FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

RAPUP stands for Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn. We are postdoctoral researchers and research associates forming a union in order to improve our research and working conditions at Penn. Our work as postdocs and research associates not only drives the research mission at Penn, but also produces diverse scientific knowledge that can benefit the whole world. While we work across many subfields, our dedication to research unites us all.

By forming a union of postdocs and research associates, we can build a stronger, more democratic voice for researchers at Penn, with more power to negotiate for improvements and to secure our rights and working conditions in a legally binding contract with the university.

RAP-UP is being formed with support from the United Auto Workers (UAW). Affiliating with the UAW means joining tens of thousands of researchers and other higher education employees who are already part of the UAW, including postdoctoral researchers at Columbia University, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of Washington, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. By working together with these and other academic unions across the country, we can also build political power beyond Penn to impact funding, visa, and other policies at the national, state, and local levels that shape our experience in academia as scientists and scholars.

Forming a union with collective bargaining rights gives us the power to negotiate on equal footing with the University of Pennsylvania administration and secure our terms and conditions of employment in a legally-binding contract. Forming a union and joining with tens of thousands of other UAW academic workers across the United States will also help us have a stronger voice on key policy decisions made outside Penn that affect us as researchers, such as federal funding for scientific research and federal rules affecting visas and other immigration issues.  

By joining with unionized academic workers nationwide, we hope to make changes that will create more positive and productive work environments for future postdocs and research associates while also improving career pathways for future scientists in the US and beyond.

Postdocs are academic researchers and instructors who have completed their PhD and work in a professor’s lab or with a faculty advisor, usually as preparation for applying to faculty jobs. At Penn, postdoc positions can last up to 5 years. After that, workers perform very similar duties for similar pay and benefits but are given the title of “research associate.” Because most research associates at Penn were previously Penn postdocs and face similar challenges in the workplace, we are unionizing together to maximize our collective power and improve working conditions for all post-PhD academic workers.

Collective bargaining is a process, protected by US law, that equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. 

Under collective bargaining, Penn postdocs and research associates would elect representatives to negotiate on equal footing with the Penn administration and put the terms of our employment into a legally binding contract. Through collective bargaining, postdocs and other academic workers across the country have successfully negotiated improved wages and benefits, stronger protections against discrimination and harassment, expanded family-friendly benefits like paid leave and childcare subsidies, and other important provisions.

Postdocs at Penn started discussing the idea of forming a union in response to a lack of sufficient support from Penn on a wide range of workplace issues that particularly affected some of the most vulnerable members of our community, including parents and those of us on visas. In November of 2022, a group of Penn postdoctoral researchers reached out to postdocs who were also working to unionize with UAW at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York to learn from their experience forming their union with the UAW; the UAW is also the Union for Penn graduate student workers. Since then, we have been working with the UAW to build a representative campaign to establish our own union at Penn. The UAW represents more than 100,000 academic workers across the United States, including more postdocs and graduate student employees than any other union. In the last eight years alone, over 40,000 academic workers around the country have chosen to become part of the UAW, including nearly 15,000 of them from the East Coast.

The UAW has particular experience with helping to negotiate and enforce strong postdoc contracts. For example:

• 7,000 postdocs at the ten University of California campuses formed the first dedicated postdoctoral workers’ union in 2008 and approved their first UAW contract in 2010. In the fall of 2022, 48,000 UC academic workers, including thousands of postdocs, academic researchers, student researchers, and other academic student employees, went on strike to win improvements on pay, benefits, and workplace rights, making historic gains. Postdocs voted to ratify their contract by 89.4%.
• In 2018, postdocs and associate researchers at Columbia University in NYC voted by 68% to form their union with the UAW — the first union of postdoctoral workers at a private institution in the United States — and ratified their first contract in 2020 by 99%, with a majority participating. 
• University of Connecticut postdocs unionized in 2018 and overwhelmingly approved their first contract in 2020. 
• Postdocs at the University of Washington voted by 89% percent to form their union with the UAW in 2018. In June 2023, postdocs and research scientists and engineers at the University of Washington went on an historic 9-day strike. UW postdocs subsequently ratified their union contract by 98.7%.
• Postdocs at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai voted to form their union by 89.5% in June 2022 and, in December 2023, they ratified their first contract by 98%, with a majority voting.
• Read more about UAW’s success in helping academic workers negotiate concrete improvements to wages, benefits, and workplace rights.

