UC researchers struggle to obtain better wages

The University of California has long defended the lucrative salaries it pays to its leaders and top-flight faculty researchers, saying that multi-hundred-thousand-dollar paychecks are necessary to attract the world's best brains.

But thousands of scientific researchers at UC now say they can't extract a living wage from the university, and even Congress has gotten involved.

Known as "postdocs" because they are in the phase of their career that typically follows a doctorate, more than 6,000 researchers formed a labor union in November 2008 and began negotiating their first contract with UC.

A year and a half later, they have no contract.

"We are a fantastically talented - and underpaid - workforce," said Matthew O'Connor, who has a doctorate in biochemistry and a couple of degrees in molecular biology and natural science. As a postdoc, he studied muscular stem cells at UC Berkeley before joining the union bargaining team full time in 2008. His salary as a researcher was $39,600.

UC employs about 10 percent of the nation's postdocs, the backbone of research universities like UC because they perform the bulk of research during their one- to five-year appointments.

The university pays them from its pool of almost $5 billion in contracts and grants UC wins each year from federal, state and private sources, O'Connor said.

The researchers accuse UC of dragging its feet in negotiations, and they filed a charge of unfair labor practice on June 9 with the Public Employment Relations Board.

UC points out that dozens of issues have already been resolved, and that salary increases for postdocs are difficult because they are paid from numerous grants and contracts.

On Friday, three Democratic representatives asked the General Accounting Office to investigate how UC and other universities track grants and contracts, most of which come from federal sources.

The action by George Miller of Martinez, Lynn Woolsey of Petaluma, and Barbara Lee of Oakland follows a congressional hearing they held at UC Berkeley on April 30 to learn more about the labor conflict.

UC sees progress

At the hearing, UC's vice president of human resources, Dwaine Duckett, praised the pace of negotiations and described many meetings lasting two or three days.

UC and the union "have successfully negotiated all but six" of the 35 issues on the table, Duckett said.

Yet, to the members of Congress, it was apparently not done quickly enough.

Miller, chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor, wrote UC President Mark Yudof in May that he was "thoroughly disappointed" with UC's efforts to seal a deal, especially because Yudof had told him a year earlier that they were close.

Miller asked for information about salaries, grants and contracts.

Yudof said he expected to have the information by June 30. "I assure you that I take this matter very seriously," he wrote.

Salaries are a key issue.

"The appropriate salary structure for our postdocs is one of many contract elements being discussed with the union at the bargaining table," said spokeswoman Lynn Tierney. "UC is committed to fair pay for all its personnel, including postdocs."

Neuroscientist Anubhuti Goel isn't so sure. Goel studies the brain to learn how people conceive of time. She has a doctorate and two degrees in biochemistry and microbiology. UCLA pays her $38,000.

"We're not asking for anything exorbitant, extravagant or luxurious," she said. "There are people who have been here three or four years and never gotten a raise."

The union says the average salary for postdocs at UC is $43,000, with most earning less than $41,000.

Norval Hickman has a doctorate in clinical psychology, holds two master's degrees, and studies smoking cessation in people with severe mental illness. Until June 1, UCSF paid him $39,000.

"My goodness. I went through all this training," Hickman said. "The salary belittles us."

Supportive mentor

Hickman pressed the issue for two years, and won a hefty raise this month, to $47,615. To get it, he had to change departments from cardiology to psychiatry, and switch faculty mentors to find someone willing to dip deeper into the grant money for him.

Some postdocs earn as much as $80,000 by finding departments that are feeling flush and generous. But Hickman and fellow postdocs say a living wage shouldn't be left to chance.

They're asking for a contract that guarantees yearly raises, as recommended by the National Institutes of Health, the nation's biggest supplier of grant money. Other universities, such as Stanford, give postdocs annual raises in this way.

The NIH's recommended salary scale isn't particularly high, especially for anyone facing California expenses: $37,740 for postdocs fresh out of school, with increases for each year of experience and topping out at $52,068 for those with at least seven years.

On Wednesday, the sides will sit down for the 58th day of negotiations in 19 months, discussing wages and health care.

E-mail Nanette Asimov at nasimov@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle