Science Funding Advocacy
By forming a union, Johns Hopkins postdoctoral researchers can more effectively advocate for increased funding for science and research on the state and federal level by joining with postdoctoral researchers at Columbia University, Mount Sinai, and New York University in NYC, as well as the University of California, University of Washington, University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, and the National Institute of Health (NIH), and with graduate-level employees at the the same institutions and others. For all of us there is a direct connection between federal support for education and research and our career progress, wages, benefits and job security.
Already, UAW Academic Workers are in regular contact with state legislators and members of Congress, educating them on the issues we face and our positions on various legislation. In addition to lobbying for research funding, UAW Academic Workers were also instrumental in securing the inclusion of Postdocs in federal overtime regulations and turning back the Grad Tax.
Most recently, UAW Academic Workers across the country mounted a joint campaign to call for increased research funding in light of COVID-19, to support the ability of universities to emerge from the crisis and continue performing leading-edge research. In April 2020, the President of the UAW wrote to Congressional leadership urging action to protect researchers and research funding in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, while unionized academic workers like the Columbia Postdocs (UAW 4100) called on local representatives for increased funding support. These were among the demands to Congress:
Increased federal funding to NIH, NSF, DOE, NASA, USDA and other agencies to keep research going until operations return to full speed, including maintaining all lab personnel.
More early-career funding, including extension of existing fellowships and increased fellowships available.
The UAW was proud to be a national sponsor of the March for Science. On April 22, 2017 UAW members joined tens of thousands of scientists and science supporters in more than 600 cities around the world to advocate for the protection of science and science funding. We marched because science is critical to our health, economies, food security, and safety. We marched to defend the role of science in policy and society. At Columbia University as well as across the country, researchers participated in one of the largest national days of action to support and protect science funding.
Members of the Hopkins PRO-UAW organizing committee spoke out against funding cuts as part of a National Day of Action, alongside other UAW researchers.
Trump 2.0: How Academic Workers at Fighting Back
Since taking office in 2025, the Trump administration has been attacking federally funded research with cuts, freezes, and terminations of critical federal employees. These attacks are already having a devastating effect on our lives and careers as academic workers. In the UAW, we have been building a national movement to fight back, kill the cuts, and protect life-saving research.
In the days after January 20, UAW academic workers responded rapidly to Trump’s executive orders, initiating phone banks with hundreds of participants from the UAW and beyond to pressure Congress to stop cuts to NIH and NSF funding. Workers built on this pressure further by organizing National Days of Action against cuts, with rallies and actions taking place across the country on February 19, and then again on April 8th, including tens of thousands of workers across more than 30 cities.
At the same time, researchers and allies in the UAW have advocated directly to congressional leadership, urging them to oppose Trump’s cuts to research funding in the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, as well as the ongoing freezing and cancellations of federal funds appropriated by Congress for 2025. At the state level, academic workers have been critical in leading efforts to pass California SB829, which would create a California Institute for Scientific Research to fund research in California in the face of federal budget cuts.
While continuing to build a movement calling for our elected representatives to stand up for academic research, the UAW has been instrumental in preventing the Trump administration’s unlawful freezes and cuts from moving forward. The UAW has participated in five separate efforts to litigate Trump’s unlawful actions against research, at both national and local levels, including:
- Supporting states’ Attorneys General injunctions against Trump’s unilateral reduction of the indirect cost rate to 15% (22 States vs. RFK Jr., permanent injunction granted on April 7) and cancellations of NIH grants (16 States vs. RFK Jr., temporary injunction filed on April 25), including by filing declarations of impact on members.
- Joining a lawsuit (APHA, UAW et al vs NIH) against the cancellation of NIH grants that include reference to DEI, gender, COVID-19, climate, among other key words. A temporary restraining order was filed on April 4.
- Filing an amicus brief against the cancellation of grant funding at Columbia based on a list of demands by the federal government. (AAUP, AFT vs. Department of Justice)
- Joining a lawsuit against the cancellation of grant funding at Harvard, again based on a list of demands by the federal government. (AAUP, UAW vs. Department of Justice)
- Joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration’s effort to terminate probationary federal employees (NTEU, UAW et al vs Trump)
- Supporting legal efforts against Trump’s attempts to deny collective bargaining rights to a large number of federal employees using the “national security exemption”.
Columbia University Postdocs have participated in the March for Science since it started in 2017 to hold elected officials accountable for protecting research funding and ensuring that policies that affect scientists are transparent and fair.