So, some background first. I'm a union organizer. I was the lead organizer for the campaign to organize the QA workers at Activision Publishing and forming AQAU-CWA, one of the largest tech unions in North America. In December of 2024, 9 months after our union won recognition, I was fired allegedly for "unprofessional conduct". I was unemployed/underemployed for the entirety of 2025, but I was earning pay from my union because of my ULP against the company. I continued to support the workers at AQAU as much as I could from afar, and I was elected to be the chair of my Local's Organizing Committee. I'm also extremely proud of my local. We were one of the first unions to sign on to support the mass strike on January 23rd. We officially supported protesters by recruiting picket line marshals for ICE protests, and a lot of workers were also participating unofficially in other things like rapid response. We helped organize the worker assemblies in Minneapolis that resulted in a broadly unified movement against ICE that is still happening.

In January, I started at a new job doing tech work for researching cancer (aka "dry lab research") at a famous nonprofit. It pays more than double what I was earning at Activision, with better benefits. They're also infamously anti-union. I've been slowly gathering information to start organizing a union there, but 2 incidents occurred recently that really drove it into high gear. I injured my knee during my move, which required me to take a week off. Granted it was pretty sudden, but my manager was a little upset about it. He wanted me to give more notice, which I understand. I probably should have addressed the problem before it got that bad anyway. Then, I asked for vacation a couple weeks later. He got very upset that it was so soon after my injury and that I asked for more time than I had PTO (common practice at Activision, didn't know ¯⁠\⁠(⁠ツ⁠)/⁠¯ ). I got upset because it almost meant that I didn't get to go on my annual fishing trip, so I've started ramping up my organizing efforts.

I've had several friends try to tell me that it isn't worth it, that I should just "punch in, work, go home", or that I could bide my time and "use the money from this job to do other organizing". I don't understand this. I've explained to them that this is more than a passion, it's how I believe we will achieve a better world. Unions are the basis of my political beliefs. I know that I could lose my job. I know that I got pissed off and ramped up over petty bullshit. But it's more than that. It's about workers asking for what is rightfully ours, the world.