In addition to drawing on the UAW’s extensive experience in bargaining contracts with academic administrations, we can exercise a strong political voice through the UAW. With active members at more than 45 major campuses across the United States, the UAW has become a strong advocate on policy issues that matter to us as academics, such as federal support for science funding and enhancing the rights of international research scientists.

Both a strong union and our existing postdoc organizations can play a critical role in improving the lives of Penn postdocs and research associates. The Penn Postdoctoral Association (PPA) and Office of Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs (BPP) provide important opportunities for postdocs to participate in numerous social and career development opportunities, as well as advocacy efforts, but these existing organizations are not a viable alternative to a union. While the PPA and BPP can make recommendations to the institution on behalf of postdocs, they cannot engage in legally-binding collective bargaining. In other words, Penn admin is not legally obligated to negotiate with representatives from the PPA and BPP over postdoc and research associate working conditions, whereas the university administration would be required to bargain with a recognized union due to federal law. Furthermore, improvements in the postdoc experience advocated for by postdoc associations like the PPA and BPP are not ultimately protected by a legally enforceable contract, meaning they can be altered unilaterally by the university at any time. Unions and postdoc associations often work together at academic institutions where both exist, but they serve distinct functions.

Yes! We are part of a broader movement to make all research workplaces better. If you are leaving soon, you can still support the effort while you are here by signing an authorization card and talking to your current and incoming colleagues about forming a union.

The transitory nature of our jobs as postdocs and research associates contributes to a system that justifies inadequate pay and benefits and makes us vulnerable to replacement. In many ways, this makes forming a union even more essential to establishing a fair workplace for researchers at Penn! Establishing a union means that postdocs and research associates will have a representative organization through which to enforce a binding contract, ensuring that we will be taken advantage of by the university by creating continuity and memory through a formal contract. Furthermore, our union will be part of the broader researcher labor movement at major research institutions across the United States–every research workplace that organizes makes science careers better for all of us.

We–all Penn postdoctoral researchers and research associates–are the union! After we hold an election and RAPUP-UAW becomes a certified and recognized union, we will start the process of negotiating a contract with the administration, and there will be many important opportunities to democratically make our voices heard through our union:

• First, we will democratically elect a bargaining committee of our colleagues representative of postdocs and research associates at Penn.
• Based on surveys and town halls open to all postdocs and research associates, the committee will develop initial bargaining goals. Postdocs and research associates vote to ratify these goals.
• The committee will meet with Penn administration representatives to negotiate in pursuit of our democratically-determined bargaining goals.
• The bargaining committee will be aided throughout by experienced negotiators and other UAW representatives.
• When our committee has negotiated a tentative agreement with Penn that they feel they can recommend, all postdocs and research associates will have an opportunity to vote on whether to ratify it as our first contract.
• After the contract is ratified, we will democratically elect representatives from among Penn postdoctoral researchers and research associates who will help run the Local Union, ensure that Penn does not violate the terms of the contract, and represent members with grievances and other workplace issues.

This is how we will build a union that can represent us all!

Postdoctoral researchers and research associates make up our union and will democratically prioritize which improvements to pursue in contract negotiations. In other words, we have the power to decide what we want to push for in a contract and will do so based on our collective priorities. With a union, we will negotiate as equals with the administration for the changes we want to make. We cannot guarantee which changes will be reflected in the final contract, but with input from all of us, our bargaining committee will know what we as workers believe to be most important, and they will negotiate accordingly.

With a union, we will have the power to vote on any negotiated contract. If we are unsatisfied with a contract, we can vote against it and go back to the negotiating table to work out a better agreement.

An enforceable contract will secure workplace improvements against unilateral changes by the administration. Currently, the administration can change policies and benefits without any obligation to consult us.

Postdoctoral researchers have negotiated improvements to their salaries, benefits, family-friendly policies, workspace, and materials; have established fair processes for addressing sexual and other forms of discrimination and harassment; and have negotiated greater job stability and protections for international researchers. 

