0by showing collective power through CPW-UAW at Columbia, we can help to improve the\u00a0working conditions for all postdocs and Associate Research Scientists\/Scholars (ARSes) at\u00a0Columbia.I have spoken to hundreds of postdocs and ARSes across Columbia\u2019s campuses, I have worked to understand the issues that need to be addressed to create a transparent contract that benefits all CPW-UAW members. There is a clear need to improve the economic (Wages, healthcare, appointment length, visa support, etc.) and non-economic (Sexual harassment, discrimination, career development, etc.) benefits offered by Columbia. We are not alone in our fight to improve workers\u2019 rights, both here at Columbia, and nationally. I will work my hardest to represent the interests of all CPW-UAW members, and to directly\u00a0empower our postdoc\/ARS workforce.<\/p>\n
I am a second-year postdoc in the department of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics, and have been helping with union organization for the last several months. Prior to working at Columbia, I was a graduate student at Penn State during the lead-up towards the graduate student unionization vote. I have learned several lessons, most notably that having a say in the process is critical, and with that voice comes important responsibilities. It is up to us \u2013 all of us \u2013 to defend and represent those who have suffered discrimination, neglect, and unwanted attention. My involvement and continued work would be focused on exactly those goals – enabling and bringing attention to all those whom the union represents. Columbia postdocs and associate research scientists deserve safety and transparency in every facet of their jobs, and fair compensation for the important work that they do.<\/p>\n
I am a third year post-doctoral research scientist in Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia Medical center. I love being a post-doc, and I have enjoyed getting to know many members of\u00a0this vibrant community over the last few years. I believe in this place and I think it can be more.<\/p>\n
As a single parent, I have faced many challenges that are best faced together and have worked\u00a0to help expand and build the parenting community here at Columbia. I am exceptionally lucky\u00a0in that my PI is generous, flexible and understanding. As I have met more and more of my\u00a0colleagues, I have learned this is not always the case. This is part of why I feel strongly about\u00a0unionization. I believe we have an opportunity to build on the efforts of our university senate\u00a0and professional organizations, and now, with the union, to speak to the university with a\u00a0stronger united voice. I am running for the bargaining committee because I am optimistic that\u00a0we can work with the Columbia administration to negotiate a contract that will guarantee and\u00a0protect fair and equitable working conditions for all of us, regardless of who our PIs are, our\u00a0immigration status, or through what mechanism we are funded. I will work to increase our\u00a0access to things that matter to all of us: consistent and reasonable pay increases, access to\u00a0affordable housing, protections for parental leave and other basic benefits. I will advocate for\u00a0more accountability and protections in the<\/p>\n
I am an associate research scientist in the department of Medicine, working on the introduction of precision medicine into Nephrology. I am now beginning my 4th year at Columbia, after one\u00a0year as a postdoctoral research scientist and 2 as a fellow. I am also the mother of two, and\u00a0believe that parenting should not be seen as a barrier to our careers.<\/p>\n
My involvement with the union began two years ago, in meetings about the unionization aims.\u00a0Over the past year I met many post-doctoral research scientists, fellows and ARSs to discuss\u00a0unionization and listen to their demands, including improvements on salary, housing, health\u00a0insurance, retirement, fellows\u2019 benefits, childcare, and effective treatment of harassment. I also\u00a0participated in multiple town-halls, hearing a variety of concerns, including from those fearing\u00a0from a union, that should be addressed in bargaining.<\/p>\n
My personal experience at Columbia has been very positive, but I heard about too many issues\u00a0that could be easily fixed by the university holding PIs accountable. I believe strongly in the\u00a0capacity of unionization to create a community of employees caring for each other. Unionization doesn\u2019t only provide a way to hold powerful employers accountable, it also gives\u00a0us as scientists a voice in the national political conversation.\u00a0I am excited to help negotiate a fair contract for all postdocs and ARSs. I will continue to listen\u00a0to all postdocs and ARSs to make sure the final contract keeps existing benefits in place and\u00a0provides a safe, rewarding workplace for<\/p>\n
