RSVP to observe our 3/26 Bargaining Session!
Last Wednesday, we had our 8th bargaining session with the Mount Sinai administration.
During this session, we presented a counterproposal on Grievance and Arbitration and received counterproposals from Sinai on Intellectual Property and International Researcher Rights. We were disappointed to see that Sinai rejected virtually every improvement we sought to include in our initial proposals, essentially seeking to stick to the current Sinai policy and minimal legal requirements.
For example, when asked to explain why they rejected protections for international workers that are increasingly standard among unionized researchers, Sinai said that their current policy for international personnel is already sufficient. However, when we asked questions about this policy, Sinai was unable to provide answers to even relatively straightforward topics, such as which visa options they currently offer for senior researchers, describing the issue as being outside their knowledge. Under today’s political climate, having stronger rights for the majority of us who are on visas is more important than ever.
We also asked more questions about Sinai’s counterproposal on Prohibition Against Discrimination and Harassment. The administration refused to include protections against discrimination based on categories such as ethnicity, caste, immigration or visa status, or political activity — even though these categories are already ingrained in the law, current policy, or other union contracts. At multiple times in our discussion, the administration expressed unwillingness to extend the protected categories beyond the absolute minimum specified by the current laws. We explained that our proposal is intended to make Sinai a more inclusive and equitable place to work for the diverse community of employees in our bargaining unit.
Overall, it was clear that Sinai is continuing to focus more on weakening protections for all researchers at Sinai than on making the institution more equitable, inclusive, and competitive. In fact, Sinai stated this directly in relation to the contract they agreed to with unionized postdocs, saying “many things that went into [the postdoc] contract were not thought through, that’s why we’re taking a fresh look at this [new contract].”
Our next bargaining session will be on Thursday, March 26th, from 8 to 11 AM. You can attend the first session at 8 AM and/or the second session at 9:30 AM to get a firsthand look at the bargaining process. Please RSVP here: https://forms.gle/6VAboLiNMBZUoYsr6.
To get more involved in efforts to overcome Sinai’s opposition to us having basic workplace rights, click here: https://forms.gle/9aMGCDSefqgYpxpC6.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
Best,
Roman Kosoy, Psychiatry Department
ROCS-UAW Bargaining Committee