Federal Funding Cuts Put USW Members on Edge

USW leaders hosted a roundtable discussion on Monday with two members of Congress and three union members to talk about the effects of federal funding cuts on workers and how they can push back against them.

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, both of whom represent parts of Western Pennsylvania, along with Pennsylvania Secretary of Policy & Planning Akbar Hossain, focused specifically on the potential ripple effects of cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding at the University of Pittsburgh, where more than 10,000 USW members work.

Western Pennsylvania received nearly $750 million in NIH funding last year, with more than $160 million of that money going to Pitt, said District 10 Director Bernie Hall, who moderated the discussion alongside International Vice President Roxanne Brown.

Those funds, workers said, facilitate groundbreaking research into medical advancements that can improve treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions that threaten the lives of millions of Americans.

Potential life-saving studies already are on hold as a result of the 15 percent cut in NIH reimbursements announced last month by the Trump administration, said USW member Nicole Hays, a Pitt researcher for 17 years.

While many of the administration’s planned cuts are facing court challenges, the situation has workers feeling “somber and uncertain,” said Hays, who urged her fellow workers to speak out.

“Together, we can be heard,” Hays said. “We can use that voice to try to stop these funding cuts.”

Graduate student researcher and USW member Alisa Omelchenko said the cuts could be devastating.

“What we are seeing now is an attack on an entire generation of science,” Omelchenko said. “That could set us back decades.”

In addition to hampering research, Hossain said, the cuts threaten the economy, with more than 20,000 jobs across Pennsylvania connected in some way to the $2.2 billion in annual funding the state receives through the NIH.  

Brown urged USW members to wage a “from-the-ground-up” effort to stop the cuts by contacting their lawmakers and by coming together to make their voices heard in Washington, D.C.

“Our union was built for moments like this,” Brown said. “Any fight that we are in together, we can win. ”USW members can contact their elected officials and get involved in the union’s grassroots Rapid Response efforts by clicking here.