May 31, 2022
Register for our Virtual Postdoc Union Town Hall!
AND
Read our review of Sinai’s most recent “questions and answers” email.
We are writing with five updates to help keep everyone informed as we move towards our union election, where we will have the opportunity to vote Yes for our union, Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee-UAW (SPOC-UAW).
We will be holding our third informational town hall online over zoom this Thursday, June 2 at 5pm. Previous town halls have been a great way to meet with other postdocs, get answers to any questions you may have on unionization, and hear from unionized researchers at other institutions. Let us know if you can make it!
As we approach our election, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will hold a Hearing this Wednesday, June 1st on the logistics of our vote with representatives from the Sinai administration and SPOC-UAW. The next step will be for the labor board to issue a decision on these logistics, which we hope will provide more information on when we can expect our election to be scheduled. We will keep everyone updated as soon as we know more.
Over the past few weeks, the Sinai administration has taken actions that seem increasingly intended to discourage postdocs from voting Yes for our union. They have sent emails to all postdocs and PIs, without references, facts or examples, suggesting among other things that collective bargaining could “jeopardize” the administration’s relationship with postdocs and that “the union will cost you”. Check out our review of Sinai’s most recent “questions and answers” email. Sinai has also sent “talking points” to PIs, with more unsupported claims, and encouraged them to discuss and share these with their postdocs. If your PI asks to meet with you about the union, and you would like to talk about what to expect, please reach out to us at info@sinaipostdocunion.org so that we can help.
Most recently, the Postdoc Executive Committee (PEC) sent a statement to Sinai asking that the administration remain neutral. An administrator responded, cc’ing every Sinai postdoc in their reply, misrepresenting the points in the statement and claiming again that forming a union would make it more difficult to communicate with the administration or make improvements. When PEC members tried to respond, Sinai blocked their response on the listserv.
We are excited to announce that Deputy Speaker Diana Ayala of the New York City Council, whose district includes Sinai’s campus, has also written a letter to the administration requesting that they “refrain from any effort to influence Mount Sinai postdoctoral research employees’ decision to form their union”.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any questions or thoughts,
Yajing Xu,
Neuroscience
For updates on our union, check out sinaipostdocunion.org and take a minute to like and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.