PostDocs World -All about PostDoctoral Researchers

The Crisis of "PhD graduates and Early-Career Scientists" is "Anomaly in the Anatomy of Academy!?.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 3 Nov 2022 22:16:00 -0400

The Crisis of "PhD graduates and Early-Career Scientists" is "Anomaly in the Anatomy of Academy!?.

In the latest "Nature Editorial", the following Editorial piece appeared (linked below). While the piece carries grim reality check on PhD graduate students based on results from a recent survey done by Nature,intention sure is a good one, they do not know how to write a title. The title itself is a questionable one, the plight of early career or PhD graduates low pay or living wage according to nature is a Scandal, like a Hollywood movie scandal or Washington DC scandal, is it?,Really Nature?.

The living wage for graduate students or Post Docs or early scientists is not a Scandal, it is rather endemic, intrinsic system wide corrupt practice, because the academic structure is "Designed" that way?.

It is not a temporary issue or a scandal between a supervisor or University admin or govt funding agencies, it is a crippling bigotry in "Equitable" treatment of young graduates and PostDocs, and it is a chronic debilitating structural issue of American Universities, Institutions as well as the global academic centers.

It is a Crisis that will deteriorate scientific endeavors and future scientific discoveries, once the young generation of scientists realize what they see or undergo is by design, interest and involvement in such field will take a nosedive, it is too late but still can be repaired and fixed.

Ofcourse time is running out

Quote:"This year’s survey should set loud alarm bells ringing for anyone involved with recruiting and training the next generation of researchers. It demands swift, decisive action from governments and funding agencies to secure the future of science and the broader economic and social benefits that flow from it"".

fortunately Science still is meaningful and attractive to young minds around the world regardless of so much fakery and political derailing of science and research that recently happened or still happening in the name of Covid-19!?. Massively politicized, manipulated and utterly faked, mane made pandemic that lots of Scientists knowingly participated, events and unscientific approach like this would push the young minds that are already weary of "living wage or pay crisis" away from research..!

However, the fight and protest

Quote: " On 11 October, a graduate-student group at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, staged a walkout as part of an ongoing protest calling for a guaranteed living wage and for the kinds of rights and benefits that come with academic employment contracts. The group is also looking to form a union, which it wants Dartmouth to recognize"

these young scientists put up to resolve these living wage and benefits issues that catapulted into "Unionization", the union way of fix up sure can help and heal the academic fractures to some extent, some centers like Uconn Health Center (UCHC) where the first Postdoctoral Union was formed prospered, became one of the finest research centers in America contrary to what most thought, unionization will fail, will create rift and not the right path ultimately bow down to the unionization, that is spreading all across US. However, I caution that Unionization works and it is fine to embrace, but the leaders and policy makers and stakeholders got to "overhaul" the way academic and research centers function with regard to "living wages and Pays" to graduates, PhD students and PostDocs, they are the Pillars of Science, medicine and Research!. A nation without best scientists and research will ultimately fail, will be a failed society.

This Scientific crisis must never be looked at as a temporary or short term issue or a scandal that will go away or carpeted under academic ladder? but this is a pervasive existence of "anomaly in the anatomy of academy!?.", the pain and endurance among early career students and graduates, PostDocs is not felt only during economic crisis or inflation or wall street crash!!!!

Quote:"The resulting financial pressures weigh more heavily on some than on others. They bear down particularly hard on people from low-income households, those who might be first in their families to go to university, and people from under-represented or historically marginalized groups — the very people whom universities are working diligently to recruit and retain.

perhaps little more pain during inflation or economic crisis but like a long lasting chronic pain, living wages and standard of living pain endurance for them continue through any and all state or countries economic condition..!.

Quote: "Institutions need to re-evaluate their approach to PhD support"

Exactly, not just re-evaluate, be proactive and make changes to their policies to lend support and encourage in healthy ways than damn discouraging atmosphere, a "wholesome" academic structural change and upliftment is inevitable to safegaurd the young scientists future, thereby Science's future.

Link to Nature Editorial:

The scandal of researchers paid less than a living wage (nature.com)

This is a system wide structural corruption within the academic

Link to the Nature Article below:

EDITORIAL
02 November 2022

The scandal of researchers paid less than a living wage

The cost-of-living crisis is a fundamental threat for PhD scholars and early-career researchers. They need to be paid properly.

PS:

THIS IS AN EFFORT TO EDUCATE, UNITE AND VOICE FOR THE POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS/POSTDOCS IN USA. ALL THE POSTDOCS AND POSTDOC WELL WISHERS ARE WELCOME TO CONTRIBUTE AND POST YOUR MESSAGE HERE. GOOD LUCK, GOD BLESS POSTDOCS.

PostDocs, Graduate Students and visitors, use the Contact form, No longer use Nazi run LinkedIN

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 12:19:00 -0500

Hello Postdocs, graduate Students and all visitors to my Blogs, I no longer use or visit the Nazi run LinkedIN, this social network website and the management behind this company is promoting unscientific, fake, false information on many topics and limits real science and real event discussions on LinkedIN.

Ever Since the Covid-19 Pandemic was unleashed, LinkedIN has done lots of damage to real science and true information by promoting fake info, fake data and false Scientific narratives. Because of that, lots of restrictions, posts removals, comments removal, many linkedIn members accounts restrictions, bans etc. Because of this dictatorial and LinkedINs policy against free speech and free expression, I decided to not use LinkedIN anymore. Unless LinkedIn changes its policy and clean up its corrupt and biased policies etc. Which is unlikely to happen. I urge anyone or all of you on my LinkedIN contacts or network to visit two of my blogs: Neuromonitoring1 and PostDocs UNion, use the contact form on these blogs to reach out if you want to connect with me.

Thanks, Dr.Muni

Amost 15 years after the First PostDoc Union at UConn Health Center, now UConn main Campus Postdocs unionize!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 11:35:00 -0500

The University of Connecticut main campus UCONN Postdocs are the latest to seek Unions for their postdocs, this makes one of the dozens of recent postdocs unionization in major Universities including Ivy league one's across USA.
The UConn Postdocs union gets its first contract approved!?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From UConn Postdocs union website!!

