NIH Fellows United is composed of fellows at the NIH who are coming together to form a union in order to improve our working conditions and careers.
Fellows are the driving force of the groundbreaking research being done at the NIH, but we lack enforceable rights in our workplace.
Not only do we aim to improve our working conditions, we are joining the growing movement of unionized scientists advocating for increased research funding, fair visa and immigration policies, better science careers, and a society where the advances in health sciences we discover are shared equally by all.
We have seen the collective power of other organized scientists and are excited to join the growing research labor movement. We are joining the more than 80,000 research and academic workers who are organized with UAW, you can read about what other unions of academics and researchers in UAW have accomplished here.
Fellows will be able to transform our workplace for the better when a majority show support for forming a union:
“If we want reasonable compensation and working hours, and a more supportive and equitable work environment, we need to have our voices heard in the meetings that make the policies that directly affect us.”
“Fellows deserve an equal say in all aspects of our work which can only happen through the collective action of a union. The NIH sets the standards for great research, so let’s work together to set better standards for labor too.”
“I support a union to help democratically define our ideal work environment in a bottom-up fashion, be they issues of compensation, child-care, immigration, or the myriad of issues that keep us from our science.”
“We deserve a voice in what our working conditions should be, and I believe that collective action will help us achieve better worker protections and will improve the experience of all NIH fellows in the future.”