About Us

We are Mount Sinai student workers forming a union to improve the student worker experience at Mount Sinai and to increase our voice as student workers locally and nationally.

Student workers make essential contributions to the world-class research conducted at Mount Sinai, but many of us still struggle to pay high housing and other costs in New York City, 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 recent years.

We join a growing national movement of academic workers forming unions with the UAW to improve our lives and our work. UAW graduate student and other academic workers across the country have made a difference advocating for science research funding, fair visa and immigration policies, and better working conditions in all academic institutions.

We have already seen the power of organized student workers at major research institutions to dramatically improve their working conditions through unionization with United Auto Workers, including right here in NYC with student workers at at Columbia University and NYU, and at other major research institutions like the University of California, University of Washington, and elsewhere.

Qixiu Fu

Neuroscience, PhD Year 2

Graduate trainees are not just students, we are essential workers in the science community. As an international student, the extra cost and burden of visas often limit our fellowship and conference access. Thus, by joining with other international student workers at Mount Sinai and across the country as part of the UAW, we can enhance the resources and support we need in order to accomplish our academic goals. Forming a union will give us the power to improve our daily experiences. Unionizing is the first step to let our voice be heard.

Bremy Alburquerque

GGS, PhD Year 5

Student workers at Sinai and at other research institutions often face obstacles related to their lab environments, workload, and untransparent administrative decisions. Unfortunately, we often decide to keep working through those conditions alone instead of seeking help from our colleagues who are struggling with the same issues. By forming a union, we can come together and have more power to address those issues collectively for current and future students in the program.

Alissa Valentine

Neuroscience, PhD Year 2

I believe forming a strong union is integral to build a more equitable, healthy, and sustainable environment for student workers. In particular, I am passionate about improving our health insurance benefits, coverage, and copays. The Sinai-sponsored medical coverage doesn’t do enough for students with chronic health issues requiring frequent, ongoing medical care ranging from mental health to physical therapy. Living in NYC on a PhD stipend is already precarious enough, and copays quickly build up. Furthermore, Student Trainee and Mental Health (STMH) can leave students waiting for weeks to obtain care. It is essential to our basic well-being that these issues are addressed, and with collective bargaining we would have the opportunity to bargain as equals with Sinai over these issues.

Keino Hutchinson

Pharmacology and Therapeutics Discovery, PhD Year 4

I am a graduate student worker in Pharmacological Sciences, where I use various computational tools to study structure-based drug design. Changes in health care coverage, improving faculty and student diversity and, fair compensation for students who participate in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, are examples of issues in which students have minimal say. I support a union of student workers at Mount Sinai to increase our power, create a workplace with greater equity and support for students from under-represented backgrounds, and bargain collectively for improved health insurance and benefits. With the formation of a union, we can better negotiate for improved health benefits and advocate for a larger say in policies that affect our quality of life as students. A union would be a powerful step towards having a more inclusive and diverse research environment and improved quality of life for student workers.

Aleta Murphy

Neuroscience, PhD Year 2

When graduate students first move to New York, it can take over a month for the first paycheck to be processed. Yet students still have to manage the cost of moving and living in an expensive city. Graduate students are given limited affordable housing options, even though not all work in labs near Aron Hall. Such financial obstacles put undue pressure on current graduate students, and can deter potential applicants. It’s important for graduate students to unionize so we can have more power to voice our needs.

Philip Hwang

Neuroscience, PhD Year 5

From our healthcare coverage to our rent, a lot of our livelihoods rest on the good grace of our institution, putting graduate students in one of the most vulnerable positions. Our healthcare policies can change, and our rent can drastically increase with little to no warning. Unionizing will allow us to improve our working conditions and establish necessary protections.

Aum Patel

Microbiology, MD/PhD

Many graduate students feel trapped in Aron Hall given our stipends and the rental market and cost of living in New York. Sinai housing outside of Aron Hall is inaccessible and the application process is opaque. For those of us who are MD/PhD, we will be at Sinai for years completing both degrees, and deserve to have broader and more accessible options for housing. I support a graduate student union so that we can have a voice to negotiate equitable working conditions for graduate student workers at Sinai.

Hannah Young

GGS, PhD Year 5

Collective action can give us a seat at the table to negotiate better working conditions and demand for our voices to be heard. We spend too much of our time worrying about finances, health care, and navigating unsupportive workspaces, at the expense of student well-being. Resilience workshops and sporadic access to mental health care can only improve mental well-being so much without the power to advocate for institutional change. I strongly support joining the growing wave of academic student workers forming unions all across the country to help us achieve this.

Samuel Allen

Neuroscience, MD/PhD Year 4

I support forming a graduate student worker union to have a say in the policies that affect us directly. As grad students, our work, stipends, and housing are all outside of our control and with the rapidly increasing cost of living and rent fluctuations in New York City, graduate students cannot afford to start families or even look for off campus housing. Current couples’ housing has an outrageously long waitlist and is not guaranteed. Having to choose to put aside our partners and families for years is devastating. With a union, we can have more negotiating power to change these policies.

Gregory Zilberg

Neuroscience, PhD Year 5

While many students are happy with their mentorship situations, myself included, there are plenty who find themselves being put through the wringer by mentors who use their power to extract more and more work at the cost of both sanity and scientific productivity. In the past, Sinai has made changes to policies haphazardly in ways that do not fully protect students. If we don’t come together in collective solidarity to support our classmates being abused by callous professors ruling their respective fiefdoms, this cycle will continue without effective methods of recourse to address our specific issues. Together we’re stronger than we are alone.I strongly support the unionization of student workers at Sinai.