FIRST CONTRACT APPROVED!

HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR FIRST CONTRACT
UAW POSTDOCS UNION AND UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
In January 2020, postdocs voted 113 to 1 in favor of ratifying our first contract, an overwhelming 99% margin, with more than two-thirds of all UConn Postdocs voting yes.

Under state law, Connecticut’s legislature must approve contracts for it to into effect and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the vote was delayed until this Spring. On April 28, 2021, the Connecticut state legislature voted to approve our contract with bi-partisan support, and it is now in effect!

The contract ensures substantial economic improvements and establishes critical new workplace rights for all Postdocs.

https://uconnpostdocunion.org/

PostDocs and Graduate Students Uncertainty during Covid-19 Lockdown, what happened to Jobs?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sat, 3 Jul 2021 17:30:00 -0400

What is going on with regard to PostDocs, internship, Grants and graduates training supports?. The Covid-19 Lockdown's impacts on PostDocs, early career researchers and PhD graduates is not a mainstream media topic, they would rather go write about some useless topics and not spent time for deserved subjects like PostDocs issues. However, some rare journalists and independent writers continue to highlight and bring attention to the issues, like this one on Graduates plight during lockdown, plight is pretty bad!?.

Uncertainty Looms as Student Jobs are Disappearing During the Great Lockdown

By Eve Washington Visuals by Charlotte Li and Jason Kao Edited by Claudia Gohn and Paul Hanna

May 15, 2020

Canceled jobs, hiring freezes, and general uncertainty for the future have taken job opportunities from many students amid the COVID-19 pandemic—but this is just a reflection of a larger issue. The U.S. economy is entering a recession that threatens to be worse than any other in the past: the Great Lockdown. Small businesses across the country are in danger of closing, the unemployment rate is the highest it has been since the Great Depression, government responses are slow and hard to access, and experts are unsure of the path for recovery for industries impacted the most.

Check the article Linked to the title (blue)

Boston Area "PostDocs" collect huge Data about Postdocs from 13 univerisites/instituitions to make changes

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Wed, 3 Mar 2021 19:58:00 -0500

Boston city and surrounding area has several universities, research institutions and scientific centers, the local postdoc group called BPDA seems to be collecting comprehensive data about postdoc jobs, postdoc salaries, benefits etc from 13 university/institutions around Boston area!. to help postdocs and improve their plight.

Check out their sites and activities here:

https://bostonpostdocs.org/

We are a regional coalition of postdoc associations and postdoc representatives from 17 Boston area Postdoctoral Associations

Our aim is to foster a sense of community, encourage increased communication, and aid in creating a collaborative environment among postdocs by advocacy efforts and organizing social and career development events to bring together postdocs across the Greater Boston Area

Nature: No One is Allowed go to out!, Science and Research around the world affected by Coronavirus!!!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sat, 22 Feb 2020 19:00:00 -0500

Today's Nature Editorial Reviews the impact of Coronavirus on Scientific community and Scientific Research as a whole in China and around the world!.

China and the Empty Streets, Image from Nature.com

A Review of the Coronavirus spread and its impact on Scientific community in China and world wide will wake up even the most insensitive and callous politicians around the world, however, many politicians or policy makers in governments in US and around the world living in denial, joining them are the economic pundits and fake heads, who claim Coronavirus has no financial damage to American Economy?.. Well, will you trust these fakers or trust a Scientific Review by Nature. who has no political or other interest to tell the true story. Trumps policy and stand on scientific research already is as worst as Bush's, both of them did a major hair-cut to scientific funding, with that kind of mind set, and zero interest or knowledge about Science, he seems to totally undermine what a Pandemic like coronovirus can do to the local city, country and to the world/

Nature shows us the glimpse of its deadly impact on Research by surveying or listening to about 600 researchers, scientists and university members in China and world wide!.

According to this Nature reviews, as we also heard from various other news and sources, that most cities in China are in lock-down, most streets are empty, so what is happening to all the universities and research institutions in China, its been shut down!. The Chinese Science and Research is in a frozen state, that is horrible for the nation of China, but wait, there is so much interconnection to science/research to various parts of the world, in terms of scientific supply, it is a two way traffic, China needs world scientific supplies and China in turn is a big supplier of tools, technologies, chemicals, reagents to all research products!, and that chain is frozen too as Chinese research is frozen?.

Nature calls it is wrecking havoc!?.. Hey Politicians, Policy makers can you hear that?..

Here is the Review:

‘No one is allowed to go out’: your stories from the coronavirus outbreak

From laboratory closures to equipment shortages, researchers worldwide tell Nature how they have been affected by the epidemic.
The outbreak of a new coronavirus is wreaking havoc worldwide. In China, the epicentre of the epidemic, the virus has infected tens of thousands of people and killed more than 2,100. Unprecedented measures meant to contain the spread have brought millions of daily lives to a halt, and the effects have touched economies and global supply chains.

PostDoc Unions and Unionization news goes academic mainstream!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 15:57:00 -0500

It is interesting to observe that PostDocs Union is steadily getting its due attention from scientific community as well from publishers after almost 15 years of the very First officially PostDoc Union established at the University of Connecticut Health Center, UCHC. A new tradition and history was set by us at the UCHC with "PostDocs Union".

from the journal eLife, find the Link and article below

This one is particularly special as the report is published by eLife (academic/scientific journal)
and found on PubMed!.
PubMed is a """

US National Library of Medicine. National Institutes of Health. PubMed Central® (PMC) is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature at the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM)""""

NIH and PubMed, the main US govts scientific org and publication channel.

As most of postdoc union activities reported as news by various newspapers seldom one can notice such reports published in research or scientific journals except in Science and Nature that frequently discuss postdoc news but not so much about PostDoc unions, well that trend inside Nature and Science is also changing rapidly as both these private science publishers are increasingly focusing on Postdoc union and graduate students issues in recent years.

Here is the report:
Original Article Link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4238050/

. 2014; 3: e05614.

