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[F]or all the stump-speech hyperbole, a single, remorseless reality must govern the next president's actions, no matter who he is. The huge budget deficit, the war in Iraq, and the war on terrorism will combine to squeeze federal scientific agencies not directly involved in defense, homeland security, or several earmarked projects. Competing for scarce funds with a myriad of other money-strapped domestic agencies, the civilian science agencies face the likelihood of budget cuts, some quite substantial.

“We very much support employees’ rights to choose for themselves whether or not they think unionization is beneficial.” --Paul Schwartz

" Narod has spent 2 decades simultaneously "at the vanguard of a brand-new science" and at the helm of a corporation lucrative enough to support overseas mountaineering trips and a handsome home in an upscale neighborhood."

Correcting the problems and inequities that bedevil postdocs will require changing the culture of labs and universities across the country, and the National Science Foundation can and should take steps to catalyze reform.

"Our main target ... is [for] the postdocs being trained to go out and get jobs of their own. There are so many different types of jobs that it's hard to provide a good training environment that's right for everybody. So we're trying to figure out what types of things people would like to have." -John Lipscomb

"Cost of living adjustments? Nobody's getting those," says Shawn Hayes, chair of the statewide University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars and a postdoc at UC Davis. There's also discussion of "the possibility of a 10% across-the-board salary cut for everybody, including faculty."

" According to the NLRB decision, Brown graduate assistants are ineligible to form a union because they are not employees. Rather, they "are first and foremost students, and their status as graduate student assistants is contingent on their continued enrollment as students."

"Nowadays," she continued, "people have much more freedom in their personal lives and professional choices than they did when they were sold to an apprenticeship in the old days, and yet, at the same time, they're buying into this almost feudal system in which once you dedicate a certain number of years, you are bound by the amount of time you've spent." --Allegra Goodman

Far too many postdocs let unrealistic expectations lead them to become apathetic about their own career development.

"Given postdocs' dependence on their mentors for both current working conditions and future career prospects, potential effects on mentor-postdoc relations have raised concern. Predictions range from destruction of that crucial partnership to a new era of improved mutual respect."

Running a productive lab is the career's greatest challenge. It requires lessons not included in medical and scientific training.

The postdocs take particular pride that dire predictions of spoiled relationships with mentors have not come true. The negotiations, in Wallace's words, "were very harmonious and productive."

"If [the union] is open, honest, and transparent, I think that postdocs at UCSF would welcome discussion." --Anne T. Union

A new California plan promises uniform health insurance benefits for all postdocs.

For the first time ever, all UC postdocs, regardless of their funding source, have access to the same comprehensive group health insurance.

"I don't think that a union and a professional society are mutually exclusive," said NPA spokesperson Orfeu Buxton.

"His lab mantra was, 'It's better to ask forgiveness than permission,' 'If I don't know about it, it doesn't happen,' [and] 'Get it done at all costs, and don't tell me how.' " --Maura Lee Upright

"We deliberately tell them up front that their possibilities of getting a faculty position are few and far between. [Postdocs] need to stretch [their] horizons."

--Trevor Penning

”Nothing is more important than supporting the new investigators early. … In the press of budget adjustment, we do not jeopardize the seeds of the future.” --Elias Zerhouni

Mentors' obligations also include providing their postdocs practical counsel and aid in moving to their next post, as well as all needed facilities and supplies. And mentors should never add "surprise" responsibilities, a practice that is simply "not fair," Cech said.