Read more about what postdocs and researchers have won at other universities:

• Columbia University Postdoctoral Researchers (UAW Local 4100)
• University of California Postdocs (UAW Local 5810)
• Mt. Sinai Postdocs (UAW Local 4100)
• University of Washington Postdocs (UAW Local 4121)
• University of Connecticut Postdocs (UAW Local 6950)

Membership dues are important because they provide the resources necessary for effective representation. As part of the UAW, we will not pay dues until we have gone through the bargaining process and voted democratically to approve our first contract.

Dues are critical for providing us with independent resources that are not controlled by Penn admin. We use them to ensure we have appropriate legal, bargaining, community, and staff support to represent all postdoctoral researchers and research associates. UAW membership dues are currently 1.44% of gross monthly income and can only be increased by membership action (e.g., the membership in a few local unions have voted to increase dues above 1.44% to have more resources). In the UAW, there is also a one-time initiation fee, which ranges from $10 to $50 per worker and is determined democratically by local union members.

The value of increased wages and benefits in the first contract typically outweighs the cost of dues, often leading to overwhelming majority approval of those agreements. For example, the Columbia postdocs went from having the lowest minimum salaries for postdocs in NYC to the highest in the first year of their contract, an increase of between 14.5% to 20%, along with guaranteed annual increases and other improvements. The base wages for UC postdocs have gone up by more than 50% since they ratified their first contract in 2010.

It takes resources to have a strong union, from the earliest stages of forming a union for the first time, to bargaining and campaigning for the first contract, to enforcing rights under an existing contract, and advocating on policy issues that matter to the membership.  Dues provide those resources.

Dues generally cover all of the day-to-day costs to have a strong union, including paying for legal representation, staffing, rent, equipment, and supplies.  

Most of the day-to-day work enforcing the contract and representing our membership is provided by the Local Union, our UAW-affiliated union of postdocs and research associates at Penn (RAPUP-UAW). Under the UAW Constitution, the Local Union automatically keeps 27% of dues money to support its expenses (staffing for representation, rent, equipment, supplies, etc.). The rest of the dues go to the International Union, which is the parent organization for all UAW-affiliated Local Unions. However, depending on the overall financial health of the International Union’s Strike and Defense Fund, some funds are returned to the Local Union. Thus, in a typical month, the Local Union retains 37% of dues money.

UAW Local Unions have used their dues money to help members defend their rights. As examples, you can read this summary of successful grievance handling by the UAW Local Union at the University of Washington and articles about unionized postdocs fighting pregnancy discrimination at the University of California, and UConn graduate assistants addressing sexual harassment.

The UAW International Union has affiliated locals throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. The portion of our dues money allocated to the International Union would go to the union’s General Fund (26%), Strike and Defense Fund (44%), and Community Action Program (3%). These funds would support Penn postdoctoral researchers and research associates in several ways:

• Paying technical experts to help negotiate on equal terms with the Penn administration, including:
• Health insurance experts who can take on the University’s consultants in order to pursue the best benefits for the best price
• Researchers who can help analyze university finances
• Lawyers who can provide advice, including on visa issues
• Experienced negotiators to help achieve our goals, both at the bargaining table and in terms of developing an overall campaign to win a strong contract
• Providing support for new organizing campaigns. For example, the resources supporting RAPUP-UAW come from existing UAW members’ dues, including those in higher education and other industries. Our dues would help support other organizing campaigns, including other workers at Penn
• Taking political action. As noted above, 3% of dues go toward the UAW Community Action Program, which supports progressive community and political action, including legislative and other policy advocacy on issues that matter to UAW members. For example, the UAW advocates strongly for fair, comprehensive immigration reform and expanded federal support for research funding, among other topics. (NOTE: Legally, dues money cannot be used for federal campaign contributions, such as the presidential race. Union members can choose to contribute additional non-dues money to the UAW Voluntary Community Action Program, which can contribute to federal campaigns.)

Research Associates and Postdocs United at Penn (RAPUP-UAW) seeks to represent anyone who holds a position as a postdoctoral researcher or research associate at Penn. If you are a researcher at Penn and have questions about your eligibility or want to sign up, please contact info@pennpostdocunion.org.

We are closely connected to similar efforts to unionize postdocs and research associates at other Penn-affiliated institutions. If you are interested in joining your institution’s postdoc unionization campaign, contact us at info@pennpostdocunion.org.

