[The move opens the door for postdocs and graduate students who
want a union to push for better pay and working conditions]
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SUNDAY SCIENCE: NIH WITHDRAWS OPPOSITION TO UNIONIZATION EFFORT  
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Katie Langin
August 10, 2023
Science
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_ The move opens the door for postdocs and graduate students who want
a union to push for better pay and working conditions _

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
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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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WHY WILL THE MILKY WAY AND ANDROMEDA COLLIDE?
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The Universe isn't just expanding, the expansion is also accelerating.
If that's true, how will the Milky Way and Andromeda eventually merge?
ETHAN SIEGEL
Starts With A Bang
August 25, 2023

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