Postdoctoral Researchers at U. of California Ratify Contract

Postdoctoral researchers at the University of California have ratified their first contract with the institution, the United Auto Workers and the university jointly announced on Thursday. The five-year contract covers some 6,500 postdocs on 10 campuses, who make up about 10 percent of all such researchers in the United States. According to a summary on the union’s Web site, the agreement calls for annual raises of at least 3 percent a year for postdocs who make less than $47,000 a year, and increases of 1.5 to 2 percent for those who make more.

Efforts to organize postdoctoral researchers have begun in a few other states, and labor scholars said the successful outcome in California could fuel those efforts. “I think there is a good chance this will go national,” Richard J. Boris, director of the Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, at the City University of New York’s Hunter College, told the Los Angeles Times.