Postdocs face challenges such as job insecurity and limited benefits compared to other UM employees. These issues can cause stress and affect the quality of our research output. By forming a union, we can unify our voices to advocate for fairer working conditions and better support systems, benefiting both the individuals involved and the wider scientific community.

Postdocs are some of the most vulnerable workers in academia. It’s hard to secure the job, even harder to get the next, and the pay is often too low. Marriage, settling down, and saving for a home all feel out of reach without job security. As an international worker, I feel even more financial strain from visa fees. Postdocs can address these challenges by forming a union and winning better pay, protections, and immigration fee reimbursements. As a former unionized grad student at the University of California, I saw firsthand how organizing improves working conditions. I believe UM-PRO can give Postdocs a voice so that we are treated fairly at UM.

I am thrilled by the research I get to do every day, but the pay Postdocs receive is inadequate for living in Ann Arbor. I work in a Neuroscience lab at UM, yet I cannot afford to move out of my cramped grad school apartment. My partner and I struggle with basic expenses like food, gas, and medications. This has impacted my efficiency at work as well as the quality of my home life. I’m helping form a Postdoc union at UM because Postdocs make crucial contributions to research at Michigan, and we deserve to be compensated accordingly.

I started my postdoc at UM just days after my partner lost her job. The cost of health insurance with a dependent was an unbearable share of my salary, yet my partner needed vital medication for her chronic illness. I had to choose between financial strain or hoping she’d find a job with coverage. UM postdocs need a union to ensure affordable healthcare and fair salaries, so we can focus on our work without harmful compromises.

UM postdocs face low pay, costly healthcare, and precarious contracts. For the 60% of us who are international workers, visa costs, limited bargaining power, and hurdles for spouses obtaining visas make stability even harder. Yet, we’re expected to deliver world-class research while navigating these challenges. A strong union contract ensuring stability and support would be life-changing!

As a woman and international worker, I face a double burden. Basics like Ann Arbor’s cost of living, housing, and U.S. bureaucracy are poorly explained. Overpriced health insurance and the lack of sick or maternity leave leave us vulnerable to exploitation. UM postdocs need a union so we can collectively advocate for dignity, rights, and benefits for our well-being.

My spouse and I had to press pause on other life goals to pursue doctorates and are now playing catchup, made harder by financial constraints like high health insurance costs. My experience at UM highlights stark disparities in pay, resources, and job security—postdocs deserve better. A union will provide the security we need.

Many said life would improve after a PhD, but since leaving Nashville, I’ve downsized to afford rent, work unpaid overtime, and still struggle with basic necessities. My stipend also supports my partner, and I can’t imagine raising children on it like many UM postdocs do. I joined UM-PRO to fight for fair pay, benefits, and a supportive community in an increasingly hostile academic climate. Our efforts will improve postdoc life for all!

As a postdoc on external funding, I’ve seen UM deny us the resources and benefits other employees get, from healthcare to essential software. Many postdocs face the same struggles, despite working in UM labs and buildings. I support a union for all UM postdocs, including those of us on external funding.

Positioned between students and professors, postdocs occupy a role whose labor is easily blurred. Yet, it is precisely postdocs who bear the brunt of both the intensive labor and life precarity that define contemporary academia. We need a union to recognize, advocate for, and improve the conditions of our work and lives.

I came to UM excited for research, but just six months in, I’m uncertain if my contract will be renewed. While 1-year contracts are typical for UM postdocs, recent cuts to federal research funding make postdoc appointments even more insecure. By forming a union, postdocs can negotiate to win better job security with longer appointments.

I moved to Ann Arbor with my fiance for a prestigious Postdoc position. I love UM and my research, but health insurance for two is nearly ten percent of my salary! Postdocs at my graduate institution are unionized and pay far less for comparable health insurance, and unionized UM Grads have zero-premium dependent healthcare. UM Postdocs need a union so that our healthcare premiums are affordable.

Postdocs at UM only have one year long contracts which offer little job security. For international postdocs, this also means we have to travel back to our home countries each year to renew visas, which is costly, time consuming and delays our productivity. Last year I had to spend a month at home in the middle of the semester due to visa processing times, which I had to pay for out of pocket. By forming a union, we can collectively bargain for the job security we deserve. 

Like many postdocs, I started my job after assuming a lot of debt during years of lost earnings as a graduate student. I am in a two-year postdoc; I paid to move here at the start of my job and I’ll need to move away again soon. As I try to plan my future, I am really feeling the financial strain. As postdocs in a prestigious university system, we have extremely unique knowledge and do highly skilled work. Postdocs should be compensated in line with a higher standard, like the one set by the NIH. Unionizing can help UM postdocs to raise the bar financially and protect our jobs and wallets through collective power and organization.

International researchers deal with many seen and unforeseen circumstances. Job insecurity and low salary add stress to ours lives. Not long after coming to this country, I faced a vulnerability in my postdoctoral position that forced me to change labs. UM Postdocs need a collective voice to fight for job security, standardized salary, affordable health insurance, childcare support, and more.