Published online 2014 Nov 21. doi: 10.7554/eLife.05614

PMCID: PMC4238050

PMID: 25415240

How postdocs benefit from building a union

Benjamin Cain,^* Jessica M Budke,^* Kelsey J Wood, Neal T Sweeney, and Benjamin Schwessinger

Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer

This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.

Abstract

Members of UAW 5810—the union for postdoctoral researchers at the University of California—describe how their union has led to improved terms and conditions for postdocs.

In recent years there has been an increasing amount of discussion about the problems facing the scientific research workforce in the US (). As the number of Ph.D. graduates has gone up (), and the competition for jobs and grants has increased, more and more young researchers are spending longer and longer in postdoctoral positions as they try to secure a permanent job (De Jesus, 2012). Consequently, the way that academia treats postdocs will have a huge impact on the future of research, in universities and beyond.

US Immigration Visas H1B and Student Visa Crackdown Continues and New Policies here to Stay!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:19:00 -0500

US Immigrant Visa Problems, Delays/Cancellation is here to stay for a long time, this is a Transformational Time, "America First" will bring major changes to all types of Visas and most importantly H1B and Student Visas will take a huge hit!!, nothing can or will Stop it!!...

Associated Press News: Feb25 2019

Worker visas in doubt as Trump immigration crackdown widens

NEW YORK (AP) — Immigrants with specialized skills are being denied work visas or seeing applications get caught up in lengthy bureaucratic tangles under federal changes that some consider a contradiction to President Donald Trump’s promise of a continued pathway to the U.S. for the most talented foreigners.

Getting what’s known as an H-1B visa has never been a sure thing — the number issued annually is capped at 85,000 and applicants need to enter a lottery to even be considered. But some immigration attorneys, as well as those who hire such workers, say they’ve seen unprecedented disruptions in the approval process since Trump took office in 2017.

“You see all these arguments that we want the best and the brightest coming here,” said John Goslow, an immigration attorney in Ann Arbor, Michigan. “Yet we’re seeing a full-frontal assault on just all aspects of immigration.”

Click/Visit Link, Full Article: https://apnews.com/af878855969c4b48bc8b083b91c67018

A "Union" for PostDoctoral Researchers at Columbia University, Next Ivy PostDocs to Unionize?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 20:32:00 -0500

From Columbia University PostDoc pages:

We are Columbia postdocs forming a union to improve the postdoc experience at Columbia and to increase our voice as researchers locally and nationally

Here is their"Why" a PostDoc Union?:

FAQ:Why are postdoctoral researchers forming a union?

We are forming a union because we believe that it is time for postdocs and researchers to advocate for ourselves collectively and on equal footing with the Columbia administration, particularly in an increasingly uncertain political and economic environment. We want to bargain and enforce our own terms and conditions of employment like the tens of thousands of graduate employees and postdocs across the country have done. Similarly we want a stronger voice in key policy decisions made outside the University but that affect us as researchers: federal funding for scientific research; compensation standards, such as the new overtime rules passed in 2016 by the US Department of Labor; and federal rules affecting immigrant and guest workers.

By joining with unionized academic workers nationwide we hope to make changes that will create more positive work environments for future postdocs and improve career pathways for future scientists in the US and beyond.

https://columbiapostdocunion.org/

Grduate Students Unionization and the Universities legal tactics?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sun, 4 Feb 2018 18:50:00 -0500

Feb4, 2018: Latest News about Graduate Students Unionization:
AP news today published a report about graduate students unionization movement, it seems some of the Universities are trying to stifle the union efforts and not listening to the graduate students, despite the graduate student's gone through labor board approvals, after a labor board approved voting results and more. Instead of negotiating with unionized graduate students, the Universities reportedly finding some legal tactics to fight and are going to court?...So what?, Graduate Student's must realize that this is a tough area that most universities will resist and put up a fight, however what you are doing is for a good cause so never give up, despite this bad news I hope graduate student's will triumph!.

The fact is: Not all universities Oppose Graduate Students unionization: Although there are couple of Universities that filed suit to reverse the labor board rulings on graduate students union efforts. The labor board recognized and approved the reality that Graduate Student's have the right to unionize, approved their election, election results for further negotiations but some universities do not like this policy and fighting to reverse it, interestingly not all Universities are against the Graduate Student's union......here is the quote from AP News that is more interesting than those who oppose unionization:

Other universities, including American University in Washington, D.C., and Tufts and Brandeis in the Boston area, have agreed to negotiate with newly unionized students.\

Feb 4, 11:08 AM EST

Trump era throws wrench into grad students' hopes for unions

By KAREN MATTHEWS

Associated PresS

NEW YORK (AP) -- Graduate teaching assistants at private universities had high hopes 18 months ago when a federal labor board ruled that they had a right to collective bargaining, but after the election of President Donald Trump, some schools are taking another shot at halting the burgeoning unionization movement.
Columbia University announced in a university-wide email Tuesday that the school wouldn't bargain with the graduate students who voted more than 2 to 1 for union representation, and would instead appeal to a federal court. Yale and Boston College, among others, have also filed legal appeals, rather than begin negotiating with newly unionized students.

News Link: Click Here

Univerisity of Washington PostDocs Forming Union- Latest University PostDocs to Unionize!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sun, 8 Oct 2017 01:27:00 -0400

University of Washington, yet another top notch higher education/research institute known for an impressive history and record setting, right now they claim to be ranked as the #4th top Institution in America.
And that is very impressive, except for the doctorate degree holders (PostDocs or PostDoctoral Fellows) who work and live around the WU would like to see improvements in their working conditions, salaries, benefits and a better equitable treatment along with a Voice to be heard, and they realized they cannot have a voice without a organized structure for them, that is where "PostDoc"Unionization comes into picture.

The UW PostDocs already claimed to have majority support to form PostDoc Union, and they are going conduct an election, but a precursor to legitimize their unity is to get the approval of local labor boards to conduct election, since they got majority support among PostDocs at UW, they sure can win the election and on their way to form Union..!

