The Trump administration said it would no longer recognize a union formed by early-career researchers at the National Institutes of Health, the latest in a spate of efforts to reduce the footprint of federal workers’ unions.
An email sent Monday to leadership of the NIH Fellows United-UAW union from the NIH Office of Human Resources asserted that NIH fellows, whose work is generally funded through term-limited grants, “are not ‘employees’” and are not “employed in an agency.”
“The NIH/UAW bargaining unit should never have been certified,” the email, reviewed by NOTUS, continued.
NIH leadership’s move represents a new tactic for the Trump administration in its quest to eliminate federal-employee organizations, including those under the Department of Health and Human Services.
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It could also have implications for other federal unions comprising nontraditional workers, according to Joseph McCartin, the executive director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor at Georgetown University.
“It could be an argument that’s used against any other federal employees who are viewed to be in that kind of fellow status,” McCartin said.
Generally, if the government believes a federal workers’ union should be decertified — if it believes the union no longer represents a majority, for instance — it must go through the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The email from the NIH to union representatives said the NIH “will also file a petition” with the Federal Labor Relations Authority, but didn’t give any indication that the labor agency had already authorized the union’s de-recognition.
McCartin said it was unusual for the federal government to move to revoke a union’s certification before filing with the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
“I know that particularly NIH fellows were very well organized, they were very vocal during the crackdown on the NIH that happened early in the Trump administration,” McCartin said. “I’m sure that angered Trump’s people, and I’m not surprised they’ve come after the NIH fellows.”
The NIH, HHS and NIH Fellows United did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
NIH Fellows United was established in 2024, in the midst of a wave of organizing efforts among graduate students and postgraduate workers at universities across the country. It was the first union composed of trainees within the federal government. NIH fellowships are generally multiyear research grants awarded to either students pursuing PhDs or other postgraduate degrees, or postdoctoral scientists who recently graduated.
According to its website, the NIH Fellows United bargaining unit includes 5,000 fellows at the postbaccalaureate, predoctoral and postdoctoral career stages. The union’s contract was finalized in December 2024.
In an email to its members that was reviewed by NOTUS, the union called the NIH’s decision “part of a coordinated effort by the current administration to dismantle federal worker protections.”
“Our contract is still in effect, and management’s attempt to evade the contract is against the law,” the email continued. “We are moving on every available front — legal, political, and most importantly, through the organized power of our membership — to defend our rights.”
Bella Radant, a union member and predoctoral research fellow at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, told NOTUS that she was concerned about losing benefit guarantees, health care coverage and pay protections.
She also said that as a trans woman, she was fearful of losing “means of protecting my rights and safety.”
“I’m too far into my PhD to consider leaving, so I’m really stuck with no real protections now,” Radant said.
Other labor organizations have also been targeted by the Trump administration, albeit under different lines of reasoning. An executive order issued last March eliminated collective bargaining for many unionized federal workers, citing “national security.”
In August, HHS terminated contracts with federal unions that represented employees in the Office of the Secretary, Office of the General Counsel, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
A spokesperson for HHS said at the time that the action was “removing unnecessary obstacles to mission-critical work.”
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