Yale postdocs will hit the polls next week to vote on whether or not to join the university’s graduate student-worker union, UNITE HERE Local 33. That vote is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 29, and Thursday, April 30. Eligible postdocs can vote between 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at pollin g places at the School of Medicine, Science Hill, and West Campus. Over this period, all postdoctoral associates and Yale-employed postdoctoral fellows can submit secret ballots indicating whether they wish to be represented by Local 33 in collective bargaining negotiations with the university. Yale has roughly 1,300 postdocs in total. According to Yale postdoc organizer Claire Laxton, if a majority of postdocs vote yes in next week’s election, Yale will have over 10,000 unionized workers on its campuses. “We, the workers, are the reason Yale exists. Without us, there would be no research. There would be no teaching. There would be no facilities. There would be no dining halls. Our work makes Yale work,” said Laxton, speaking during Thursday’s rally for Locals 34 and 35. Laxton works as a postdoctoral associate in immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Unlike the 2022 vote of graduate students, which was overseen by the National Labor Review Board, this election is being privately organized by a neutral third-party: the American Arbitration Association. (After decades of organizing, Yale graduate teachers and researchers voted overwhelmingly in support of forming Local 33 in late 2022. That union ratified its first contract in December 2023.) A spokesperson from Yale acknowledged that elections will take place next week but did not respond to the Independent’s questions about the postdocs’ unionization efforts. At Yale, all postdocs are required to have a Ph.D. or an equivalent. Postdocs must be reappointed each year, and their total terms are typically capped at four years. Generally, people become postdocs to deepen their research experience and improve their chances on the job market. According to Local 33’s website, postdocs are currently unionized at Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, UPenn, Brown, Rutgers, UConn, and other universities. The post Union Election On Tap For Yale Postdocs appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less