Public Money for the Public Good
The Trump administration is aggressively pursuing an anti-worker agenda that puts working people’s healthcare, research, education, and jobs at risk. While they claim to be invested in saving public money and reducing waste, their actions make clear that their primary interest is expanding the wealth and power of those who already have the most – billionaires and corporations – at the expense of working people.
UAW members are standing up to demand that our public money be used for the public good – including funding lifesaving public research and our jobs; supporting working people’s access to affordable and quality housing, healthcare, and education; ensuring the highest standard of continuous support for Veterans; and more.
And UAW members are standing up to show that we are united across identity, nationality, and industry to win a world that works for workers. Working people of all identities and sectors are the ones who make the economy run – not billionaires – and we will not be divided against each other.
Take action to defend public research!
The Trump Administration is attempting to finance massive tax breaks and giveaways for billionaires by cutting billions in public research funding – threatening life-saving medical treatment and puts hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk. UAW members are organizing to oppose these reckless attempts to disinvest from public higher education, which would disrupt scientific innovation and economic growth.
Kill the Cuts! National Day of Action on April 8: UAW members are joining with fellow research, healthcare, and education workers across the country to plan a national day of actions on 4/8 to demand NO CUTS to education and life-saving research. Join the National Planning call on Saturday 3/22 at 9am Pacific to get involved in planning an action in your area, and check out https://www.killthecuts.org/ for more.
Contact your Congressional Reps: Send your Congressional Reps a letter and call them at 1-888-329-5096 (Senate) 1-866-287-6350 (House) to demand that they take action to end cuts to NIH funding.
Researchers: share your story! And check out this short training by UAW 4811 & 4121 members on how to communicate the impact of your research to a public audience.
Join ongoing member meetings to strategize and coordinate actions with fellow UAW members:
Timeline of Actions
3/13/25: The UAW Higher Education and CAP Departments hosted a member-to-member phonebank, where members called fellow UAW members across the country to ask them to take action by calling their Senators to demand no cuts to NIH funding.
3/7/25: Thousands of UAW members took action to defend public research at Stand Up for Science rallies across the country and up and down Region 6 -- including in Fairbanks, Anchorage, Bellingham, Seattle, Pullman, Salem, Sacramento, San Francisco, Berkeley, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Diego.
3/5/25: The lawsuit filed by a coalition of 22 attorneys general on February 10 (see below) won another important advancement by securing a preliminary injunction, which takes the place of the February temporary restraining order and prevents the Trump administration from cutting NIH funding as the case proceeds. It will remain in effect until a final ruling is made. Read more in statements by Washington AG Nick Brown and California AG Rob Bonta.
3/5/25: Student Services & Advising Professionals (SSAP-UAW) at University of California held a Fight Against Funding Cuts Town Hall to discuss how threats to public funding are directly affecting SSAPs and how to mount a mass collective movement to fight back.
2/25/25: Members of Region 6 joined a national press conference in Washington DC as part of the Labor for Higher Education coalition, alongside AAUP, AFT, AFSCME, CWA, NEA, SEIU, OPEIU, UE, and more. Region 6 Director Mike Miller and Local 4121 President Levin Kim both gave remarks. At the same time as the press conference, hundreds of UAW members and other higher ed workers participated in a phonebank to continue putting pressure on our elected officials to take action. Watch the full recording of the press conference here.
2/19/25 to 2/22/25: As part of a nationwide wave of action to defend public education and research funding: Local 4121 organized a rally of 500 UAW & community members in Seattle joined by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and WSLC President April Sims; Local 4811 organized California-wide member meetings to call Congressional Representatives and plan mass mobilization; Local 4591 joined a coalition rally in Portland; Local 4929 organized a coalition rally in Bellingham to oppose budget cuts, demand full funding of contractual tuition assistance for Education Student Employees, and demand passage of collective bargaining legislation for Operational Student Employees; and Local 4123 held a rally to oppose funding cuts at Sonoma State University and co-organized a statewide CSU organizing conference.
