After over a year of bargaining, USC released its “last, best and final proposal” to USC Researchers and Fellows United, the union representing many postdoctoral scholars, Sept. 10. Starting last August, the postdoc union has put forward demands for salary raises, improved healthcare and many other benefits. 

In a statement to the Daily Trojan, the University wrote that it has been engaged in “good faith” negotiations for over a year and had reached many agreements with the postdoctoral union over the course of 21 meetings.  

“The university has proposed a fair economic offer aligned with the university’s current operational needs and situation. We hope the postdocs recognize the tremendous progress that has been achieved and we are able to finalize this agreement soon,” the statement read.

A last, best and final offer is a bargaining tactic used whenever negotiations reach a bargain impasse, which the National Labor Relations Board defines as a point in which further negotiations would not be useful. 

In an Instagram post from Sept. 12, URFU wrote that a lack of salary increases, improved healthcare or childcare benefits or financial support for international postdocs in USC’s offer are examples of USC’s disrespect to workers. 

“USC claims to respect its workers, but their actions tell a different story,” the post read. 

USC’s final proposal was largely the same as the comprehensive agreement proposal released on Aug. 13. One new addition was that the URFU and the University will meet once a year upon written request to discuss questions pertaining to payroll deductions. 

The accompanying graphic listed “no enforceable protections from discrimination or harassment” as one of URFU’s grievances with USC’s final proposal.

USC’s proposal states the Office of Civil Rights will investigate all complaints and forward a grievance and arbitration procedure. It does not create an independent mechanism for postdoctoral fellows to file harassment or discrimination complaints. 

David Helps, a postdoctoral teaching fellow in the History Department of Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences said there is a common frustration felt among many union members about issues such as living wages, affordable healthcare and USC’s treatment of postdoctoral fellows relative to other universities.

“When we get into these sort of economic issues, USC has really slow rolled, delayed, denied that it even has the ability to meet us on these issues,” Helps said.

Morgan Lindback, a postdoctoral scholar in the Dornsife Marine & Environmental Biology Department and member of URFU, said that the University’s claim that it’s negotiating in line with its current operational needs and situation stands in direct opposition to USC’s goal of financial resiliency and competitiveness with other universities. 

“We recently received an email suggesting that USC has actively made all these motions toward financial resiliency,” Lindback said. “If we are doing better than we were three months ago, why could [USC] not value their postdocs? I don’t see how both of those things can be true, unless the University is banking on us taking effective pay cuts… in order to make their money.” 

The postdoc union met this past Wednesday to discuss next steps for bargaining. Going forward, they hope for USC to come back to the bargaining table to discuss improvements for salary and benefits.