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Postdocs at Columbia University voted Thursday (October 4) to unionize, with representation from the United Auto Workers, according to The Associated Press. The organization represents the first postdoc union at a private university in the United States.
“We made history,” Alvaro Cuesta-Domínguez, a postdoc at Columbia Medical Center and a member of the postdoctoral worker organizing committee, tells The Columbia Spectator. “We would like to expand our voice to the national level. We would like to have a voice regarding issues such as federal science funding and making the research environment a more equitable and a diverse work space.”
More than 2,000 postdocs at Columbia supported the move, aligning them with thousands of students, postdocs, and research and teaching assistants pushing for unionization across the country.
Administration officials, however, have not been kind to unionization efforts at Columbia. Graduate students who work as research assistants and teaching ...
