Unionizing Postdocs

This topic is discussed in a recent article in Science.

And why would postdocs want to Unionize? Here's a survey of postdoctoral fellows done by the Sigma Xi Society (and my summary).

And from my "Worst Things about Science" (also see Part II).

Why do we tolerate the low pay, the long hours, the pain? (OK it's not that bad.) The reply goes like this "Dear student/postdoc/underling, one day you'll be a great PI (principal investigator, i.e. professor) and all your hard work will have paid off. I went through this, we all have to go through this stage, so now it's your turn to go through hell." All I have to say is ... Ponzi scheme.

Currently, the only postdoc union is at the University of Connecticut Health Center. And what happened there? From the Science article:

Munirathinam Subramani, another original UHP [University Health Professionals] activist, agrees that the contract brought âbetter respect from PIsâ and raises of "close to $10,000" for some individuals. "There is no negative aspect until this moment. There was not a single incident I could give you. I donât think itâs affected any grants or relations with faculty.â In fact, he âcame out with some significant findings in my research work while I was involved in union activities. Although my boss was not so happy about my union activities, we always enjoyed doing science together.â During that same period, Subramani even found time to do some mentoring of his own, of a local high school student working in his lab, an effort that won him Glastonbury High Schoolâs best mentor award.

âI have nothing negative to say that I saw or experienced," Subramani says. Nor did his activism prevent him from receiving "three different final [job] offers including a tenure track." Before accepting his present post as an associate research scientist with faculty status in the Yale medical school, "I didnât even give a talk," he says.

The UAW has now become active in the UC system, although they do have their (anonymous) critics. The National Postdoc Association (NPA) has come out in favor of Unions. So we'll all be watching California in the next couple of months.

As CA goes ...