On Tuesday, June 2 and Monday, June 8, we had our 13th and 14th bargaining sessions with the Sinai administration.
We started the June 2nd session by asking Sinai when we could expect responses on a number of pending articles, which they have not yet responded to. Sinai said they would review the current status and get back to us. We then presented updated counter proposals on Appointments and Appointment Security (for Instructors) and Offers of Employment (for Scientists). In these counter proposals, we moved towards Sinai by reducing the amount of information that must be provided, and moving a substantial portion of it to an electronic info packet rather than being in the offer letter itself.
The Sinai administration made a counter proposal on Intellectual Property. In their counter, they included that authorship disputes may be addressed to the department chair. However, they also continued to reject any standard for authorship rights, which would act as the basis for raising such a concern. They also explicitly state that authorship related issues would not be grievable, leaving us with no way to enforce rights related to authorship and allowing Sinai to continue to determine outcomes unilaterally. Abuse of authorship can have a massive impact on researchers’ lives and careers, and we will continue fighting for fully enforceable rights on this topic.
At the June 8th session, we presented our updated proposal on Ranks and Promotions (Scientists unit). In it, we moved towards Sinai by accepting their requirement of 5 years of experience with scientific investigation in order to be hired as a Senior Scientist.
Sinai made their counter proposals on Appointments (Instructors) and Offers of Employment (Scientists). Their proposals continue to include only the minimal rights to information provided to a new hire at the time of appointment / employment offer. Their proposal for the Instructor’s Appointment letter omits even the most basic information, such as salary amount and whether the appointment is renewable. Both proposals state that additional information would be provided at orientation programs, but provide no details on the kind of information this refers to. Sinai continues to oppose having a minimum notice period between a job offer and the start date, even though we explained that having some notice period is important for researchers to plan our lives.
We have now been bargaining for more than 8 months, and Sinai continues to push for rights and protections that are far below what they have agreed to with unionized postdocs three years ago, and which are standard across the entire country for unionized researchers.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or thoughts,
Azra Krek
Senior Scientist, Genetics and Genomic Sciences
ROCS-UAW Bargaining Committee