Why UW PostDocs interested in Unionization: Linked

We are UW Postdocs forming a union to improve the Postdoc experience at UW and increase the political voice of researchers locally and nationally.
UW Postdocs make essential contributions to the world-class research conducted at UW, but many of us still struggle to pay high housing and other costs in Seattle, lack secure rights in the workplace, and face increasing uncertainty about our futures given the precarious nature of science funding and unstable regulation of visas and work authorization in the current political climate.

UW PostDocs will be the one of the several University PostDocs seeking to Unionize after the great success at UConn Health Center, University of California and a number of other university and institute's postdocs organized themselves for a better equitable work/life experience, we wish UW postdocs to succeed and empower themselves and make UW a better place.....!.
More news to be updated as and when UW PostDocs make progress in this journey!.

Unionization at Yale?- Graduate Students anticipate Yale to recognize Union...!!!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Wed, 31 May 2017 04:42:00 -0400

Unionization at Yale, that is pretty hard to believe right?, let us first clear the fact that this is graduate student union [not PostDoc Union] along with AFL-CIOs local 33, according to this "Courant" report, the graduate students have been trying to appeal to the Yale University to recognize their union effort for many years and the struggle between them is still ongoing. It has reached a point where both parties must make their final decision and it is now...!! From this Blog, wish them good luck.

The PostDocs at Yale are not yet unionized (some day PostDocs too will Unionize...!!, I am sure they know and watched the unfolding, look no further than your neighbor UCHC at Farmington, the first ever PostDoc union, UCHC has become one of the finest medical/scientific/research facility in America, when the administration understands and support the various stakeholders of the University or Institution, it will become a great place for higher learning and research, it's a wholesome growth and progress after our unionization, everyone is happy including the administration, PostDocs and the Union, hope others will learn from their story).

Courant's Report:

Yale Grad Students Fasting To Win Union Negotiations With School

The graduate students have been trying for years to get Yale to recognize their union, but the university has refused.
Last August, the National Labor Relations Board found that graduate students who assist in teaching and research at private universities are employees and have the right to unionize. Six days later, the Yale organizers filed their petitions to unionize.
In January, the regional office of the NLRB ordered elections, which were held in February. Eight departments voted to unionize including students from the departments of English, geology and geophysics, history, history of art, math and sociology. Only the physics department voted it down.

New Federal Overtime Rules and Fair treatment for PostDocs!!

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Tue, 16 May 2017 18:48:00 -0400

Finally, despite all the odds of science funding cuts and change in politics, policies in DC, Francis S. Collins and Thomas E.Perez's huff blog post sounds petty interesting and timely, it looks like the top scientific leaders of the nation, and scientists from various organizations are working together to make "Postdoc" experience a better part of a scientists life,thereby enhancing a postdocs life. Still long way to go in this goal, but a good direction. Some of the leaders suggested explicit salary increase that would set base salary for Postdoc to be $50,000, that is the start up postdoc salary. Not a bad idea at all, the Unionization already brought up the base salary quite significantly compared to where it was 10 or 15 years ago, and making further improvement to it will go well for the entire scientific community and for the nation to make progress in Scientific and medical field.

Fair Pay for Postdocs: Why We Support New Federal Overtime Rules

By Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D. , Thomas E. Perez

The Department of Labor’s recently announced revisions to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) will make more than 4 million currently exempt U.S. workers eligible for overtime pay, unless their salaries are raised. Among them are an estimated 37,000 to 40,000 junior scientists who have emerged as critical players in modern biomedical research. There has been considerable concern in both the public and private sectors about how this change will affect the United States’ ability to carry out leading edge research in an efficient, cost-effective manner. But as leaders of the nation’s biomedical research and labor agencies, we are confident the transition can be made in a way that does not harm — and actually serves to enrich — the future of our research enterprise.

Political intrusion combined with scarce funding hurts research and medical specialty

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Tue, 16 May 2017 17:02:00 -0400

Young and budding med graduates and surgeons discouraged by entering into "high-risk" speciality like cardiac surgery due to political interference and blaming?

Retired NHS Senior cardiac surgeon Dr.Stephen Westaby is disturbed by the sear amount of political interference in cardiac surgery field in UK, when you combine that with a bad politics with bad press and inundated hospital management, who would choose such specialty?. And, what kind of progress can be made in research and clinical technology....... read more about how "blame is putting off budding surgeons" in this Telegraph column written by Dr.Michael Fitzpatrick

Blame is putting off budding surgeons

Westaby is frustrated by the difficulties of securing funding for research and technological innovation in his specialty, and infuriated by the intrusion of hospital bureaucracy and managerialism into clinical practice. Like many doctors of a certain age, he is exasperated at all the time wasted, "at the age of 68", in drawing up a "personal development plan"

Is the "ongoing PostDocs Crisis"a symptom of Broader problems Plaguing BioMedical Research, Are the PostDocs a Grunt work force of today's Science?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Sun, 5 Oct 2014 21:11:00 -0400

Chart/Illustration/Pic from Boston Globe news-Link

The "plight of PostDocs"has become a major crisis of the Science/biomedical research field, however, where is the crux of the problem lies?. It is the academic structure itself is the basis for this terrible young scientists crisis. While the awareness about impending issue amongst the postdocs, academics and administrators is slowly picking up steam after almost a Decade of our UCONN Health Center Postdocs Unionization, the mainstream media and scientific media broadly ignored this topic. Seems like they are ready to write about it, I am hoping it is time they too come forward and participate, create and raise awareness about the plight of postdocs and that is actually the plight of our todays scientific research field. The following Boston globe "Metro" news piece seems like a step in that direction of mainstream participation.

Gary McDowell, 29 a Biology student reveals the cliff of PostDocs crisis, he quotes that the lab bench work and research for these PostDocs is like a "Grunt Work Force", he and other postdocs hopes this Guttural Hogs condition of postdocs changes sooner than later to avoid burnout and major crisis to the scientific research field.

If there is anything one can learn about the PostDocs issue, it is pretty pathetic and serious...........................Read further into this news piece to know the plights of PostDocs, read further to know what Carolyn has to say about the PostDocs Plight.

