Last week bargaining was at NIEHS in North Carolina. During the week, NIEHS Fellows had a meeting where bargaining committee members gave updates and NIEHS Fellows spoke about the plan to win big on issues that matter, with a special focus on visiting Fellow issues. Everyone was excited to take action to get meaningful change! Now for what happened at the table:
Were able to tentatively agree to articles that make the following improvements:
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Right to have a strong, functional union: Fellows will have a right to participate in our union and have representation in formal disciplinary and investigative meetings. The NIH has agreed to send us a list of all Fellows on a regular basis to ensure that we can protect and enforce Fellows’ new rights. We also got a guarantee that we will be able to have Fellows present about the union and our rights at every new Fellow orientation.
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Telework: Fellows will have a right to work with their PI on arrangements to work outside their primary office/lab space when appropriate.
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Reassignments: We have secured a process for Fellows to follow in the event that they need to change labs. We know that changing labs is a challenge and having language in our contract to walk Fellows through the process will aid in this transition.
At our next session on August 21-23 we expect NIH to respond to our proposals on several important issues, including enforceable nondiscrimination protections, longer appointments resulting in longer visas, and a change to the J-1 waiver policy. We are also going to start making proposals soon around economic issues, such as pay and benefits. While we made important progress last week, we clearly still have some big items that Fellows need to win on. If you want to know more about how we build collective power to get NIH to agree to these improvements, email info@nihfellowsunited.org or respond to this email.
In Solidarity,
Haley Chatelaine, IRTA Postdoc, NCATS, Rockville
Sharmina Deloer, Visiting Fellow, NIAID, Bethesda
Ian Fucci, CRTA Postdoc, NCI, Frederick
Tara Fischer, Research Fellow, NINDS, Bethesda
Zohirul Islam, Visiting Fellow, NIAID, Bethesda
Rosa Lafer-Sousa, IRTA Postdoc, NIMH, Bethesda
Alexander Jordan Lara, Postbac, NIDCR, Bethesda
Marjorie Levinstein, IRTA Postdoc, NIDA, Baltimore
Amilcar Rodriguez, Predoc, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park North Carolina
Emilya Ventriglia, Predoc, NIMH, Bethesda
Corey Young, CRTA Postdoc, NCI, Rockville