Sunday Science: NIH Withdraws Opposition to Unionization Effort

The move opens the door for postdocs and graduate students who want a union to push for better pay and working conditions

Katie Langin Science
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In June, early-career researchers who work at National Institutes of Health facilities held a rally in support of forming a union and submitted paperwork requesting a vote.,Melissa Lyttle

After questioning the legal standing of a unionization effort by early-career researchers, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) now says it won’t oppose a vote by potential union members. “I am excited the NIH has chosen to do the right thing,” says Marjorie Levinstein, a neuropharmacology postdoc at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and an organizer for the proposed union, called NIH Fellows United.

In June, Levinstein and other organizers filed paperwork with the Federal Labor Relations Authority requesting to hold an election to determine whether the majority of the 4800 nonpermanent researchers who work at NIH facilities—a group that includes postdocs, graduate students, and postbaccalaureate researchers—were in favor of forming a union. In a subsequent filing, which the union organizers learned about last week, NIH officials contended that researchers appointed under the agency’s training programs weren’t “employees” with a right to unionize. But they’ve since dropped that opposition, opening the door for an election.

“After additional consultation with HHS [the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services], NIH withdrew its statement of position and request for a hearing,” an NIH spokesperson wrote in an email today to Science. “NIH has accepted the petition to include all individuals described and stands ready to work … on an Election Agreement.”

If the unionization effort succeeds, it will be the first union formed by early-career researchers at a federal agency in the United States. Organizers say a union is needed to push for better pay and working conditions

Katie Langin is the associate editor for Science Careers.

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