International postdocs and researchers have the same legal right to join a union as U.S. citizens. International researchers have been instrumental in organizing and running postdoc unions at the University of California (UAW Local 5810) and Columbia University (CPW-UAW Local 4100). Unionization can result in protections that are especially valuable for international academic employees.

International postdocs and research associates are an integral part of the community of researchers at Penn. In addition to the overall upheaval that accompanies relocation, we have to contend with unique challenges at the workplace: visa and immigration precarity, complicated tax laws, zero support for finding housing and settling into the Philadelphia community, and insufficient support from administration on all of these issues and more. This is why forming a union can help international postdocs especially! By unionizing, we can collectively bargain for a more supportive and equitable workplace that is sensitive to our status as non-citizens. Other academic worker union contracts have made substantial wins for international scholars, like:

• Visa cost reimbursement at UMass Amherst (PRO-UAW, up to $1000/year) and Columbia (CPW-UAW, up to $1500/year)
• Paid time off for immigration proceedings at Columbia (CPW-UAW)
• Protection from job loss due to visa interruption at Mt. Sinai (SPOC-UAW) by holding the position for a minimum of 60 days
• Two-year initial appointments for postdocs in the UC system (UAW 5150)

And these improvements are only the start! At Penn, over half of postdocs and research associates are international, putting us in a strong position to fight for and win even more benefits and protections for international workers.

With roughly 100,000 academic workers, the UAW has become a powerful organization advocating to improve conditions for international scholars and students. For years, the UAW has fought hard to improve the status and working conditions of non-citizen workers. 

For example, the UAW fought to enhance the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program as an important path for international student workers to work in the US after completion of their PhD. More recently, the UAW-affiliated academic worker unions helped lead the fight against Executive Orders issued by former President Trump that targeted international scholars and students. In 2017, the UAW International filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case challenging the Trump administration’s travel ban. In July 2020, thanks to direct action by UAW academic workers across the country alongside university and government allies, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) backed down from its directive to deport international students taking online classes due to COVID-19. In October 2020, UAW academic workers mobilized against a proposed rule by ICE to shorten visa stays for international scholars. Thousands of public comments were submitted, including by the President of the UAW International. 

UAW Local Unions also provide important resources for researchers on visas. For example, Columbia University postdocs used their union to fight for international researchers to be able to work remotely when they could not return to the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. They put pressure on the Columbia administration and engaged allies in Congress to support researchers stranded abroad.

International researchers at Penn have the same federally guaranteed labor rights as U.S. citizens. Thus, signing an authorization card will not jeopardize or delay application for legal permanent residence. Union authorization cards are submitted to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, which is the third-party federal authority that verifies and counts the cards, and are not released to your PI, the Penn administration, or other government agencies. Since 2008, thousands of international postdoctoral researchers and other academic workers have signed union authorization cards around the country. There have been no reported instances of green card applications getting delayed or rejected as a result of signing an authorization card or otherwise participating in a unionization effort. 

The length of time necessary to negotiate a strong first contract has depended on the strength of the campaign and the willingness of the employer to bargain in good faith. Penn could help ensure a timely process by agreeing on a fair and efficient time frame with regularly scheduled bargaining sessions and a strong commitment to reaching a fair agreement. 

At other major research institutions where postdocs have formed unions, researchers have been able to negotiate significant improvements despite facing opposition from their employers. Postdocs at Columbia University, the University of Connecticut, the University of Washington, and the University of California negotiated for 16 months, 13 months, 13 months, and 18 months, respectively. But it is also possible to negotiate much more quickly.  For example, with a serious commitment to reach a fair agreement by the administration, 4,000 student employees at the University of Washington negotiated their first contract in just under two months.

Postdocs have not seen this happen at other institutions. 

We all share an interest in preserving the quality of research happening at Penn. Collective bargaining over salary means we can negotiate on equal footing in order to hold Penn more accountable to do the best it can do for its postdocs and research associates. It is important to note that, as a union, we will have access to Penn’s financial information that affects postdocs and research associates. This will allow us to be well-informed and conscientious as we engage in bargaining, so that we balance improving salaries, benefits, and protections for postdocs and research associates with maintaining enough positions to keep research productivity high. 

At some universities, like Rutgers, postdocs and graduate students have negotiated to have salary increases covered by university central funds, which are more than able to cover such costs, rather than by PIs directly. In 2023, Penn’s endowment, for instance, grew by $1.4 billion (to $22 billion). Raises of $3,000 for each postdoc and research associate at Penn would cost just 0.03% of these gains.  

