Save lives; kill cuts

In the thousands, researchers, other workers, and community allies rallied across the U.S. sounding the alarm on cuts to research, health, and education

SEATTLE, WA (April 9, 2025) — Workers at universities and their allies gathered nationwide Tuesday to protest cuts to higher education and life-saving research. Devastating cuts from Elon Musk’s ideological drive to reshape the federal government threaten serious public health harm; and in Washington, austerity measures, including furloughs and benefit cuts, are currently under consideration in the State Legislature, compounding concern.

At the University of Washington campus in Seattle, workers — represented by UAW Local 4121, SEIU Local 925, WFSE/AFSCME Council 28 — stood shoulder to shoulder with their colleagues, many of whom spoke about their work researching cures to life-threatening and debilitating diseases, protecting clean air and water, supporting educational opportunities, and caring for community members’ health.

Photo: WSLC

It’s no exaggeration to say that Trump and Musk’s cuts will cost lives. Recently issued Executive Orders attacking the NIH, NSF, and dismantling the Department of Education jeopardize medical progress in areas like cancer, viral pandemics, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s, while threatening the jobs of researchers and educators across the country. These attacks also threaten some of our most vulnerable community members’ access to care and support. 

In protest, workers at UW staged a die-in Tuesday, putting front and center the devastating loss these extreme cuts would cause.

Workers hold up signs representing the consequences of cuts. Photo: WSLC

In a statement, workers shared why they were stepping up to protest.

“I’m proud to be researching ways to better detect ovarian cancer after losing my mom to the disease two years ago. There are still no routine screening tests for ovarian cancer, which would save lives. Without funding from the NIH, breakthroughs won’t happen and that’s a tremendous loss for research and the general public,” said Mari Hoffman, an Academic Student Employee in Molecular & Cellular Biology at the University of Washington and member of UAW 4121.

Beyond lethality, defunding and politicizing research, health, and education brings more loss; with a projected cost to the public of billions of dollars, cuts to life-saving research are the textbook definition of a lose-lose.

Photo: WSLC