Newly formed union accuses NIH of slow-walking bargaining negotiations

The newly formed union of research fellows at the National Institutes of Health is facing a tight timetable this week for negotiating a labor contract with agency management and is alleging that those managers are trying to run out the clock. 

Negotiators have been told that if an agreement is not reached by Thursday, the last scheduled meeting, then the next bargaining session won’t be until February 2025. 

However, union members representing research fellows at the 27 institutes and centers that make up the agency alleged that NIH leaders are slow-walking bargaining negotiations. 

“You can really see that the management is either intentionally or unintentionally delaying it by not being prepared or taking a longer than expected time to read [a proposal] and give feedback to come to a consensus,” said Dr. Deepti Dabral, a postdoctoral visiting fellow at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. “But this has been the underlying theme.”  

The NIH Fellows United, which represents postbaccalaureate, predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers at the agency and is backed by United Auto Workers, won its election in December 2023, with collective bargaining negotiations beginning in May. 

In blog posts, the bargaining committee had previously complained about management representatives "[speaking] down to us" and "not treating us as equals." 

The union and NIH later reached tentative agreements on time off, workloads, health and safety, intellectual property and access to professional development. However, they still need to reach a consensus on other matters, including pay, discipline and anti-harassment protections. 

The NIH Fellows Union’s last update was about a time-off agreement posted on Sept. 26.  

Dr. Matt Brown, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said after observing a bargaining session that management seemed to be wasting time by arguing over “legalese.” 

“It was very frustrating to know that time was running out on bargaining, and that we would eventually have a limited number of these bargain sessions, and [the meeting was] being filled up with these sort of like little minutia of things that ultimately seemed inconsequential by the time they finished discussing them,” he said. 

Similarly, the bargaining committee wrote in an August blog that management representatives spent most of a three-day negotiating period in their caucus room and had not responded to some proposals for more than a month. 

“I could tell that they are engaging in bad faith bargaining, and they are taking an unreasonably long time to respond to proposals,” Dabral said. 

In an email, agency spokespeople told Government Executive that the “NIH is committed to partnering with the union and has been actively engaged with the UAW. We are currently in the middle of collective bargaining negotiations. NIH will continue to comply with the ground rules that govern the schedule of negotiation sessions and engage in meaningful discussions with union representatives.”

Once the negotiations conclude, both sides will reach a preliminary agreement and discuss any remaining concerns before union membership can vote on ratifying the proposed contract.