Some Quotes from this news piece: Yellow Highlighted

toiling in obscurity in a low-paying scientific apprenticeship that can stretch more than a decade

this is like captured from My Blogs header, but means and sounds what I meant in the header

But in recent years, the postdoc position has become less a stepping stone and more of a holding tank.

How low can you equate these great makers of science and medicine, -Just a Supply vs Demand, that sucks:

Some of the smartest people in Boston are caught up in an all-but-invisible crisis, mired in a biomedical underclass as federal funding for research has leveled off, leaving the supply of well-trained scientists outstripping demand.

The hero of this news piece, Gary, a Biology PostDocs says this "

“There’s this huge labor force here to do the bench work, the grunt work of science. But then there’s nowhere for them to go; this massive pool of postdocs that accumulates and keeps growing.”

about PostDocs, Carolyn writes, is it real or a myth?:

they are both future leaders and the workers who carry out experiments crucial for science to advance.

It is Certainly true and real on the tongue and in books, or perhaps on this news piece, but not real when it comes to rewards or recognition, they are treated like some kind of "extra pair of hands"- a lab or postdoc jargon. It is not real to see the PostDocs treated and respected that way, no not at all, their screams are like Guttural....!! you heard that from Gary...remember?.
Well, as a former PostDoc, an Advocate and the PostDoc Unionization Pioneer, though I moved up a million miles above the PostDoc's stage after two successful and great, productive postdoc positions and a jaunt at the Yale Medical School, I can say what Gary or other postdocs lamented in this news piece about their plight is just an understatement and it is rather dire. I wish that future leaders and experts get their share and recognition, respect in due time, not at the end of their life. The bottom line is this damn academic structure, funding and functioning of scientific research needs "Service and overhaul" without that the plights of postdocs "will never change much to the level of appreciation".

Oh I like these lines so much, this is a much needed step towards some action

The plight of postdocs has become a point of national discussion among senior scientists, as their struggles have come to be seen as symptoms of broader problems plaguing biomedical research. After years of rapid growth, federal funding abruptly leveled off and even contracted over the last decade, leaving a glut of postdocs vying for a limited number of faculty jobs. Paradoxically, as they’ve gotten stuck, the pursuit of research breakthroughs has also become reliant on them as a cheap source of labor for senior scientists.

they do seems like follow a "Well-Worn Pathy?--

Biomedical research training traditionally has followed a well-worn path. After college, people who want to pursue an advanced degree enroll in graduate school. The vast majority of biology graduate students then go on to do one or more postdoc positions, where they continue their training, often well into their 30s.

they are like "invisible people", but their toil and struggle in the lab for more than 40 hours get good funding and promotions for their Supervior and lab chief, but what do these little fellows get?

Their progress is very poorly tracked; the leader of a national report on the state of postdocs has called them “invisible people.” The National Institutes of Health estimates there are somewhere between 37,000 and 68,000 postdocs in the country. Salaries vary, but rarely reflect their level of education. The NIH stipend ranges from $42,000 a year for a starting postdoc, up to $55,272 for a seventh year.

and how long they and how many years they toil to reach for independent research jobs? but yet the majority do not attain that target in real world

Their progress is very poorly tracked; the leader of a national report on the state of postdocs has called them “invisible people.” The National Institutes of Health estimates there are somewhere between 37,000 and 68,000 postdocs in the country. Salaries vary, but rarely reflect their level of education. The NIH stipend ranges from $42,000 a year for a starting postdoc, up to $55,272 for a seventh year.

there is no proper teenable models, not just some but most of them are not....

“Some of the models we see don’t seem tenable in the long run,” Krukenberg said.

sure do the senior scientists, some of them agree with this, but many are oblivious and do not care for PostDocs

Many senior scientists, who may fondly remember their own postdocs days, agree that laboratories have grown too bloated. As the cost of conducting research and the number of institutions doing such work have increased, science has outgrown the traditional model in which trainees are also the worker bees, they say.

game is changed but there is no game changer for postdocs

“The game is changed, and what should be a wonderful time in people’s lives is, in many cases, a time of great, great anxiety and unhappiness.”

I think, Casey has done something good for himself, not worrying about years of his postdoc field and experience, he found an alternative way to prosper and progress
If there is one problem amongst PostDocs, is this one. Are they brain dead or what to go caught up with this cobbled web of Postdoctoring?, why not change your aims, goals and directions, why not think out of the box, why not use your creativity for something else in this world. Instead of that futile "faculty" job or academic career?. I wish PostDocs come out of their grunt work force and use their talents. Yes, the academy is broken and useless to reform, there is no one to listen to you, look at the scientific funding, some damn representatives may fund millions and millions of dollars for worthless areas in America but they do not want to provide even basic amount of funding used to be allocated for scientific research, so what is the use in screaming, just find an alternative and use your talents. Here is a guy who did exactly that....

Casey Ydenberg’s path illustrates how easy it is to follow a dream and find oneself locked in a career track without a destination.

Ydenberg, 33, has an impressive resume: he earned a PhD at Princeton, then went for a postdoc at Brandeis. This summer, a decade into his training, he realized that not only were the odds of getting a faculty job against him, but he didn’t think he really wanted one. He felt burnt out.

Today, Ydenberg is pursuing a job that gives him real joy, building websites. He isn’t bitter; he cherishes his memories of graduate school. But he uses none of his formal training and thinks there should be more conversations, earlier, about future careers so that people don’t spend as long honing research skills that may not prove relevant.

For Postdocs plight to change, not only reformation and changes are needed immediately, but also the postdocs instead of being caught in the vicious cycle, must think out of the box and out of the routine or out of the ordinary, do not suck into this mundane daily routines of lab work.

Glut of postdoc researchers stirs quiet crisis in science By Carolyn Y. Johnson

| Globe Staff October 05, 2014

“It’s sunk in that it’s by no means guaranteed — for anyone, really — that an academic position is possible,” said Gary McDowell, 29, a biologist doing his second postdoc at Tufts University who hopes to set up his own lab in a few years. “There’s this huge labor force here to do the bench work, the grunt work of science. But then there’s nowhere for them to go; this massive pool of postdocs that accumulates and keeps growing.”

