Unions often challenge the low pay, minimal benefits, and lack of job security that are typical of postdoctoral positions.
Some universities seek to avoid pushes for unionization by proactively addressing the concerns of postdoctoral researchers.
[4] The first stand-alone postdoctoral researcher union was UAW Local 5810 at the University of California system.
This led to establishing a minimum salary with annual increases, the availability of insurance benefits, guaranteed vacation time, paid maternity leave, and just cause protections for discipline or dismissal.
[2] In 2010, a postdoctoral union at the University of Massachusetts Amherst was formed, and in 2012 it ratified a contract providing for salary and benefits, the first of its kind in the University of Massachusetts system.