Finally, all union decisions, including negotiated raises, will be made democratically by postdocs and research associates. We will collectively decide what to ask for in bargaining at Penn and, ultimately, vote on whether to approve any agreement as a contract.

Currently, Penn has complete power to change our benefits and pay however they want to. Once a union is formed, Penn will no longer be able to change our pay and benefits or other terms and conditions of our employment unilaterally. Instead, such changes will be decided through collective bargaining. In other words, once we have a union, Penn administrators must negotiate in good faith with postdocs and research associates to decide the terms and conditions of our employment. Once a tentative agreement is made, postdocs and research associates will vote on whether to approve a binding, enforceable contract specifying those terms and conditions.

No. There has never been a contract negotiated by a UAW union for academic workers that required all covered employees to receive the same pay. As postdocs and research associates, we will make our own decisions about our contract and it would be unlikely that we would negotiate for, or vote to approve, a contract that required all postdocs and research associates to be paid the same. As an example, we could propose a wage structure like the one that postdocs at the University of California have won through collective bargaining:

1. A minimum salary that exceeds the NIH base wage for postdocs
2. Guaranteed annual wage increases
3. PIs have a right to pay above the base wage
4. Strong enforcement provisions that let us hold Penn accountable through the union if we don’t receive the pay increases we are guaranteed

Postdoctoral researchers will democratically decide how we want to negotiate pay, but there are no UAW academic worker contracts that require all workers to be paid the same. Instead, UAW academic contracts have established minimum rights on different aspects of researcher working conditions, while preserving the ability of PIs and researchers to negotiate above those minimums.  At both Columbia and the University of California, for example, postdoctoral researchers negotiated pay scales that guarantee minimum salaries but state that the institution may pay more.

As a union, researchers will be negotiating with the Penn administration, not with our PIs and supervisors, because it is Penn’s policies that define our employment conditions. 

Moreover, researchers will set the bargaining agenda and decide what improvements to prioritize in collective bargaining. Thus, a union contract would only create changes (for instance, introducing Individual Development Plan requirements to encourage career development, which appears in some academic researcher union contracts) if postdoctoral researchers and scholars democratically chose to prioritize them. And forming a union would mean that the Penn administration would not be able to make unilateral changes to working conditions that postdocs choose to negotiate in our contract.

In addition, many PIs appreciate working with unionized researchers, because a union contract means PIs do not have to spend time negotiating every term and condition of employment (e.g., wages, health care, leave, childcare, non-discrimination protections, vacation, appointment letter terms, visa terms, etc.) for each of their postdocs–instead, both PIs and their postdoc and research associate employees can focus on their research.

By forming a union of postdocs and research associates, we can negotiate to keep things that we like in our contract, as well as having a collective voice to push back if the Penn administration tries to make changes that negatively affect us. 

At a large institution like Penn, the systems in place can harm workers even if their direct supervisor is a supportive advocate. Currently, Penn postdocs and research associates have no enforceable workplace protections, and even a well-intentioned PI might not be able to fix the problem at the university level. With a union, we would have collective power — backed by federal law — to protect our rights in the workplace.

If we form a union, all decisions — including the decision about whether or not to strike — will be made democratically by Penn postdoctoral researchers and research associates. A strike is a very powerful tool for unionized workers, but it would only occur if we, as union members, collectively decided that a strike was necessary. Under the UAW Constitution, two-thirds of workers participating in a strike authorization vote must vote yes in order to authorize a strike. Also, while a strike is most effective if we all participate, it is an individual decision whether or not to do so.

At the University of California (UC), for example, unionized postdocs and academic researchers have voted to authorize strikes on several occasions. In most cases, this threat of strike put pressure on the UC administration and helped them to reach agreements without actually striking. In 2022, 48,000 academic workers at UC — including postdocs, academic researchers, and student researchers and employees — chose to go on strike together to win better pay, benefits, and workplace rights. The gains that UC postdocs made as a result of this strike were historic, and UC postdocs voted to ratify their contract by 89.4%. Most recently, in December 2023, postdocs at Mt. Sinai went on a historic 12-day strike, which led to a favorable union contract that included the highest minimum salary for postdocs in the country.