PostDocs in the UK: Do the University employed PostDocs have better "Output" than others, study says Yes.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Wed, 6 Aug 2014 17:49:00 -0400

Univresity PostDocs vs PostDocs in other Places (like industry, institutions and pvt labs?)

In this interesting "Exploratory" research study, carried out by PLOS One, those postdocs working in the university set up seems to have more publications or demonstrated a better out put compared to those who employed in industry or pvt labs or institutions etc., in the academic world the out put of an individual (postdoc or faculty or graduate) is mostly measured by how many papers one can publish. It is so important for PostDocs than a graduate or for that matter even for a faculty. As the faculties enjoy University job and its advantages, the PostDocs are like asylum seekers inside a faculties lab to train themselves for the future. While Faculties too must work hard and get papers in order to survive and get promotions and better salaries, it is the PostDoc who is in desperate need of papers and more papers published, and interestingly that is a good news for the faculty as they reap the benefits of having a bright and productive PostDocs in their lab increase the faculties promotion and prospects better than not having one. In simple words "The faculty gets best Bangs for their bucks hiring productive PostDocs". Anyways, this study is not about graduates or faculties, but about PostDocs who are in the university setup seems to have more output, better output than postdocs in other places. For PostDocs Paper Publications also translates better chances for future jobs, grants and tenure. The Plos One results are not surprising to me, coming from University background and considering how many paper I published quite successfully during my University PostDoc days.

The survey of about 200 participants though a small number, but it is pretty reflective of the field, the study also found that PostDocs struggle about their future?;

Here is the Original Article and review:

Research Article

Postdoctoral Researchers in the UK: A Snapshot at Factors Affecting Their Research Output

Fatima M. Felisberti mail, Rebecca Sear

Abstract
Postdoctoral training is a typical step in the course of an academic career, but very little is known about postdoctoral researchers (PDRs) working in the UK. This study used an online survey to explore, for the first time, relevant environmental factors which may be linked to the research output of PDRs in terms of the number of peer-reviewed articles per year of PDR employment. The findings showed reliable links between the research output and research institutions, time spent as PDR, and parental education, whereas no clear links were observed between PDRs' output and research area, nationality, gender, number of siblings, or work environment. PDRs based in universities tended to publish, on average, more than the ones based in research centres. PDRs with children tended to stay longer in postdoctoral employment than PDRs without children. Moreover, research output tended to be higher in PDRs with fathers educated at secondary or higher level. The work environment did not affect output directly, but about 1/5 of PDRs were not satisfied with their job or institutional support and about 2/3 of them perceived their job prospects as “difficult”. The results from this exploratory study raise important questions, which need to be addressed in large-scale studies in order to understand (and monitor) how PDRs' family and work environment interact with their research output—an essential step given the crucial role of PDRs in research and development in the country.

also other news quotes:

Research output higher among postdocs in universities

1 May 2014 | By Holly Else

Plos One study also reveals that parenthood has little impact on publishing productivity

Postdoctoral researchers based in universities publish more on average than those based in research centres, according to new research.
The study, published in Plos One, also found that postdoctoral researchers with children tend to have the same research output as those without children.
And the survey of around 200 postdoctoral researchers revealed that two-thirds believe that their job prospects are “difficult”.

Open Access to Scientific Journals without Subscription, Postdocs fight to get Open access free for all and that I call a good activism...

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 18:12:00 -0400

Good work dear postdocs, keep up, any publicly funded research data, materials and articles must be freely available to all, there is no question about it..........subscription

Postdoc brings open access issue to the table

By Anne Ju, Robert Barker/University Photography

Jimmy O'Dea helped start a discussion at Cornell about an open-access policy.

Cornell scientists report research discoveries almost every day, but to the nonacademic world, clicking on a link to a published paper usually leads to a pay wall, barring access without a journal subscription.
Many feel that such research – often paid for at least in part by public money – should be freely available to all inquiring minds, not just paid subscribers. Among them is Cornell postdoctoral research associate Jimmy O’Dea.

Guardian Blog article on PostDoc Jobs in UK: Academic Jobs are scarce but we're Optimistic??...Really?.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 18:03:00 -0400

The Reader, visitors and PostDocs who is going to read this Blog article of the guardian must read some of the PostDocs comments, that is the real indication of what is the job trend, not the news as such....Read the comments...

Young Scientists and their job prospect in UK, though this Guardian News paints a positive picture, when I browsed through the comments made by many PhD holders who are looking for jobs past several months and some of the years, its kind of negative. Not sure about the plights of postdocs looking for jobs in USA, as I left the academy long time ago... it is time someone here in US review the job prospective of newly awarded PhDs or postdocs looking for jobs....might be of use to the graduates who are enrolled in PhD degrees and to those who are continue to do their one to five postdocs?.

Postdoc diaries: academic jobs are scarce but we're optimistic

By Mel Rohse and Dean D'Souza

Guardian Professional, Wednesday 18 June 2014 05.17 EDT

For six months, we've followed PhD graduates Mel and Dean in their hunt for a job. The final instalment sees them feeling positive about the future

Remember childhood? Job-hunting seemed to be so much easier back then. I recall that I didn't even want my first few jobs. One day, my uncle told me that I needed "toughening up". So he gave me a job in construction that was actually more boring (eg mixing cement) than physically demanding.
For my second job, my friend convinced me to apply for work in silver service waiting with him. We learnt some valuable life lessons ("food is served from the right-hand side of the guest"), but we spent all our meagre wages on the fuel we needed to get us to work and back. (In frustration, we later set up our own company, so we could work on the things that we felt were important and would actually excite us.)

