At the Mount Sinai Health System Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit today, we shared some ideas with our community members and Mount Sinai leaders about how our contract demands build DEI.
In our 31st bargaining session, Sinai countered eight proposals currently under discussion, and we were able to return four within the session.
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On Compensation, we moved to a minimum salary of $81,000 with annual experience-based raises and reiterated the importance of adjusting for postdoctoral work experience from other institutions. We also reasserted the importance of annual increases for inflation to maintain the year-over-year buying power of our salaries.
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On Parking and Transportation, we asked Sinai to provide CitiBike subscriptions.
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On Relocation Assistance, we argued that relocation reimbursements should be provided at the institutional level to improve equity.
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On the Contract Enforcement package, Sinai did not respond to our proposed package, but instead, proposed a shorter timeline for grievance and arbitration, reasserted sole governance of their policy on academic misconduct and made no response on the No Strike No Lockout article.
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On Childcare and Leaves of Absence, Sinai rejected our proposal of childcare subsidies as well as parental leave. We highlighted to Sinai how important childcare and parental leave provisions are to gender equity in academia.
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On Retirement, Sinai refused employer contributions to our retirement accounts because they consider postdocs a temporary position. This creates unacceptable inequity between postdocs and other research staff, who are provided with retirement benefits.
We proposed 6 dates for bargaining over the next 2 weeks. Disappointingly, Sinai has not responded to these options and has proposed only two dates in the next month, Nov 7 and Nov 30. We have asked them to find more time within the next 2 weeks and will update you if additional sessions are scheduled. Please RSVP here to attend.
In solidarity,
Pooja Viswanathan
SPOC-UAW Bargaining Committee