AAUP's Wolfson and AFT's Weingarten on the NIH’s Decision to Strip Fellows of their Right to Collective Bargaining

AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement in response to the decision by the National Institutes of Health to strip research fellows of their right to collective bargaining-a direct attack on the workers who power America's research enterprise.

These fellows are scientists who conduct the very research that drives medical discovery, technological innovation, and the training of the next generation of scholars. They do the same core work as hundreds of thousands of AAUP and AFT members across universities nationwide: conducting research, advancing knowledge, and training students.

Denying them the right to organize is part of a broader and deeply troubling pattern-an attack on federal workers, an attack on higher education, and an attack on the institutions that produce the knowledge our society depends on.

Collective bargaining is a fundamental democratic right. The fellows at the NIH deserve the same voice, protections, and dignity on the job that academic workers across the country are fighting for every day.

The AAUP and AFT stand firmly with NIH Fellows United and with all research workers defending their right to organize.