Speech at the “Hopkins Respect Baltimore” rally of WUFU Baltimore

On Wednesday, October 15th of 2025, at 17:30, the With Us For Us Baltimore (WUFU Baltimore), a coalition of several Baltimore organizations fighting so that non-profit universities and hospitals in Baltimore pay their fair share of taxes for the services that the city provides to them, making them accountable to the communities they interact with, called for the rally “Hopkins Respect Baltimore” to protest so that the Johns Hopkins University is more accountable to Baltimore. This rally had four main request for Hopkins: (1) to pay its fair share of taxes, (2) to eliminate the JHU private police, (3) to stop the elimination of trees due to the construction of the Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Institute (DSAI Institute), and (4) to stop union busting within the institution.
At this rally, I had the privilege of talking in the name of our recently certified postdoc union Hopkins PRO-UAW as one of the member of the Bargaining Committee of recently formed our union. Below the speech, I pronounced at the event. A full video of the rally, including the speech transcribed below, is available at the instagram page of WUFU Baltimore.

Hello everyone! I am here to speak on behalf of the postdocs here at Johns Hopkins. I am also a proud member of the Bargaining Committee of our recently certified union, Hopkins PRO-UAW.

As postdoctoral workers, we are fundamental to the stated mission of the university: to educate its students and cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world. However, as critical thinkers at this institution, we can only wonder: Does improving the conditions under which we, postdocs, work at the university not help with this mission? Does accumulating property in Baltimore without paying its due taxes help with this mission? Does having a Hopkins police help with this mission?

As postdocs, many of us internationals, we are facing difficult, uncertain times under the current administration. The research funding that many of us took for granted is under threat, putting not only life-saving research at risk but the whole US scientific ecosystem. Moreover, the immigration rules seem to change every day, making us feel as insecure as possible. As we mobilize to save research funding and stop harsh crackdowns on immigration, how can we expect the solidarity of our fellow Baltimoreans if we are not solidary with them?

In these times more than ever, universities, specially world-renowned ones as Hopkins, should strive to represent their academic and democratic values in every institutional decision. As an educational and research institution, Hopkins should make itself accountable and listen to all the communities it interacts with: its students, its postdocs, its researchers, its faculty, its staff, and not only these internal groups but also the Baltimore residents, with whom it shares this city.

Sadly, as of today, this is not the case. This is why we, postdocs, formed our union. This is why we are here: because we believe that universities, and that includes Hopkins, should listen and respond to the communities within and around them!