Today, tomorrow, and Wednesday, post-docs at University of Guelph vote on whether to unionize.

Post-docs are a hugely important part of academia, so here is a short thread on why they matter, and why unionization matters in academia. (1/n)

I’ve been on faculty at 3 universities. At each, I’ve learned the same lesson. Without collective bargaining, you are invisible when it matters.
Sure, there may be some programs and societies for you, but you simply do not get the full level of consideration and respect. (2/n)

Post-docs do not have consistent protections or benefits.
If funding is direct from SSRHC, universities are glad to treat you like you aren’t their employee, even though you’re based there and they benefit from your work (3/n)

Post-docs have no workload protection to ensure they aren’t taken advantage of. The university must follow very clear guidelines faculty workloads. Post-docs have no such protection. Many I know are buried under a constant pile of work from their supervisors (4/n)

And many have obscenely low salaries. The minimum here, last I checked, is $33k/year. That is a pittance for a highly qualified scientist who holds a doctoral degree and who is being asked to do everything from project management to lab management and science writing (5/n)

There’s also a culture problem—post-docs in the Canadian system are considered trainees, grouped with students as “Highly Qualified Persons”. So we get away with sleights of hand like funding them with stipends, which means they arent eligible for EI, CPP & other benefits. (8/n)

Universities are more than happy, though, to enjoy the benefits to their reputation when a post-doc is awarded a Banting or when they are on a high profile publication. (9/n)

We’re happy to *call* them trainees, post-docs often don’t get the same professional development and training opportunities as students. Here it is entirely up to the supervisor to make these opportunities available, but for other HQP, the university has stacks of programs (10/n)

Here are some of the limitations I’ve encountered when trying to create opportunities for post-docs:
-They can’t serve as external examiners for graduate student qualifying exams
-They have very few teaching opportunities.
-They are not allowed to co-teach with their supervisor

The academic job market right now is a wasteland. New TT positions are sparse, and when they open, many get a hundred or more applications from qualified individuals. We can’t treat these trainees as if getting a job is a shoo-in (12/n)

Post-docs are central to our labs. Many are already operating at a faculty level. I, and many of my colleagues, do our best to create equitable work environments and show that they are valued as colleagues (13/n)

Indeed, I know that there are many happy post-docs at U of G. The trouble is, we can’t trust all post-doc supervisors to act the same way. That’s why unions matter. They force the University to raise the floor and to hold supervisors to account. (14/n)

I will not say how post-docs should vote, but I will say that if you are a part of a union at a university, you *know* that administration has to consider how policies affect you. You get a seat at virtually every table. If you aren’t, you don’t. Its that simple.

PS- The need for a union does not mean the employer is bad or otherwise taking advantage.

I have a lot of respect for U of G administration.

What a union does is just institutionalize our commitment to equity and fairness. It forces us to check ourselves.