Ask ReproJobs: Should I Include Union Organizing on My Resume?

Dear ReproJobs,

After spending the last 2.5 years unionizing my workplace, including staying on much longer than I would have liked to ensure we secured our first contract, I'm finally actively applying for jobs again. Like many people in similar shoes are finding, it's bleak out there, and I've been having a major internal battle about whether or not to include my work with our union on my resume/in my cover letter/mentioning it in interviews. It's a significant part of the work I've done in recent years, especially as the organization I work for has greatly struggled to do a lot of substantive work (especially since 2020), and I'm proud of it. However, even though plenty of orgs in repro world may claim to support labor rights or workers, I'm worried that being so loud and proud about my experience may be signaling to employers that I would be a "problem" hire. As more and more orgs unionize I know other repro workers are likely having similar experiences, so what should our approach to this be?

Sincerely,

- Proud Yet Realistic Union Organizer

Dear Proud Yet Realistic Union Organizer,

This tension is so very real, and we think it feels similar to people who want to apply for work outside of abortion but a company might dismiss their application if their abortion work is listed on it. The question to ask yourself is this: if this workplace isn’t accepting of your work, is this actually a workplace you want to spend all of your time at? The position may be your dream job, but if it’s an unsupportive workplace, you won’t be very happy there. You are dedicated to workers’ rights and that won’t change. Even if an organization hires you because you are not an out loud union organizer, that doesn’t change who you are and will probably cause problems in the long run. If a workplace doesn’t want to hire you because you organized your coworkers for fair pay and labor rights, that’s a sign that it isn’t a stable and equitable workplace to begin with. Of course, union busting is widespread within repro and jobs are hard to come by. But, do you want to be in this exact place in 1-3 years, finding another job because the workplace was unsupportive? More workplaces are unionizing and leadership is changing, so the feeling towards unions is shifting, slowly. You should be proud of your union organizing experience. It makes you a fantastic asset to the organization and you should be proud to brandish it in your application.

Sincerely,

ReproJobs