Around 1700 postdocs at Columbia University in New York City have formed a union – the first of its kind at a private US university – through the United Auto Workers (UAW), one of the largest unions in North America. Nicholas Tay, a chemistry postdoc at Columbia who was part of the effort to build support for the union, hopes this is just a first step on the road to securing greater rights for postdocs in the US and beyond.
The new contract with Columbia addresses concerns about inadequate pay and benefits, as well as insufficient rights for harassment victims and international researchers.