Postdocs Reach Tentative Agreement with Mount Sinai

Postdoctoral Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York reached a tentative agreement with the administration on Monday, December 18.

“We are very proud to have won many substantive and important improvements in every major area we set as a priority,” the Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee (SPOC-UAW) Bargaining Commitee wrote on the unit’s website after the agreement was reached. “These gains are the direct result of tireless organizing, nearly 16 months of bargaining, and our powerful historic strike. Together, we fought, and we won.”

The Bargaining Committee will conduct a straw poll to gain feedback from members before deciding whether workers should continue or pause the strike while voting on the tentative agreement takes place.

Workers at the institution walked out on an unfair labor practice strike on December 6, after attempts to reach a deal with Mount Sinai administrators were unsuccessful.

“We love our research, but Sinai is leaving us no choice,” said Andrea Joseph, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences, when the strike began. “Our priority has always been ensuring that science at Mount Sinai is sustainable and inclusive, and that means fair pay and housing and parental benefits that allow all of us to take care of our families and stay in the careers we love in New York City.”

In June of 2022, nearly 90% of workers voted to choose Sinai Postdoctoral Organizing Committee-United Auto Workers (SPOC-UAW) as their union and bargaining representative.

Postdocs perform a wide range of critical research, from developing new therapies to fight disease to advancing new technologies that will shape the future of research, and much more.