Science Funding Advocacy

By forming a union, CHOP Postdocs and Research Associates can more effectively advocate for increased federal funding for science and research, joining with tens of thousands of organized academic researchers across the country, including at Mt. Sinai, the Weill Cornell School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, University of California, University of Washington, University of Connecticut, and the University of Massachusetts, among 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. 

The UAW was proud to be a national sponsor of the 2017 March for Science when 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 funding and defend the role of science in policy and society.

In 2020, 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 and research institutions to emerge from the crisis and continue performing cutting-edge work. 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 called on local representatives for increased funding support. 

At the beginning of 2024, UAW academic workers organized and mobilized nationally to fight cuts to research and science funding proposed by the second Trump administration by lobbying lawmakers, leading calls to action, and pursuing legal challenges in the courts. Postdocs and other researchers organized phonebanks with hundreds of members to call Congress and oppose cuts to major government research agencies. UAW academic workers also organized nationwide days of action in 2025 that brought thousands of people to rallies across the country. In addition to public organizing, the UAW led and supported legal efforts to stop grant cancellations, serving as plaintiffs in cases seeking to restore funding from the NIH and NSF and to reverse a federal funding freeze affecting Harvard University and Columbia University. Unionized academic workers have built congressional opposition to research cuts by organizing bipartisan sign-on letters supporting continued NIH funding—gaining support from more than half the Senate, including 22 Republicans—and by hosting congressional town halls focused on research funding. At the state level, they also helped stop a proposed 8% cut to public higher-education funding for the University of California and California State University systems.