April 21, 2022
Let us know if you can make it to our first Union Town Hall!
We are excited to announce that a majority of Postdoctoral Fellows have signed authorization cards in support of forming our union, Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee-UAW!
Reaching majority support is an important milestone. Once a strong majority of Postdocs have signed authorization cards, Mount Sinai may choose to voluntarily recognize our union or we can file for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). In an election, a majority of those voting must vote in favor of forming a union in order for us to start bargaining collectively with Mount Sinai. We will not pay union dues until we have successfully formed our union and voted to approve a first contract.
To meet up and discuss our progress, we have several upcoming Union events for Postdocs at Mount Sinai. RSVP here for any of the events below to let us know if you can make it!
- March for Science NYC (Saturday, April 23 at 11:30am) – We will join unionized Postdocs from Columbia University this Saturday at the March for Science NYC, at the 72nd St. entrance of Central Park West. One of the many reasons a majority of us support forming our union is to have a bigger voice in decisions about STEM funding, visa, and other policies at the national, state, and local levels.
- SPOC-UAW Update Town Hall (Tuesday, April 26 at 5pm) – We will hold a Union Town Hall next Tuesday in the conference room on the 5th floor of Annenberg. We’ll meet other Postdocs, hear from unionized researchers at other institutions, and discuss next steps for our campaign.
- Union Happy Hour (Thursday, May 5 at 5pm) – We will celebrate reaching majority support for our union at our first Union Happy Hour at Earl’s Beer and Cheese (1259 Park Ave). Meet your coworkers and feel free to bring a colleague who hasn’t had a chance to sign up yet!
Columbia University Postdocs participating in the March for Science to hold elected officials accountable for protecting research. The UAW has been a national co-sponsor of the March since 2017.
We are excited to be joining tens of thousands of researchers and other higher education employees who have negotiated improvements to their workplaces as part of the United Auto Workers (UAW), including postdoctoral researchers at Columbia University, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and University of Washington.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
Yajing Xu
Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Neuroscience
Member of SPOC-UAW Organizing Committee
P.S. – To learn more about our campaign, check out our website at sinaipostdocunion.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook!