Facing budget cuts of around $34 million, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, laid off 24 of its staff scientists last week.

Roswell Park Cancer Center Image: flickr/Roswell Park

The fired researchers -- who fall under three titles: research affiliate, lab technician and research associate -- were "physically walked out of the building" last Friday (Mar. 6) with "no warning," Darcy Wells, a spokesperson for the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), the union representing the workers, told The Scientist.

Roswell Park cut the jobs -- which were funded by state money -- as part of a strategic realignment to pay for researchers' salaries through soft-money grants and contracts, according to Buffalo's Business First newspaper. The firings were one of many actions the institute is taking to make up for the $34 million hole in its $514 million annual operating budget, a shortfall that arose because of state funding cuts and wage increases.

"Layoffs are never easy," Roswell Park's president and CEO Donald Trump told The Scientist. "But this is a very tough budgetary season and we, like others, have had to make some hard decisions."

Trump noted that some of the fired researchers could be hired back if new grant money becomes available through either the stimulus package or the NIH's recent budgetary increase. "Those people would be welcome to apply," he said.

Several of Roswell Park's core research services, including confocal microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, were staffed solely by those just given the boot and will no longer be available, Cheri Frank, a prostate cancer research associate who was given the pink slip, told The Scientist. Frank also noted that "some of the people who were laid off do have grant funding," and it's not clear if they'll be able to complete their research projects. "That's part of the problem," she said. "They just abolished these positions."

Trump refuted this claim, saying that the fired staff members were "absolutely not" independent researchers, and no ongoing research projects will be jeopardized by the action.


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