To the Editor:
As members of the recently formed Brown Postdoc Labor Organization (BPLO), we were excited to read that postdocs at Princeton voted to join United Auto Workers in “Two Votes on Unionization at Princeton, Two Different Results” (The Chronicle, June 14). While we were glad that Brown voluntarily recognized our union, we are dismayed by Brown’s actions during bargaining, especially its refusal to follow its preexisting policy on postdoctoral salaries.
Historically, Brown has adjusted postdocs’ salaries to match the National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award (NIH NRSA) stipend levels; as its website states, “Brown generally requires that postdoctoral compensation meets the NIH minimum pay scale, regardless of the source of funds.” In April 2024, the NIH increased the NRSA stipend levels, raising the starting salary from $56,484 to $61,008. However, Brown has refused to increase the salaries of postdocs who are not funded by NRSA grants to these levels. Brown is claiming that salaries must be frozen during contract negotiations with BPLO. As one postdoc put it, “Brown’s freeze feels like retaliation in response to our collective organizing. Had we not formed a union, my salary would have been raised to the new NIH minimum.”
Brown’s choice not to follow its own policy has consequences. Brown postdocs’ minimum salary of $56,484 now sits far below those of unionized and non-unionized peer institutions in the Northeast, including Columbia ($71,050) and Yale ($68,000). It has also caused equity issues among Brown postdocs, even those in the same labs, as a small number of Brown postdocs were still able to petition to receive the new NIH minimum salary.
In response, BPLO submitted a proposal on June 3 asking Brown to maintain its established practice of matching the NIH minimum pay scale. Yet Brown refused to accept our proposal without the inclusion of a clause that would force us to give up the right to strike — an unprecedented ask for a union negotiating its first contract.
Long-standing employment law mandates an employer to follow its established policies post-unionization. As such, we, the undersigned, call on Brown University to follow its own policy and immediately raise postdocs’ salaries to the NIH pay scale minimums.
On behalf of the Brown Postdoc Labor Organization Bargaining and Organizing Committees,
Caroline Keroack, Ph..D, Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology
Erica Eliason, Ph.D., Center for Gerontology and Healthcare Research
Sarah Elizabeth Neville, Ph.D., School of Public Health and Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Tara Baldrick-Morrone, Ph.D., Department of Classics, Critical Classical Studies Fellow
Cosmo Pieplow, Ph.D., Department of Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Biochemistry
