In early July, the Brown Postdoc Labor Organization reached a second yearlong interim agreement with Brown to raise postdoctoral employees’ salaries in accordance with the National Institutes of Health’s recommended minimums. The agreement comes after over a year of bargaining in which the two parties reached a number of tentative agreements but failed to ratify a long-term contract.
In a July 7 Today@Brown announcement, Provost Francis Doyle and Deputy Provost Janet Blume wrote that the interim agreement “reflects the University’s continued commitment to good-faith negotiations and outlines an updated compensation structure for eligible postdoctoral employees while bargaining continues.”
Negotiations for BPLO’s first long-term contract began in May 2024, four months after Brown recognized the union. In June 2024, the two parties reached their first yearlong interim agreement, which raised salaries to meet the NIH’s recommendations at the time.
Both parties hoped to finalize a long-term contract by the time the first interim agreement was set to expire at the end of last month. But while tentative agreements have been reached on 18 provisions, Brown and BPLO have yet to agree on key issues such as compensation, childcare subsidies and healthcare benefits.
The second yearlong interim agreement — announced earlier this month, following the expiration of its predecessor — similarly raises the salaries of all postdoctoral research associates and fellows compensated by Brown to meet the NIH’s new recommendations, which were updated in May. Across all experience levels, salaries were increased by around $1,300, effective July 1.
Under the new agreement, Deans’ Faculty Fellows — who are hired by the University to teach one course for one semester — will also now be paid a stipend of just over $20,000, marking an increase of around $1,000.
The new agreement, unlike the previous interim salary agreement, also clarifies that postdocs can be compensated at levels beyond the salaries set by the University. “For this new agreement, we wanted to make sure that it was very clearly written that those raises could happen and should not be barred,” BPLO Bargaining Chair Caroline Keroack told The Herald.
At a March 12 bargaining session with the University, union representatives staged a walkout, alleging that Brown had not yet responded to the union’s July 2024 proposal seeking to increase base salaries by at least 47%.
“We’ve made significant progress on many fronts, and at no time did Brown refuse to bargain or walk out of a session,” University Spokesperson Brian Clark wrote in an email to The Herald.
“Brown representatives proactively scheduled negotiation sessions and came to each session prepared with counterproposals and/or points of discussion on BPLO’s proposals — even as this was often not reciprocated by the union, which has been a factor in the length of bargaining,” Clark added.
But for Keroack, the lack of progress towards a long-term contract now stems from what she described as “compensation proposals that are, frankly, rather offensive.” Keroack pointed to peer universities like Princeton, which provide more substantial child care subsidies.
“Brown’s proposals are competitive in comparison to compensation, benefits and working conditions provided to other employees at Brown and to postdocs at other institutions,” Clark noted. “We remain committed to providing competitive, equitable compensation, and we’ll continue to work through these points.”
Keroack said the union has requested the assistance of a federal mediator to make progress on a final contract, arguing that if the University is “truly unwilling to budge on healthcare or childcare, there needs to be movement on salary to compensate in those areas.”
“We welcome the introduction of a mediator” as a “necessary step,” Clark wrote, adding that the two parties “remain far apart on compensation-related proposals, even as we all stand committed to coming to an agreement as quickly as possible.”
The new interim agreement will expire on June 30, 2026 unless a long-term contract is reached before then.
Emily Feil is a senior staff writer covering staff and student labor. She is a freshman from Long Beach, NY and plans to study economics and English. In her free time, she can be found watching bad TV and reading good books.