Academics take on the $400,000 salary for Administrators in Universities and institutions?, will the Canadian's campaign stir the money Pot in USA too?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 19 Jun 2014 05:06:00 -0400

For decades or as long as the academic system established, there was no scrutiny or challenge to the amount of salary paid to the so called Administrators, Deans, Vice-Chancellors etc, for the first time, a Canada based Academics facebook joke took a turn into a Campaigning, the Edmonton based group of academics are asking why is that a $400,000 (almost half a million dollar salary is given to an administrator in the university but the academics get paid 5 to 10 times lower salary than an administrator, yikes, is this the next union busting activism to happen after PostDoc Union?....

Academics Protest High Salaries of University Administrators

Tongue-in-cheek campaign highlights income disparity, program cuts
EDMONTON—After the job of president at the University of Alberta was advertised with a starting salary of $400,000, Kathleen Cawsey joked on Facebook with a fellow academic that they should jointly apply for the position and split the pay, making the point that they would both be better paid than they are currently.
A few other academic friends joined the conversation, and Cawsey, an associate professor of English at Dalhousie University, decided to get serious with the idea.
The joke then became a tongue-in-cheek campaign to apply in groups of four for the well-paid position. U of A’s current president is stepping down at the end of the month.
“I think we got 56 people who sent in applications in groups of four,” says Cawsey.

Woman PostDocs- what is their plight in Academy and Research?.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 8 May 2014 14:58:00 -0400

Inside Higher Eds recent Piece on Woman PostDocs:

PostDocs in general are not well paid that is the universal truth
why "PostDoc" Unions are upraising but there are issues within
PostDoc issues, that is the "Woman in PostDoc" or woman doing
PostDocs, what is their plight?. Looks like the following
piece written by Graduate Student Jennifer Bussell from
Rockefeller University discusses about that critical issue.

Postdoc Pay: A Women's Issue

June 5, 2013

By

Jennifer Bussell

The message is loud, clear, and has reached cultural saturation: women are underrepresented at the top of highly competitive professions because they cannot reconcile the amount of time needed for such careers with the time they want to spend raising children. Just acknowledging this point has been a recent watershed moment for feminism, triggered by Anne-Marie Slaughter’s controversial Atlantic article and the release of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In. Slaughter and Sandberg offer different views on exactly what’s holding women back, but both agree that much of it has to do with raising children. And, of course, each woman and critic has proposed an array of internal and structural changes to help improve work-life balance for women in highly competitive fields.

Jakarta: Lack of Enough PhDs Among the Indonesians?

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 20:47:00 -0400

Concerned with the lack of enough PhDs in the country, the Education and Culture Ministry encourages the nations researchers and students to pursue more PhDs. What the Indonesian Education and Culture ministry must do is to bring foreign PhDs to train the youngsters and students to embrace higher education leading to PhDs. You need a culture a better academic culture, better infrastructure and promote interests.

University World News:

INDONESIA

Ministry needs more researchers with PhDs

07 March 2014 Issue No:310

Original Full News:-

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Wed, March 05 2014, 5:15 AM

The Education and Culture Ministry has encouraged the country’s researchers to get doctoral degrees as part of its efforts to improve the quality of higher education.

“We need to increase research in all sectors so that we can improve our education system and the quality of our human resources. We are willing to work together with anyone to achieve this goal [...],” the Education and Culture Minister, Muhammad Nuh, said at a Global Education Dialogue conference in Central Jakarta, on Monday.

The conference, organized by the British Council, aimed to promote collaboration between universities and research institutions in the UK, Australia and Indonesia.

PostDoc Unions:- How do Science Magazine and Nature Publications Look at it?.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 6 Mar 2014 20:32:00 -0500

Nature Publications Group (NPG) headquartered in London and The Science Magazine (AAA) based in Washington DC are the two leading science publishing groups quite well read and world wide known for their reputation to be the number one science publishers. But, it is ironic to notice that they have been on the other side of the fence with respect to PostDoc issues, quite touchy and distanced themselves to support postdoc organizing themselves, rather they openly opposed any such organizations for postdocs except of their own vested interest NPA like organizations. From the day one Uconn Health Center (UCHC) PostDocs began to fight for their own voice to be heard by the management and the policy makers, most scientific groups and institutions kept their distance with organizing postdocs...! Why?..

.................both these scientific magazines been utterly negative about Unionization of PostDocs. If any of the readers, visitors and advocates have any idea and thoughts on why, I invite you to share it, there are several obvious reasons one can come up with and share here.

They continued their anti-postdoc attitudes in a very subtle manner so that the innocent or naive postdocs and young scientists around the world would not notice their "anti" stand. So that they can keep the naive postdocs in their loop without loosing postdoc readership of these magazines. The subtlety lies in their method of writing about postdocs, what they did is to create two groups of journalists insider their writers roster, one group will write in a postdoc union positive tone, and the other journalists will bash it and try to put the Union effort into trash, eventually they gave up once Unionization's emerged at Uconn........ they found a new love for postdocs by allocating more space and time after the Uconn Health Center's PostDoc unionization, the success of postdocs organization perhaps taught them a lesson, because postdocs put together far more powerful effort than these magazines ever thought?, and thereby the spread of postdoc unions led to some changes in their attitude towards writing about postdocs plight?.

The very mechanisms and the way these two science publishers approached this postdoc issues are pretty perplexing to someone who knows how things work at Nature and Science Magazine. I will provide some instances later, but after bashing the postdoc union for a long time (number of years?), both Nature and Science magazines slowly waking up and are coming to a realization now that it is too late to keep chanting the anti postdoc union mantra but move on writing "As IT IS" about postdoc issues. The following nature article is simply the most obvious display of the change of mind of Natures writers and editors, but science has done it's own part by letting Beryl write freely on PostDocs union without any constrain......!?. Time does bring changes to even the most notorious mindsets!................as I wrote earlier, no one can stop the Postdoc unionization spreading all over the world let alone in US...Bravo Uconn Health Center PostDocs!.

