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The NLRB just finished counting ballots and we voted by an overwhelming 68% (729-yes to 339-no), in favor of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers-UAW as our union.<\/p>\n
We will have more information soon regarding next steps in our campaign. For now, we want to thank everyone who has participated in this historic election and for the last two years leading up to it. Together, we have truly generated an unprecedented discussion of the importance and value of our work as postdocs and associate research scientists.<\/p>\n
If you have not yet done so, please take a few minutes to fill out the postdoc union bargaining survey.<\/a><\/p>\n The more of us who participate in the bargaining survey, the more power we will have to negotiate a strong, representative contract with Columbia.<\/p>\n We have a clear choice in this election. Voting \u201cyes\u201d means the Columbia administration would have a legal obligation to negotiate postdoctoral researcher conditions through collective bargaining with CPW-UAW and to secure any agreements on improvements or maintaining current benefits in a binding contract. Without collective bargaining, Columbia administrators far away from our labs decide unilaterally whether, when and how to address problems like the quality and affordability of health benefits for ourselves and our families, whether to offer salary increases that match cost of living or our peers in New York City, uneven enforcement of family leave, or ineffective recourse for sexual harassment, just to name a few examples.<\/p>\n In thousands of conversations, numerous town halls and other meetings, postdoctoral researchers have already identified a long list of issues to address in bargaining\u2014consider the thoughts of our colleagues and these basic reasons to vote \u201cunion yes\u201d on October 2 and 3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Our research community does better when we join together<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n We have already benefited from the growing movement of academic workers organizing across the United States. For example, after years of unpredictable and insufficient pay increases, the one significant pay increase we received in recent years came not from Columbia\u2019s leadership, but from concerted efforts by UC postdocs and others to create new US Department of Labor regulations mandating higher salaries<\/a> for all US postdocs. Important progress, but we can still do better\u2014Columbia\u2019s current minimum postdoc salary of $50,123 still lags 17% behind the new $58,661 minimum at Mt. Sinai. With a union, we would have a better chance at negotiating fair compensation that reflects our value and keeps pace with the unusually high cost of living in NYC.<\/p>\n University of California postdocs have negotiated the highest pay of any public university postdocs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n\nVote \u201cYes\u201d for a stronger and more inclusive research community at Columbia<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
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<\/a>On October 2 and 3, we have a historic opportunity to establish a stronger voice to negotiate improvements in our working conditions and create a more inclusive research community at Columbia by voting \u201cyes\u201d for CPW-UAW as our union. Joining together with 75,000 other academic workers in the UAW has become more urgent than ever as the Trump administration wages unprecedented attacks on science, sexual harassment protections, and the freedom of international scholars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n