We’re Voting YES for a Stronger USC!
Election Information:
- When: Thursday, 6/20 and Friday, 6/21, between 11am-1pm and 3pm-5pm
- Where: Doheny Memorial Library (DML) Room 233 at University Park Campus; Clinical Science Center (CSC) Room 250 at Health Sciences Campus (bring your ID)
- Who: Eligible voters are Postdoctoral Scholars on payroll as of April 30.
Have questions? Read our Election FAQ, or contact us.
We have a clear choice in this election.
Voting “YES” means USC administrators would have a legal obligation to bargain with our elected postdoc representatives over pay, benefits and workplace rights, and to secure any agreements on improvements or maintaining current benefits in a legally binding and enforceable contract. We will be joining nearly 120,000 UAW academic employees across the country in working together to make higher education workplaces more just, fair, and equitable.
Over the course of hundreds of conversations, we’ve seen that postdoctoral fellows at USC share many of the same challenges. These include bureaucratic hurdles and insecurity for international workers, unpredictable salary increases that don’t match the high cost of living in Los Angeles, insufficient support for parents, and the lack of enforceable procedures to address sexual harassment, discrimination, and bullying. These challenges add unnecessary stress to the postdoc experience and make it more difficult to focus on doing quality research and teaching.
Right now, USC administrators decide unilaterally if, how, and when to address problems affecting postdocs. With collective bargaining, we will gain the right to meet at the bargaining table as equals. With strong participation and support in our vote we can negotiate a contract that not only improves our pay, benefits, and workplace rights, but also ensures the security and stability that enables us to do quality research.
In hundreds of conversations, and in town halls and other meetings, postdoctoral scholars have already identified some of the common priorities that we could address through a contract. Consider the thoughts of our colleagues and these basic reasons to vote “union yes” on June 20-21.
From Los Angeles to New York, postdocs across the country have been forming unions with @UAW. Hear from fellow postdoc organizers in @uaw_4811, @PUPostdocs, @spocuaw, @CPWUAW, and @cgpu_uaw about why they organized and are encouraging USC Postdocs to vote YES on June 20-21! pic.twitter.com/dgFf3IRgzN
— USC Researchers and Fellows United – UAW (@urfu_uaw) June 5, 2024
Our unionized postdoc colleagues across the United States shared this video message with us ahead of our election.
Bring your ID to vote!
Fair workplace standards enable postdocs to prioritize research.
As postdocs, we drive the research mission of the University, contributing to the discoveries that have established USC’s world-class reputation and draws over $1 billion in grant funding annually. We do it in one of the most expensive cities in the country, in the face of historically high inflation, with a minimum salary that lags behind other major research institutions in the area.
We are part of a city-wide movement of researchers taking action to improve our lives and research conditions. In 2022, postdocs at UCLA negotiated a new union contract and took their minimum salaries to one of the highest in the country. In 2024, Caltech postdocs overwhelmingly voted YES to form a union and are currently negotiating for their first union contract.
The postdoc union movement has already helped to raise standards even for postdocs without a union – USC announced raises after Columbia postdocs negotiated a year 0 minimum of $70,000, and after Mount Sinai postdocs won their year 0 minimum of $72,500 (a 24% increase), with experience-based raises and guaranteed annual raises. It is time for us to come together at USC and demand salaries and other benefits that reflect the value of our contributions, and to secure them in a contract, so we can focus on the quality of our research and teaching instead of how to make ends meet.
How have other postdocs used a union contract to improve compensation?
University of California postdocs have negotiated the highest pay of any public university postdocs
Princeton postdocs and scholars used collective action to win a 18.5% increase to salaries in 2023
“The first ever postdoc union at a private US university has been formed”
Sinai postdocs won the highest minimum salaries for postdocs in the country
“Despite being a vital force driving research and innovation within academia, we as postdocs don’t always receive the competitive benefits that should accompany our pivotal role in the system. These issues have distracted me from my research, impacting my productivity and wellbeing. I believe that through collective organization and voicing of our concerns, we have a better chance of rendering this job more attractive by advocating for improved compensations, stability, and well-being.”
Collective bargaining can create a more accessible postdoc experience.
As postdocs, many of us spend upwards of 50 hours a week in the lab. And because of the high cost of living and housing and a lack of institutional support, many of us, especially those with children, are forced to live increasingly far from work, at a moment in our postdocs when we have the most experience in our labs and provide the most value to the institute. Spending hours commuting each day is bad for our families and takes time away from our research and has placed unnecessary pressure on postdoctoral scholars. Standing together we can demand better support and negotiate changes that improve our quality of life.
How have postdocs at other institutions used a contract to improve the postdoc experience?
Read about the growth of postdoc unions in Inside Higher Ed
Read about all the improvements UC postdocs have negotiated to improve and stabilize their work
“Postdocs face a variety of pressures and challenges related to late pay, access to affordable childcare and administrative issues. For example, in my department at least 5 postdocs have been paid late and as a result have accrued late fees. Creating a union among postdocs will help us address various challenges collectively and identify solutions that may help reduce the number of issues experienced by current and future colleagues.”
A stronger voice to advocate for International Worker rights.
