Sinai proposes weakening authorship rights while giving limited responses on economics
On May 20th, researchers from across Sinai came out in the heat with one demand: “Fair Contracts NOW!”
Last week, our elected bargaining committee held our third negotiation session with the Sinai administration. Sinai came to the table with responses to only two of the five economic articles we proposed, one of which was a rejection, and no commitment to respond to the rest at our next session this coming Monday, June 8th. On the other hand, we were ready with responses to all the articles that Sinai proposed at our last session.
Instead of responding to articles we proposed over a month ago, Sinai proposed changes to the Intellectual Property article that would remove a postdoc’s right to pursue authorship disputes through the grievance procedure and revoke a postdoc’s contractual rights to authorship after leaving their lab or Mount Sinai. You can find Sinai’s proposals in our bargaining tracker here, and a summary below:
Summary of Sinai's Responses:
Housing: Sinai rejected all the changes that we proposed, including guaranteed relocation for postdocs whose apartments become uninhabitable due to damage. Sinai also rejected guaranteed housing beyond three years and did not provide evidence that apartments would be unavailable after that period.
Intellectual Property: Sinai proposed excluding authorship disputes, both during a postdoc’s appointment and after they leave Sinai, from the grievance procedure. This would prevent the union from formally postdocs through the grievance process if they are unfairly denied authorship.
Leaves of Absence: Sinai agreed to include the NYC law guaranteeing prenatal leave of up to 20 hours, with modified language. However, Sinai has not yet responded to the changes we proposed to visa renewal leave for international postdocs.
Summary of SPOC-UAW Local 4100 Proposals:
Holidays: We rejected Sinai’s proposal requiring postdocs to a worked holiday within a month. We also revised the language so that postdocs who work on a holiday would receive a personal day rather than a vacation day, giving the postdoc greater flexibility in how they can use that time off.
Leaves of Absence: We reasserted 15 days for visa renewal leave after Sinai countered with only 6 days in the previous session. We have modified Sinai’s proposed language to only require postdocs to respond to lawful requests from the international office regarding their visa status when on visa renewal leave.
Relocation Assistance: We proposed increasing the relocation assistance from $1500 to $3000 upon submission of supporting documents of relocation to account for the high tax burden that significantly reduces net payment.
Resignation and Exit Interviews: We countered Sinai’s proposed two month notice period with two weeks, which reflects the current status quo and the standard for the higher education sector. Additionally, we proposed offering exit interviews to gather feedback from postdocs about their experience in the workplace.
We again emphasized the urgency of reaching a fair agreement with Sinai and requested additional availability for bargaining before our current contract expires in 5 weeks on June 30th, 2026. The next bargaining session will take place on Monday, June 8th, from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. You can RSVP to join here!
As we get closer to our contract expiration date, 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. If you want to get more involved in the campaign, fill out this form.
Solidarity,
Mahima Rasquinha, Immunology
SPOC-UAW 4100 Bargaining Committee