2/13/25: As a part of the coalition Labor for Higher Education, UAW Region 6 members joined fellow academic workers from across the country for a national strategy call to discuss the impacts of the Trump administration’s cuts on research, jobs, and local economies, including concrete steps for how workers can take action build power and defend public research. Members of Locals 4811 and 4121 presented, including a mini training on how to communicate the relevance of your research for a public audience. Watch the recording here (training starts at 44:36).
2/10/25: A coalition of 22 attorneys general, including California AG Rob Bonta and Washington AG Nick Brown, filed a lawsuit over the Trump Admin’s illegal NIH funding cuts, with support from Locals 4811 and 4121. Within just a few hours, a federal judge responded by issuing a temporary restraining order against the cuts, putting a temporary halt on the policy.
2/10/25: The UAW Higher Education Department and Local 4811 hosted a Protect Public Higher Education Webinar with hundreds of academic workers across the country to build knowledge about how NIH funding works, what the Trump administration’s attacks mean, and how workers can push back. Watch the recording here.
2/3/25: Thanks to multiple lawsuits as well as the collective action of researchers across the country, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that Award Cash Management Service (ACM$) has been restored to allow disbursements on active awards.
1/30/25: After the Trump administration rolled out an unprecedented set of restrictions on federal funding, including freezes on NIH and a pause on all federal grants, hundreds of academic workers across the country came together for a phonebank to demand our congressional representatives take action to lift these restrictions and allow scientific research in the United States to continue.
Hundreds of UAW members from across the country joined a phonebank on 1/30 to call their congressional representatives and demand that research funding restrictions be lifted.
In the News
3/13/25: “Seattle Gears Up to Fight Back as Trump Eviscerates Funding, Rights” (The Urbanist)
3/12/25: “How far could Trump’s NIH funding cuts set medical innovation back? By decades, UW researchers warn” (KUOW)
3/9/25: “UC Santa Barbara Scientists Demonstrate Against Proposed Federal Funding Cuts” (SB Independent)
3/8/25: “UC Berkeley Scientists Protest Trump Administration’s Cuts to Research Funding” (NPR)
3/8/25: “Chaos on campuses as schools warn Trump cuts could harm US ‘for decades’” (The Guardian)
3/8/25: VIDEO: “Shawn Fain, Bernie Sanders draw huge crowds at Michigan rally” (CBS News)
3/6/25: “How federally funded research saved my son’s sight — and his life — from a rare cancer” (LA Times)
3/6/25: VIDEO: “'Stand Up for Science' Pullman- Local Scientists join national march against federal budget cuts” (Murrow News 8)
3/5/25: “White House plans to expand mass layoffs to IRS and Veterans Affairs” (The Guardian)
2/26/25: “UAW Local 4811 leaders meet to fight National Institutes of Health funding cuts” (The Daily Bruin)
2/22/25: ““It’s Sad We Have to Do This”: Academic Unions Are Rallying to Defend Science” (Mother Jones)
2/22/25: “‘UC Berkeley grad student research unions band together to fight Trump’s federal cuts” (Local News Matters)
2/21/25: “Trump's Attack on Science Funding” (NPR, The Brian Lehrer Show)
2/20/25: “We’re putting billionaires on notice’” (The Stand)
2/20/25: “UC Berkeley workers say Trump’s bid to cut research funds would be ‘devastating’” (Berkeleyside)
2/20/25: “Seattle scientists protest Trump’s NIH cuts to research funding” (Cascade PBS)
2/19/25: “Academic Unions Fight Public Health Funding Cuts at NIH” (On the Line)
2/19/25: “Rally held at UW to protest Trump’s funding cuts: ‘We’re seeing graduate programs actually freezing’” (My Northwest)
2/19/25: “Hundreds rally against firing of federal workers, emphasizing threats to public health”(AP)