Our Platform
We've conducted over 1,500 face-to-face conversations with research staff members to learn what matters to us. Here are some of the biggest issues we've heard.
Fair compensation
We deserve annual raises that match the pace of inflation. This year, JHU unilaterally denied cost-of-living increases to staff making above $80,000 and gave a 1.8% increase to staff making below $80,000. Inflation was 2.7%, meaning every research staffer took an effective pay cut.
Meanwhile, Ron Daniels' salary rose from $2,358,085 in 2023 to $3,308,178 in 2024; his total compensation, including bonuses, grew by over 8%.
We deserve competitive salaries. Lab tech salaries at JHU start $15,000 lower than at our neighbor institution UMB. Similar discrepancies apply to other research staff roles.
We deserve salary transparency. Research staff report vast discrepancies between the pay range listed for a position and the pay finally offered by HR.
With an annual budget surplus of over $490 million and a $13 billion endowment, JHU can afford it.
Transparent career paths
We deserve the opportunity to make research at Johns Hopkins into a career. We acquire institutional knowledge and provide essential support to projects and labs. We deserve opportunities to continue advancing in our roles.
For the vast majority of research staff, promotions do not follow a regular schedule. Supervisors are often unsure what promotion could be offered next, and face devoting hours of research time to navigating bureaucratic hurdles.
Many staff members wait months or even years to hear back from HR once a promotion has been filed for, and receive little to no backpay for the time in which they waited for a promotion to be approved.
Promotions are frozen in times of "austerity."
Job security and transitional funding
We deserve support from JHU in finding a new lab if a project runs out of funding. We bring valuable expertise to our work!
We deserve transitional funding, severance pay, and just cause protections against unfair discipline and discharge.
Ph.D. workers at JHU won 3 months transitional funding in their union contract. Ph.D. workers won institutional support for finding a new lab while on transitional funding. Ph.D. workers have access to union representation if they are removed from a position without just cause, discriminated against, retaliated against, and more.
Uniform job descriptions
Many research staff report performing the duties associated with a more advanced job title, often alongside peers doing the same work for more pay.
Currently, staff have no meaningful recourse if asked to perform work outside the scope of their job description.
Job descriptions protect hybrid work.
Commuter benefits
We deserve affordable parking. Monthly parking costs $120/month on the main medical campus – if you're lucky enough to get a spot. Just this year, Hopkins unilaterally ended discounts on daily employee parking, asking staff to shoulder a 33% increase.
For staff working in Maryland, public transit reimbursements max out at $60/month. Many staff members spend more than this each week.
Overtime pay
We are dedicated to our experiments and our research. We deserve pay for every hour worked.
This is not an exhaustive list. We're fighting to protect all of our current benefits, and for improved tuition remission, retirement benefits, increased support for parents and caregivers, better insurance, and more.
Our exact bargaining proposals will be shaped by more input from research staff once we win our union election and are preparing to sit down with the administration.