The Spread of "PostDocs Unions"
..............this is the latest news about postdoc penned by Virginia Gewin, I never heard of this name associated with postdoc issues but it is interesting to note how a genuine story can be told to the world in their narrowed outlook at times with their own little interpretation of what is happening in the world of PostDocs. This is a news publication stemmed from one of the Nature publications, NatureJobs.com, a division of nature publishing group (NPG). Nature for some reason did not like PostDocs getting unionized, oh well, why would they and most corporations squirm at the thought of unions?

If you thought that was interesting to know, it gets even more interesting if you know how Science magazine and Alfred P.Sloan Foundation (supposed to have GM connections, they claim in their "about us" page that it is independent and no formal relationship with the General Motors Corporation, well yea, we believe it!!?) together put their heavy hands to create and support to a looser organization known as "National Postdoctoral Association". Though, there might have been some genuine reasons to create a body for PostDocs that represent all the US PostDocs, NPA was one of the least influential of such organization I ever seen, it is like for the heck of it they made an org? that has no vision or any record of helping postdocs, because it was a failure from it's very inception!.

When I was attending their very first meetings during 2003 (infact, the NPA gave me a travel fund to attend and present my views as a member of the PostDoc Union organizers from Uconn Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut. I was not sure about what their stand, and thought that they might be genuine supporter of postdocs cause, thought they are open minded and will have the right perspective about PostDoc Unions. What I noticed during the conference that there was not much interests among organizers and sponsors of this conference about postdoc Unions.The NPA folks at that time (2003) about 90% of them opposed the idea of postdoc union, or the union approach to resolve postdoc issues?. Their argument was an association like NPA will spearhead and fix issues without conflicts with PIs or Universities, whereas unions cannot?. I had attended this conference against my own colleagues advice not to participate, I kept a open mind to explore what is that NPA and the backers upto?. My colleagues who are fighting with the university for salaries, benefits and betterment of postdocs at UCONN thought that I might be sucked into the anti union gang and taken over by the NPA that I might leave the postdoc unionization efforts, they did not realize that I can't be swayed away by these organizations and such people!!, I came out of NPA with clear and strong views that Unionization is the best option for Postdocs and NPA is anti union.

They created this organization to fight the postdoc unions and made their effort to somehow stunt the growth beginning by opposing the first Postdoc union (ours?) and in that process NPA miserably failed. big upset for them?.

To be cont'd,,,,,,,,,,,,,,More to come....!!!

University of Toronoto PostDocs win Unionization Drive- Canada PostDocs Unionize.

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 6 Mar 2014 20:09:00 -0500

CAUT & ACPPU Bulletin: Canada

Interesting news from our neighbors, the Canadian Postdocs are fighting for unionization, UofT is probably one of the first to win labor board certification and forming union, (I might be posting it bit later than the news release, nevertheless it is a good news and to be shared).

Postdocs at Toronto win unionization drive

Postdoctoral scholars at the University of Toronto have been certified as a trade union by the Ontario Labour Relations Board, after a four-year organizing campaign. In the representation vote held in April, 73 per cent of postdocs voted in favour of unionization.

Postdocs whose salaries are paid by the UofT will be represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3902, and will become members of CAUT through that affiliation. The new bargaining unit will comprise approximately 600 postdocs, and will be the largest unionized group of postdocs in Canada.

Organizing efforts started in February 2009, when CUPE 3902 launched a drive to certify all postdocs at the university. An application was submitted to the OLRB five months later but the university challenged the application, arguing that postdocs were not employees and consequently not eligible for union representation. Although a vote was held, ballots were segregated and sealed while the parties litigated the challenge.
Read the full Article at the above bulletin Link
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
University of Toronto News:Postdoctoral Fellows vote for trade union certification
June 4, 2013To: PDAD&C; Professional & Managerial Staff From: Angela Hildyard, Vice-President, Human Resources & Equity
Re: Postdoctoral Fellows vote for trade union certification
On April 26, 2013, Postdoctoral Fellows voted on whether they wished to proceed with a CUPE application for trade union certification. Yesterday afternoon, the ballot boxes were opened and the votes tallied. The results were in favour of trade union certification.
CUPE will represent a set of the Postdoctoral Fellows, and we await documentation from the Labour Relations Board confirming the membership of this group.
Link: http://www.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/about-hr-equity/news/2013news/pfvftuc.htm
----------------------------------------------------------------

So what is going on with Adjunct Faculty, is the working Condition deteriorating?..

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 18:39:00 -0400

FACE Talk

Friday, 24 August 2012

Barbara McKenna

New report blasts working conditions of adjunct faculty

The working conditions of U.S. adjunct and contingent faculty—and, by association, the learning conditions of American college students—came under fire in a report issued Aug. 23 by the Center for the Future of Higher Education. The report, based on a 2011 survey of 500 adjunct faculty, finds two significant issues for those who make up the majority of the higher education workforce. Many are hired "just in time" to teach courses that are to begin three or fewer weeks after faculty are notified, and they have limited access to pedagogical resources.

For example, two-thirds of those responding to the survey reported receiving three weeks' notice or less to prepare for their classes. Almost all (94 percent) of survey respondents received no departmental or institutional campus orientation. In terms of sheer logistical support, respondents reported inadequate access to such basic materials as copying services, library privileges, office space, sample syllabuses and curriculum guidelines.

News Link: http://www.aftface.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=41
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After the above blog post, some new articles appeared elsewhere:

Can Unions Save Adjuncts?

326 Jan 6, 2014 6:15 PM ET

By Megan McArdle

Last week, I wrote that collectively, faculty need to deal with the terrible market for professorships by producing fewer potential professors: admitting a lot fewer students to graduate school. Graduate school doesn’t exploit students the way that, say, a third-tier law school program does -- the students are paid, not paying vast sums for degrees they can’t use. But by wildly overproducing graduate students, academia is doing something just as bad, in a different way: encouraging overoptimistic (OK, maybe arrogant) kids to spend their formative years in the labor market pursuing jobs they aren’t so likely to get, then hiring the excess students as essentially casual labor at low wages.

Postdocs Cartoon by VADLO, Pretty hilarious but depicts real life complexities of postdocs

drmuni@yahoo.com (drmuni) — Mon, 7 Jan 2013 21:27:00 -0500