Sarah Colbert

GGS, PhD Year 1

Under current conditions, student workers have to worry about the security and quality of our housing, whether our stipend is keeping up with the cost of living in NYC, and if our health insurance is adequate. I chose to pursue a PhD at Mount Sinai to pursue high quality, impactful research with the potential to make a difference. Unionization would give us the power to build an environment which allows us to continue producing meaningful research, but with improved quality of life.

O’Jay Stewart

Immunology, MD/PhD Year 4

Being a parent is a wonderful experience, but I should not have to choose between being a great parent and a great student. I support forming a union so that we can collectively reduce the burden of childcare and housing costs for Sinai student workers. This could include negotiating for more support like subsidized childcare and additional backup care.

Zach Zeisler

Neuroscience, PhD Year 4

None of our current benefits are guaranteed without a strong contract that we can enforce through a neutral grievance procedure. I support forming Sinai Student Workers-UAW so we can guarantee pay increases, healthcare support, and other necessary provisions from administration. Bargaining on equal terms with the Sinai administration is the best way to ensure that our needs are met both now and going forward.

Aster Perkins

Neuroscience, PhD Year 5

I am a PhD graduate worker in neuroscience, studying the neural correlates of decision-making in the orbitofrontal cortex. Unionization is important for graduate workers to prevent institutions from making unilateral changes to our working conditions. As we’ve seen in the past few decades, real wages have remained stagnant while cost of living and inflation have risen dramatically, and institutions have no incentive to give us what we need to live unless we demand it. A union provides a vehicle to hold the university accountable to us, the workers that it needs to function.

Winston Cuddleston

GGS, PhD Year 3

Research institutions devalue graduate student workers, despite relying critically on our labor and intellectual contributions. At the same time, many student workers face adverse working environments that can prevent us from reaching our full potential as scientists. Through collective bargaining, we can negotiate stronger protections against discrimination and salary and benefits which equitably support the living expenses of married/partnered students, advocate for enforceable measures and trainings to prevent abusive situations from developing in labs, and ultimately promote a safe, inclusive, and accessible environment for all student workers at Mount Sinai.

Megan Fredericks

Neuroscience, PhD Year 6

Sinai makes unilateral decisions regarding healthcare or housing that can affect our privacy and autonomy, and which they are not currently required to make us aware of in advance, including doing maintenance work in our apartments without prior permission from the owner and often without their knowledge. I support forming a union for graduate students at Mount Sinai to give us more of a say in decisions that impact our daily lives, and to provide us with the power to negotiate.

Joe Simon

Neuroscience, PhD Year 6

I support student worker unionization because we deserve to be represented as equals when bargaining with administrative officials for an equitable work environment and fair compensation. Currently, our compensation limits our ability to choose where we live. This is inequitable, especially for families and children. Forming a union would allow us to collectively bargain with the administration for fair compensation for the time and effort student workers dedicate to their work.

Tri Dong

Neuroscience, PhD Year 2

More than just being a trainee, our work contributes significantly to the success of the graduate school and scientific advances. However, our current pay, benefits, and working conditions do not reflect the hard work students have put into building a scientific community and advancing science. Having observed the graduate school’s resistance to providing sufficient support for graduate students during and after the pandemic, I believe unionization would be an important step to strengthen student workers’ voices and allow us to bargain collectively for better pay, working conditions, and resources.

Sarah Williams

Neuroscience, PhD Year 3

I believe a grad student union is an amazing opportunity to give power and a voice to workers who are too often overworked and underpaid. All of us came to Sinai to learn as much as possible and develop into independent scientists, but constant stress about finances or housing severely detracts from our potential for growth, particularly for those of us with families or added burdens like sending money back home or previous debt. I support unionizing for the stable and supportive work environment we all deserve, and for building power to address any unforeseen circumstances that arise in the future.

Carina Seah

GGS, MD/PhD Year 4

I’m supportive of a graduate student union so we can have a say in decisions about our stipends, housing, and other working conditions. While Sinai states that they guarantee housing for all students, I was denied couple’s housing as a student with a domestic partner. With a union, we would have more negotiating power to protect student workers and our families from the fluctuating rental market in New York City, with unpredictability that we cannot afford on a graduate student stipend.

Pamela del Valle

Neuroscience, PhD Year 5

A student worker union is essential to winning back our power as workers. At Sinai, improving our housing options, reducing the cost of our dental and vision insurance, and increasing our wages are just a few examples of what we could negotiate and improve. By joining with tens of thousands of other UAW academic workers across the United States, we can more effectively pressure our government to prioritize funding scientific work more than wars. Organizing towards an anti-imperialist model of scientific research can help us reconnect with our autonomy, spirit, and, importantly, each other.

Jesse Mangold

Microbiology, MD/PhD Year 3

Our current working environments do not adequately support student health and wellness. For example, all students should have easy access to filtered drinking water and designated spaces to eat lunch on their floor. These basic resources are not present in all training facilities at Mount Sinai and vary depending on floor and building.It is common to see students and staff eating lunch while standing in the hallway because of safety concerns with the student room nearby. It should not be this hard to find drinking water and comfortable, convenient spaces to eat lunch with colleagues. I support organizing a graduate student union because I would like students to have direct representation in the decision-making process on issues that impact our health and wellness.