A former UCSF postdoc

Annotations

1. Point of View: How postdocs benefit from building a union

   Just found out that UC postdocs have to pay 1.44% of their gross income for the mandatory union fee. So even if the other 2% of increase over the past 4 years, i.e. 0.5% of increase per year, was contributed by the Union, overall UC postdocs got 0.94% of DECREASE of their salaries every year simply because of the unionization! Again, UC postdocs are losing money because of the Union!

2. Point of View: How postdocs benefit from building a union

   I paid "0" out of my own pocket for my health insurance when I was a postdoc at UCSF even before your union was formed and that was pretty standard for UCSF postdocs. And my whole family, including two kids, was covered by my postdoc health insurance. Again, this was not because of your union!

3. Point of View: How postdocs benefit from building a union

   You are misleading people again! The 12% of increase is NOT mainly because of your union. It is mainly because NIH raised the postdoc salary standard by 10% from 2010 to 2014 ($37,740/year in 2010 to $42,000/year in 2014 for postdocs with no experience). And most PIs at UC (at least over 75% based on UC salary data as mentioned above) would still pay their postdocs based on the NIH standard even without your union. Therefore, even if the union had never existed, there still would have been 10% of increase of postdoc salaries. The union probably contributed to the other 2% of increase, however, most of this 2% of increase then goes to the mandatory union fee. So how much did postdocs benefit from the Union? At most 1% of salary increase over 4 years since the union was formed in 2010, or 0.25% of increase per year -- that is what your union has achieved for UC postdocs over the past four years! Don't over-claim your achievements!