Sinai stalls on responses, proposes delaying standard job security protections
Last Thursday, our elected bargaining committee held our second negotiation session with the Sinai administration. Sinai came to the table with no responses to our initial proposals and no commitment to respond to them at our next session in three weeks, on Tuesday, May 26th, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
Instead, Sinai proposed a series of changes to existing non-economic articles, along with some new additions. The only other article Sinai signaled reopening was Intellectual Property. You can find Sinai’s proposals in our bargaining tracker here, and a summary below.
Most concerning: Sinai is once again pushing a probationary period that would strip new postdocs, most of whom relocate from other countries, of just-cause protections from their very first day of employment, for 6 to 8 months. This is the same proposal we defeated in our first contract fight, and we rejected it again at our session last Thursday.
Summary of Sinai Proposals:
Probationary Period: strips just cause protections from newly appointed postdocs for the first six to eight months of employment, allowing Sinai to terminate our employment at any time without just cause.
Notice of Resignation: requires postdocs to give sixty days’ notice to their PI before resigning.
Holidays: requires that the additional paid personal day granted to a postdoc who needs to work on a holiday be used within thirty days.
Visa Renewal: caps paid leave to attend visa renewal or immigration proceedings at 6 days and introduces new conditions for such leave.
Relocation Assistance: eliminates the guaranteed $1,500 relocation assistance payment for newly hired postdocs and introduces new conditions for receiving such a payment.
We again emphasized the urgency of reaching a fair agreement with Sinai before our current contract expires in 7 weeks on June 30th, 2026. Our bargaining committee offered Sinai 77 hours of bargaining availability before the contract expiration date; Sinai offered us 8 hours. The next bargaining session will take place on Tuesday, May 26th, from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. You can RSVP to join here!
It is essential that we keep up the pressure on Sinai and show the administration that postdocs are essential contributors to the research community here—and that unionized scientists across New York City deserve strong rights and protections with fair pay and benefits. To make clear that contract negotiations must be a priority, we are holding a rally outside the Icahn Building on Wednesday, May 20th, at 12:00 PM.
The more of us who attend the rally, the more effectively we can send this message to the Mount Sinai administration. Please click here to let us know if you can make it!
Solidarity,
Alanna Cote, Genetics and Genomic Sciences
SPOC-UAW 4100 Bargaining Committee