Authorship Dispute: Soft threats from funders to cancel project unless they are listed as coauthors A lot of backstory but I will try to be brief. I am employee of USA university but work abroad at a research nonprofit serving industry. (industry meaning an industry in general; many companies) My assigned handlers at the research nonprofit have power to ban me from the research non-profit facility, which would lead to unemployment and loss of residency. Access to the research nonprofit facility is a type of funding because academics don't normally get to work on tools this expensive. The (non-scientist) handlers don't help train me on equipment, get access to the research nonprofit facility and its resources, don't plan experiments, don't collect or analyze data, etc. When I was starting out and asked the handlers for help they indicated I was external and any issues I had with access or training were my own problem, and that asking the handlers for help was inconveniencing the handlers from their own work activities.

Generally the handlers are mean to me and take away opportunities to present my data to the industry sponsors which are afforded to my peers at research nonprofit who are internal. The handlers invoke the contract which gives the handlers all discretion in this area. My USA bosses threaten me with the handlers banning me from the research nonprofit facility if I do not make slides about my data and let the handlers present it. When the handlers present my data in situations where they don't think I will be able to see, the handlers just put their own name next to it, not mine or any of the USA people/institutions. My friendly colleagues at research nonprofit who do see such presentations then show me what the handlers are doing. I kept my head down and worked independently of them for a year and a half to get data in this tough situation. Now that my contract is up and the handlers and USA bosses can't hold employment/residency as leverage anymore I would like to publish my data ethically and independent of the handlers that do not satisfy any criteria for authorship I am aware of. 

Including the handlers as coauthors would also be against the Publication Policy for the research nonprofit and EU university that handles my Visa. However USA universities I am aware of do not have a written Publication Policy and research nonprofit would likely defer to the USA universities in a formal dispute. USA bosses say I need to put handlers as coauthors because not doing so would threaten the project. Since the handlers presented the slides I authored to industry USA bosses say that counts as coauthorship of any publication resulting from my time here. Also the handlers are managers of some of my peers who did contribute to my work. What I see as threats of being banned from the facility if I do not list them as coauthors USA bosses say is actually a type of direct support of me that I should be rewarding them with coauthorship. 

Sorry, I feel that was already too long. Any advice on how to handle this? Just don't write the paper? Create a messy dispute? Acquiesce? I already have 30 or so papers, so while I would like to show productivity from this stint it won't make or break my next career move.
Moo You need to get a new job, and you need to submit this work for publication the second that these people no longer have any power over you. It sounds like they have copies of all of your things, which unfortunately means that if you just leave and don’t do anything you could wind up with them publishing your paper(s).

If they don’t have the ability to publish your work, you have more flexibility. I have no idea what your professional situation is like or if your work is time-sensitive, but you do have the serious option of delaying publication until you’re further away from them. There are pros and cons to each option, it’s pretty context dependent, but if you can take the hit for not publishing, letting the paper languish they might drop it. On the other hand racing and publishing it without them might make them give up. It depends on the psychology of the handlers, but if you can guess the lengths they’re willing to go, you might able to get out of the situation without having an authorial dispute. Both choices could also lead to further conflict: either ten hounding you about it indefinitely when you don’t publish the paper or them contacting the journal and trying to formally dispute the paper.

Your main goal for an authorship dispute should be to get as many walls between you and the handlers as you can. Straight up don’t talk to them as much as you can. They’re already in violation of their own policies and of the EU University policies (it sounds like there’s a partnership between the non-profit and the EU University), which is a great start. Contact the ethics office at the EU University and explain the situation, including providing any documentation that you have of what work they did or did not do. From then on, you can forward any angry emails to the person in the ethics office working with you. If the non-profit has an ethics office, then you can use them for this purpose too. You should also talk to the ethics office at your university and feel out how receptive they would be to helping you out. This kind of filibustering is incredibly effective in all kinds of disputes.

However, the best wall you can put between you and these people is the journal itself. Submit your paper(s) to journals that have clearly defined authorship definitions, or even better require submissions to document authorial contributions. At the end of the day the journal is the final arbiter of who gets on the paper and who doesn’t.

Another option would be to fake conceding. Split the work up into multiple papers and divided it such that the stuff they’re claiming they touched is all in one paper and the core concepts are all in the other. It’s easy enough for the joint paper to languish in revisions while your other paper gets published. How effective this is can wildly change depending on the exact circumstances though.