I started at Columbia as a Ph.D. student in Genetics and Development and am now a 3rd year\u00a0Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Pathology and Cell Biology. I have been an organizer for both\u00a0the graduate workers\u2019 unionization campaign and the postdoctoral campaign over the past 4\u00a0years. Additionally, I have moderated town halls and served as a witness for our union at the\u00a0NLRB when the administration tried to argue that \u2018postdocs are not employees\u2019 and fellows are\u00a0\u2018outside contractors\u2019. I am enthusiastic about unionization because collective bargaining seems\u00a0to be the only effective way to hold powerful employers accountable to their employees, and\u00a0because solidarity with the growing higher-ed unionization movement has the potential to give\u00a0scientists a voice in the national political conversation. I am running for the bargaining\u00a0committee because I am excited to contribute to the negotiation of a fair contract for all\u00a0postdocs and ARSs. The Columbia administration has consistently shortchanged postdocs in\u00a0several ways: by not guaranteeing pay increases that match our experience or even the\u00a0increasing cost of living in NYC, by providing us inconsistent and unaffordable housing, by taking away benefits when we receive fellowships, by not guaranteeing consistent parental leave and childcare benefits, by ineffectively resolving cases of sexual and other workplace harassment. I will do my utmost to negotiate a contract that guarantees us these basic rights. I will also continue to organize and moderate open town halls to better understand our bargaining\u00a0priorities and keep the bargaining process<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a third-year postdoc in cognitive neuroscience in my first year at Columbia. I got involved\u00a0with the union because I believe that better working conditions for postdocs and ARSs would\u00a0be better for science and academia as a whole. All postdocs and ARSs deserve a living wage,\u00a0more affordable health care and child care, and retirement benefits. The less we have to worry\u00a0about having basic needs met, the better we can retain talent and focus on research.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve talked to postdocs and ARSs in every lab at Manhattanville to learn more about their\u00a0experiences and priorities. I worked hard to turn out the union vote, calling workers,\u00a0participating in town halls, and speaking publicly in support of the union. Most recently, I\u00a0organized and facilitated the union\u2019s first town hall on the Manhattanville campus.<\/p>\n
As a member of the bargaining committee, I would take consensus building and\u00a0communication with the rest of the union very seriously. As we develop and discuss our\u00a0bargaining goals, you can expect detailed presentations from me about the bargaining\u00a0committee\u2019s research and analyses. And since data visualization is one of my research\u00a0interests, you can expect from me sweet (and informative) plots.\u00a0The union serves as a check on Columbia\u2019s power and gives us all a voice that Columbia can\u2019t\u00a0ignore. Let\u2019s keep the pressure on the administration and win a strong contract that not only\u00a0improves our lives, but also sets a new standard for other universities to follow.<\/p>\n
I am an international researcher in Neuroscience focused in the processes involved regarding peripheral nerve regeneration. I defended my thesis in 2012 before I moved to the US. I have been working for more than two years as Associate Research Scientist at Otolaryngology-Head and Neck department in Columbia University Medical Center campus. Since I was predoc I have been participating in several initiatives for improving the academia and the life of the researchers. Here, at Columbia\u2019s I have been collaborating in the formation of the CPW-UAW from the beginning. I believe we are actually living a very interesting time point of our recent history and I enjoy helping to build a new form of relationship among people in academia. The union must be a vehicle that will switch an evolution for the change of our R&D system in academia. My primary task will be to reflect the concerns that we, the postdoctoral researchers, have as a key player in the expanding of knowledge that Columbia University must carry on.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] At the close of nominations on Thursday November 8th, at 5:00pm, seven (7) people have accepted their nominations for the CPW-UAW bargaining committee. Medini Annavajhala – Medicine – Infectious Diseases Steven Cook – Biological Sciences Sonny Harman – Applied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":1231,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1259"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1259"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2614,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1259\/revisions\/2614"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/columbiapostdocunion.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}