We, the undersigned ROCS-UAW and SPOC-UAW supporters, urge Mount Sinai’s Administration to bargain intensively with our representatives to reach fair agreements without further delay.
As Postdocs and Senior Researchers at Mount Sinai, we are proud to drive the institution’s research mission. Every day we design and execute experiments, mentor the next generation of scientists, publish discoveries, and work to obtain the grants that sustain Sinai’s labs and make it a leading institution in biomedical research.
Today, that work is facing new challenges to higher education and scientific research, due to funding cuts, increased uncertainty for international researchers, and threats to academic freedom. As unionized researchers at Sinai, we are leading efforts to maintain access to federal research funding, while also organizing to secure increased state investment in biomedical research. Given these challenges, stability within the institution is more important than ever.
In 2023, Mount Sinai postdocs ratified our first union contract, securing higher salaries, stronger workplace protections, and clearer rights on the job. That agreement raised minimum postdoc pay from among the lowest in New York City to the highest in the country and promoted greater equity and inclusion, strengthening Sinai’s ability to recruit and retain talented researchers.
Since then, researchers at peer institutions such as Weill Cornell, Einstein Medical College, Rockefeller Institute, and others across the country have chosen to follow the same path, unionizing for better working conditions, pay, and benefits. Attacks on higher ed are making it harder to attract talent, with 75% of researchers who answered a survey from Nature Journal last year saying they were considering leaving the US. In this context, researchers are organizing to increase stability. Institutions that invest in their workforce will be best positioned to retain talent and remain competitive. Ensuring strong standards and fair contracts is not only Mount Sinai’s obligation to its researchers: it is essential to sustaining the workforce that drives its research mission.
But when postdocs are promoted into Instructor or Senior Scientist roles, many of these protections are no longer guaranteed. After months of bargaining with Senior Researchers, Mount Sinai has so far refused to agree to basic standards already established in the postdoc contract. As a result, Sinai postdocs promoted to Senior Researcher positions are often faced with inferior work conditions that distract from our ability to focus on doing world-class research.
At a time when the future of scientific research depends on stability, investment, and a strong workforce, we are united in urging Mount Sinai to rise to the occasion. We urge the administration to reach fair contracts that:
- Uphold the rights previously agreed to with unionized postdocs at Sinai
- Extend these rights to Sinai’s senior researchers across career stages
- Address threats to Sinai’s competitiveness and academia as a whole by agreeing to improvements with both of our unions that strengthen stability, equity, inclusion, and rights for international workers.