Tag Archive for: National Institutes of Health

Detroit, MI Leaders of the UAW reacted today to Judge William Young’s ruling to reverse the cancellation of hundreds of National Institutes of Health grants the agency had recently cut based on claims that they support certain topics including “gender ideology” or “diversity, equity and inclusion”. The UAW, which was a plaintiff in one case, represents more than 120,000 academic workers at higher education institutions across the country, many of whose work and careers were directly impacted by the terminated grants.

These politically motivated attacks jeopardized medical and scientific progress and threatened the jobs of researchers studying climate change, renewable energy, cancer, viral pandemics, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s,” said Brandon Mancilla, Director of UAW Region 9A, which includes New York, Massachusetts and the Northeast. “This decision is poised to restore hundreds of millions of dollars in previously allocated research funding, reanimating labs and workers focused on some of the most pressing health questions we face. We are grateful that this work can now get back on track.”

“Judge Young was right to call these cuts exactly what they are: illegal and discriminatory,” said Mike Miller, Director of UAW Region 6, which covers California, Washington and much of the western U.S. “The research UAW workers perform is essential to the development of technologies and treatments to enhance public health – and we are hopeful that that work is now able to proceed.”

“Not only did these attempted cuts impede lifesaving care for millions of Americans, but delays in treatment are projected to cost the public billions of dollars,” said Tim Smith, Director of UAW Region 8, which includes the National Institutes of Health and much of the mid-Atlantic seaboard. “We thank Judge Young for his decision, and are hopeful that we can now move forward with the research and innovation so many Americans depend on.”

Yesterday, President Trump signed an order that tramples on the union rights of more than a million federal workers, stripping them of their ability to negotiate over their working conditions. The 1 million members of the UAW stand with federal workers and their union, AFGE, against the attacks from the Trump administration.

When I was 12, the Reagan administration famously busted the air traffic controllers’ union, PATCO, firing over 11,000 striking controllers and blacklisting them from federal jobs. It wasn’t just about PATCO – it sent a message to employers everywhere that it was open season on the working class. The labor movement failed to act in that moment, and we have been paying the price ever since.

The actions the administration has taken today are many times worse than PATCO, affecting over 1 million federal employees across at least 18 agencies. These actions are not just an attack on unions—it’s an attack on free speech, on workers’ right to organize, on the very idea that people should have a say in their own jobs and futures. Our own members are affected by these actions, including hundreds of UAW members at National Institutes of Health.

We have learned from the past and won’t sit back quietly while unions are dismantled. The labor movement is not about party politics. We aren’t Democrats or Republicans. We’re trade unionists.  And when you come after workers, you’re going to find us standing shoulder to shoulder, ready to fight back.

The Trump administration’s decision to slash NIH funding is a gut punch to scientific progress, economic growth, and the fight against deadly diseases. Cutting research on cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s isn’t “efficient”—it’s economically reckless and inhumane. These cuts will shut down promising medical breakthroughs, slam the brakes on clinical trials, destroy jobs, and gut university research programs where thousands of UAW members across the country work every day to advance life-saving discoveries.

Trump claims this will “save money,” but the truth is every NIH dollar invested in research generates two and a half times its value in economic activity. Gutting NIH funding is not savings—it’s sabotage. UAW is participating in legal efforts that have resulted in a Temporary Restraining Order issued on February 10 that blocked these cuts from going into effect. To ensure these cuts are reversed, UAW demands immediate action from Congress before they wreak havoc on the working class, scientific innovation, and the future of public health.

Just days after the first contract took effect covering 5,000 members of UAW 2750 at the National Institutes of Health, the Trump Administration has imposed an unprecedented set of restrictions on the nation’s premier public research institution. These include a communications blackout, canceling all meetings, a travel ban for employees, strict limitations on spending research funds, and a complete hiring freeze. UAW 2750 members are researchers who work at NIH facilities in Maryland and in other states, and their research addresses the nation’s most pressing medical and public health issues including fighting cancer, infectious disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and much more.

These freezes are already causing research at the NIH to grind to a halt. The Trump Administration is also preventing the NIH from processing research grant proposals that fund research at universities across the country. Any delays in research progress will have impacts on the country and for the American economy, and these restrictions represent a serious public health risk as the threat of avian flu and other deadly diseases continues to rise.

UAW calls on the Trump Administration, including Acting Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink, and Congress to lift these draconian restrictions immediately to ensure that scientific research in the United States, including the crucial work done by UAW members, can continue without interruption.

In a historic outcome, early-career researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, have voted by nearly 98% to form a union, NIH Fellows United-UAW. 1,601 workers voted in favor of unionizing, with only thirty-six voting against.

This is the first union within the U.S. federal government for research fellows, which includes postbaccalaureate, predoctoral, and postdoctoral researchers.

“We won our union!” NIH Fellows United-UAW announced on the social media platform X after the voting process was completed. “We are the largest union of federal employees to form in more than a decade, and the first union of Fellows ever at a federal research facility. We’ve made history together.”

In June of this year, workers filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) to form their union. In July, the NIH questioned the legal standing of fellows unionizing, submitting paperwork to the FLRA stating many of the potential union members weren’t employees and thus, didn’t have the right to form a union. The following month, NIH dropped opposition, paving the way for the vote.

Improved pay and working conditions and enhanced protections against harassment and excessive workloads are the primary issues workers would like to see addressed in a first contract between their union and the NIH.

“I’d like to welcome the NIH unit to the UAW,” Region 8 Director Tim Smith said. “I am looking forward to meeting and shaking the hands of each and every one of these new members. We will stand hand-in-hand to achieve a contract that helps them build a better life. They may be the first union in Region 8 for government researchers, but working together, it won’t be the last.”