With nearly 120,000 academic workers across the US, including postdocs, student workers, and non-tenure-track faculty, the UAW has become a leading voice advocating for expanded rights and opportunities for international academic workers, including students transitioning to early-career research positions like postdocs, in the US as well as for robust federal investment in science research. UAW academic workers’ advocacy work also played a key role in ensuring the inclusion of postdocs in the 2016 federal overtime rules and, most recently, increased NIH pay levels for pre- and postdoctoral researchers announced in April 2024.
International researchers have played a significant role in the leadership of UAW, which has in turn helped make international worker issues central to the UAW’s mission, particularly in higher education. Postdoc and graduate employee unions affiliated with UAW are often led by international students and scholars, who serve in top leadership positions in local unions nationwide.
Joining together with other academic workers in the UAW has become more urgent than ever as recent government actors have waged unprecedented attacks on science, sexual harassment protections, and the rights of international scholars.
“As one of the many international scholars at USC, I was surprised by the university’s lack of support around onboarding, housing, and immigration formalities. Many of my colleagues struggle to get by. I believe a union would offer scholars bargaining power and a seat at the table to advocate for their interests in a manner that is effective and fair.”
Letter to the editor: UAW is a strong ally for international students and postdocs
As International Researchers at Columbia University we are voting Yes for our Union
Read about UC postdoc and UAW efforts to support federal science funding
UAW 5810 Resolution for Mt. Sinai Postdocs on International Researcher Rights
Our research is stronger when everyone can contribute.
Pregnancy, childbirth and adoption should be occasions for celebration – without unnecessary stress caused by having to return to work too soon after giving birth, or concerns about unstable benefits, housing, or visa status. Unfortunately, this kind of stress is all too prevalent for postdoc parents. Women postdocs with families in particular face discrimination and unequal pressures, making them far more likely than men to leave academia before obtaining tenure at a college or university.
Under-representation of women in senior roles has been a longstanding problem within academia, and that’s why winning significant improvements in this area is so important.
Read how other postdocs have unionized and made their employers more family friendly.
Why Sinai postdoc parents voted “YES” for a more family-friendly research community
Columbia graduate workers win fully-paid dependent health insurance
Columbia Postdocs Win Emergency Child Care Subsidy During Pandemic
“When I was coming back to work from maternity leave, I had to fight to find a private space in my building to take care of my lactation needs, and HR was no help at all. Forming a union would ensure the needs of new parents are actually being met as they come back to campus.”
Together we can make USC more equitable and inclusive.
Inequalities based on gender, race, sexual orientation and immigration status continue to create barriers for many of the most talented to enter the academic and scientific workforce. Existing systems of recourse for problems like discrimination, harassment, and bullying too often fail and can take years. Though much work remains to be done, postdocs, graduate students and adjunct faculty in the UAW have helped make progress on many of these issues, both at the bargaining table and in policy advocacy through the UAW. At the University of Connecticut, for example, a graduate assistant worked with her union to successfully resolve a major sexual assault and harassment complaint in three months.
UConn Graduate Student Union Helps Handle Sexual Harassment
“Workplace Bullying in Higher Education is Rampant. We’re Fighting Back”
UC International Postdoc Takes on Pregnancy Discrimination and Wins
“I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field.” – Albert Einstein
We are voting YES for our union, USC Researchers and Fellows United-UAW
On June 20th and 21st, we will have the opportunity to vote “union yes” at the University of Southern California. In doing so, we would join tens of thousands of unionized academic workers across the US, including thousands of postdoctoral researchers who have already come together to raise standards across California and create a more equitable, inclusive, and fair academic community.
As postdocs, we play a critical role in driving the world-class research and teaching conducted at USC. However, without collective bargaining, USC postdocs have faced unreliable salary increases that lag behind the rising cost of living, lack of clear recourse in cases of mistreatment, and insufficient support for international scholars and parents, among other challenges. This uncertainty unnecessarily hinders our ability to focus on quality research.
If a majority of us vote “yes” for URFU-UAW as our union, the USC administration would be legally obligated to bargain with postdocs over salaries, benefits and workplace rights, and to commit any agreements into a binding contract.
We therefore urge our colleagues to vote ‘yes’ for URFU-UAW as our union, so that we have the strongest possible mandate to bargain a fair union contract with the USC administration that improves our working conditions and our lives.
Signed,
Dani Cotton, Chemistry
Wren Edwards , Integrative Anatomical Sciences
Stepp Mayes, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Alex Robb, Chemistry
Pallavi Sarkar, Chemical Engineering
Kranthi Chougoni, Cancer Center
Mozammel Bhuiyan, Physiology & Neuroscience
Steven Pilley, Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
Ramya Mahadevan, Pharmacy
Hagen Buck-Wiese, Marine Environmental Biology
Anaisa Coelho , Physics and Astronomy
Vivian Link, Quantitative and Computational Biology
Ting-Han Chang, Rossier
Branden Adams, History
Sukrampal, Physics and Astronomy
Salem Elzway, Society of Fellows in the Humanities
Adam Spanos, Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture
Nathan Williams, Marine Environmental Biology
Kenneth Judd, Chemistry
Rushil Zutshi, Public Policy
Arbor Quist, Population and Public Health Sciences
Joshua Mitchell, American Studies and Ethnicity
Benjamin Swedlund, Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine
Arshad Ansari, Pharmacy
Katherine Bottenhorn, Population and Public Health Sciences
Rex Jiang, Quantitative and Computational Biology
Pawan Jogi, Radiology