NIH Fellows United is composed of fellows at the National Institutes of Health who are forming a union in order to improve our working conditions and careers.
We won our union! 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. 💪
We are proud to announce that Fellows at the National Institutes of Health are uniting to fight for better working conditions, better science, and more equitable medical research for all. We are NIH Fellows United.
#NIHFellowsUnited
🧵
WHEN THE UNION'S INSPIRATION THROUGH THE WORKERS' BLOOD SHALL RUN THERE CAN BE NO POWER GREATER ANYWHERE BENEATH THE SUN YET WHAT FORCE ON EARTH IS WEAKER THAN THE FEEBLE STRENGTH OF ONE BUT THE UNION MAKES US STRONG
UPDATE: The NIH is no longer objecting to all 4,800 of us voting on forming a union. We are pleased that the NIH has decided to do the right thing and respect our rights. This is good news for workers and good news for the strength of NIH as an institution!
#NIHWorksBecauseWeDo
The
@NIH
has issued its position on our union efforts, which is to challenge the right of Fellows as workers to form a union and engage in collective bargaining. This disappointing position devalues our indispensable contribution to research. We know that the
#NIHWorksBecauseWeDo
It’s been almost 8 weeks since we filed authorization cards at the FLRA. Now, nearly 200 Fellows from every IC, every job title, and every NIH facility have signed on to a public letter to Sec. Xavier Becerra urging the NIH to move quickly to an agreement for a union election.
23 months, 27 institutes, 75+ buildings, 3 countries, 4.8k fellows, 60+ organizers, 3k authorization cards, and 36 pizzas later, the fellows at the National Institutes of Health have filed for a union, and we couldn't be more excited 💙
#NIHWorksBecauseWeDo
#NIHFellowsUnited
We are more than 5,000 early career researchers and clinicians across various career stages underpinning the work of every NIH institute. Collectively, we do the majority of the research at NIH — but we do not have enforceable rights in our workplace (yet!).
Our labor is undervalued by the NIH. Fellows do not make a fair wage and have minimal recourse for workplace harassment, while international fellows’ visa status creates additional precarity. It’s time for this to change.
Learn more and join us at . If you’re a postbaccalaureate, predoctoral, postdoctoral, clinical, or research fellow at NIH, connect with us at to sign your authorization card. Let’s win this together!
Now published in Research Policy:
I looked at 27k postdoc salaries across the US, their relationship to cost of living, tenure-track job prospects, and how things have been changing over time. Here's what I found:
Visiting Fellows, who come to the NIH from outside the U.S. to do research work on temporary visas, face extra roadblocks to securing stable work. With a union, Visiting Fellows can bargain for better job security and more stable working conditions!
Worker protections are essential to maintaining the quality and sustainability of scientific research. The NIH works, heals, and innovates because we do. As NIH Fellows United, we are taking action to foster scientific careers that are equitable and ethical.
We’re proud to announce the campaign to unionize non-tenure-track faculty and researchers within Harvard University—we are Harvard Academic Workers - UAW! We unite ~6000 workers across all 12 Harvard schools. 🧵
Emilya Ventriglia
@eventrig
, a predoc at NIMH, greeting the attendees at the
@UAW
CAP conference. We are thrilled to be joining UAW and our UAW siblings are welcoming us with open arms!
Signing in support of the union: best way to avoid fomo when we file on June 1 👀
Still need to join the majority of your colleagues? Fill out this form:
We had a great event this week for new postbacs! We talked about helpful tips for getting started at the NIH and how to get involved in the union effort. Thanks to everyone who made this happen!
BREAKING: Duke attys have indicated they intend to challenge the legal standing of grad workers as employees, aiming to reverse the NLRB’s 2016 Columbia decision.
@DukeU
: stop these reprehensible union-busting tactics, recognize our majority, and meet us at the bargaining table.
The ballots have been counted and we’re excited to announce that WCM postdocs voted by an overwhelming 98.8% to form our union! This is an incredible mandate to negotiate for urgent improvements
@WeillCornell
.
More and more scientists are recognizing that the working conditions of early career researchers are putting science itself in danger. We're unionizing not just for ourselves, but for a sustainable and strong research community.
#NIHWorksBecauseWeDo
Public investments in health should be accessible by the public! The Moderna-NIH COVID-19 vaccine was researched in large part by federal workers at the NIH, including Fellows like us fighting for our union.
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine discovery was funded by the taxpayers of this country.
It costs Moderna about $2 to produce that vaccine.
They now want to charge Americans over $100 a dose for that vaccine. That is absurd.
It's public: grads
@UofMaryland
are officially a
@UAW
campaign! 200+ grad organizers are organizing a mass-participation, democratic union of 4100+ grads for living wages, protections against harassment & abuse, support for international student rights, better benefits, & more!
Our colleagues at UMD don't currently have the right to form a union, but there is a bill being introduced this year to fix that. Please sign this petition in support for high ed collective bargaining rights in the University System of Maryland!
First! We launched our petition for collective bargaining rights & living wages for **all** MD higher-ed workers; we will submit this to show support for our CBR bill, so please sign & share—we want to show as many GAs and Marylanders support as possible
While we are getting ready to hold our union election, our colleagues down the road in College Park are fighting for the right to collective bargaining and building the power to overcome UMD's long term obstruction of that right.
#Solidarity
#1u
Grad workers receive little support from the university, pitifully low stipends, discriminatory international student fees & offers little to no recourse if something goes wrong with our advisors—we deserve a union! Op-ed by grad worker
@rigbyphilips
Congratulations to the New School part time faculty on their new contract! 2022 was an awesome year for higher ed organizing, with more to come in 2023 👀
New School PT faculty voted 97% in favor of the Tentative Agreement negotiated between the Bargaining Committee and the University Administration
1575 YES
50 NO
The TA will now become the new collective bargaining agreement outlining the terms and conditions of our employment
On Wednesdays (and every other day) we wear pink (build more fair and sustainable scientific career paths)
RSVP here to be part of something big on 6/1:
Ian Fucci, postdoc at NCI, turned in his
#UnionYes
ballot as soon as he got it. Are you at NCI Frederick, NIEHS, or Rocky Mountain Lab? Be like Ian and vote today! Share that you returned your ballot here:
Read the solidarity statement from our union colleagues at universities that participate in the NIH Graduate Partnership Program!
Voting
#UnionYes
on Dec. 6th makes us all stronger together.
The countdown to our union vote starts NOW!🗳️🎉💪
#UnionYES
Polls open on Wednesday for Bethesda, Rockville, and Baltimore Fellows. More info about voting location and times at:
If you are a Fellow who has signed a card, check your email for info on next steps. If you are a new Fellow who hasn't had a chance to sign yet, contact us at info
@nihfellowsunited
.org to get in the loop.
Community members! Union siblings! Scientific colleagues! Don't work at the NIH? Don't fret! There's still a way to celebrate with us! Meet us at the FLRA in DC at 1:30 PM on 6/1 when we turn in the cards.
Instead of meeting with us to come to an election agreement, in its response to the Federal Labor Relations Authority, the NIH has decided to challenge the right of Fellows as workers to form a union at all.
Unfortunately, it's shockingly common for early career researchers to experience bullying and abuse in the lab. We're forming a union at the NIH so that Fellows can stand up for ourselves, secure enforceable rights, and create a healthier research environment for all!
Thanks for doing the right thing
@camilahcoelho
. Your experience as a postdoc at the
@NIH
is unfortunately standard, that's why longer appointment lengths (and thus longer visas) are so important for intl researchers and a central goal of the postdoc labor movement.
I've always had 6 months or 1-year contracts while a postdoc at the NIH, and that was overwhelming as an international trainee. Today I made it official that every international postdoc in my lab is getting a 5-year visa period. I want all of them to feel safe, in all senses.
(1/2) When we come back from Winter Break it will be time to vote! Today we signed an agreement finalizing the election logistics. We have one shot at this election, which is why it is crucial for you to make your voice heard on election day and vote UNION YES.
We have a union, folks! 94% of us voted YES. Thanks to our supporters and to all Northeastern Grads. Solidarity forever!
Now let's go bargain a winning contract!
#solidarity
#UnionStrong
#northeastern
#voteyes
@NIH
On June 1st 2023, we turned in signatures in favor of forming NIH Fellows United from a majority of Fellows at the NIH. Since then we have been excitedly looking forward to working together with the Federal Labor Relations Authority and the NIH to schedule a union election.
The NIH needs to mobilize its resources to better support trainees. Unions of postdocs, grad students, and postbacs are the leverage we need to ensure that happens.
Read the letter UAW 5810 submitted with
@uaw2865
&
@uaw4121
in response to NIH's Request for Information about how to improve the Postdoc experience. We shared data and recommendations from our decades-long efforts to raise standards for academic workers:
@NIH
On July 21st, a group of nearly 250 Fellows from every job title and every IC sent a letter to the Secretary of HHS Xavier Becerra urging the NIH to move quickly towards reaching an agreement to allow us to exercise our right to democratically vote to form a union.
Today we delivered our petition along with three boxes full of authorization cards signed by 2700+ researchers — a strong majority of ~4000 of us — to the
@NLRB
to form our union at
@nyuniversity
!