Ask a Union Organizer: How can I speak up for Palestine while keeping my job?

We’ve all seen examples of censorship of pro-Palestinian speech, and workers who push their management to discuss Palestine are being reprimanded and punished. How can I live my values while keeping my job safe?

• Scared Worker of the World

Dear Scared Worker,

I’ve been sitting on this question for a little while. It’s not that I didn’t want to answer it—it’s that I didn’t have an answer for you, yet. 

If you’ve checked out “Workers in the Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Movement Call for a Ceasefire in Palestine, an End to the Occupation, and Protections for Workers’ Speech,” you might know that pro-Palestinian speech and sentiment in the workplace has not been well received by the repro movement. In fact, workers spoke with several journalists about the censorship, stalling, workplace abuse, and retaliation happening within repro organizations for the past six months. In short, it’s a problem—and we’ll have to organize and support each other to get through this period of political repression.

Let’s dive into the levels of engagement in pro-Palestinian organizing you might do in the workplace, and each level’s paired harassment type. These examples and tips are meant to both prepare you and empower you; You have the moral, intellectual, and even legal high ground when you speak up for the people of Palestine, and question the institutions who profit from your labor. As a worker—or even better, as a collective of workers—it is your right to make requests of your employer. It is a moral good to challenge the normalization of genocide; I want to help you do that.

Here are some examples of solidarity actions your fellow repro workers have taken:

1) Discussing Palestine online or organizing for Palestine, publicly, in a personal capacity —> This is the least professionally risky way to show up, but there’s some important considerations first, especially if you’re in a workplace with a history of censorship: 

• Are your social media accounts public, or is your organizing very public-facing? 

• Do your coworkers—and more importantly, bosses—follow you on your personal social media? 

• Is your name Google-able, and able to be connected to organizing for Palestinian liberation? 

• Are personal social media accounts a form of communication at work, whether implicit or explicit? Are they routinely checked or shared?

• Does your workplace have a policy on personal social media or personal political engagement?

Once you have answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of surveillance your workplace is engaging in, or what personal information they may have access to. From there, operate within your risk tolerance.

2) Encouraging internal conversation in the workplace about Palestine, whether individually or as a unit —> This is not necessarily risky, especially if your workplace is responsive to politics, news, global events, social media, or election work. However, no matter what your day job is, to see violence enacted on fellow human beings, on this scale, has impacted all of us. 

Workers have been retaliated against for steering related conversations toward the genocide in Gaza, asking for space to discuss the genocide and its impacts as a staff, or encouraging trauma-informed navigation of this human rights crisis from their bosses. However, it is entirely within your right to start conversations on Palestine—yes, even if your organization is “apolitical,” or a 501(c)3. Asking for an internal conversation is a reasonable request from an individual or a unit, whether it be with more of an HR lens or an ask to dedicate capacity to the cause (more on that below). My biggest tip on this, which I will repeat, is to keep requests in writing, remain pleasant and professional, and be prepared with arguments to back up the connection between your work and what’s happening in Gaza. 

And if you work in repro, start here. Repro workers have long demanded reproductive justice adherence from their employers, and our collective attention on the reproductive experiences of Palestinians shows the powerful solidarity in our movement. 

3) Encouraging coworkers or the organization itself to donate to Palestinian families and aid organizations, whether individually or as a collective unit—>.   Asks for material support for Gazans can be done on a 1:1 basis between values-aligned coworkers. It is an effective way to make a tangible difference using your workplace. If you have a Union, this also can be an inter-Union effort and organized through Union channels. (I am always partial to keeping digital communication separate via separate email accounts, though—just in case.)

It gets trickier when making an ask of the organization itself, especially if you’re coming to them as an individual. The easiest way to do this would be if your employer has a donation-matching program. While not many tiny repro workplaces have this, those of you who do can ask your employer to match your recurring donation to a humanitarian organization; I’d recommend Anera, an aid organization serving Palestinians on the ground. Another option would be asking to create an internal fundraising drive, which can be facilitated through workplace community spaces (e.g. org dodgeball league), workplace events (e.g. asking company events to invest in Palestinian businesses, invite organizing or education groups), or even a simple, internal Slack “campaign.” 

Again, you know your workplace best. Operate within your risk tolerance, put all requests to management in writing, prepare your arguments, and kill ‘em with kindness!

4) Encouraging the organization or the collective unit to participate in a public action in support of a ceasefire (e.g. petition, statement, letter, day of action, student encampment)—> Dedicating organizational capacity is quite a political and emotional concept in repro, isn’t it? When we start getting into organizations themselves using their public platform to call for Palestinian liberation or uplift Palestinian voices—I’ll mention again, the bare minimum ask from Palestinians surviving genocide—it will quickly become an issue of “organizational capacity.”

In these workplaces, where burnout is rife and overwork is expected in pursuit of a political cause, we are not taught to be protective over our humanity, our community, or our health—we have been taught to be protective over the work. We do not want to defeat hostile lawsuits and abortion bans because it protects our ability to work 40-60 hours a week: we want to defeat these forces because we want liberation for our communities. 

Using organizational capacity to show up for Palestinians requires an anti-capitalist shift in our thinking and a dynamic view of political organizing and reproductive justice; and there’s no promise your bosses or Management will do it, especially if there’s been hostility and retaliation in the past seven months. I encourage you to do it, for yourself or for your Union, anyway.

Again, there is no harm in making reasonable requests of your employer, especially if your workplace or role is responsive to politics, news, global events, social media, or election work. Follow all my previous advice when making requests, but here’s a new warning: Doing something as an organization or doing organic actions for Palestine as an org is when things might get weird. 

Even if there hasn’t been retaliation or censorship at your workplace, even if you’ve gotten the implicit sense that your employer is sympathetic to the cause, remember the ecosystem we’re in right now. Pro-genocide, pro-war propaganda has been systematically delivered to everyone in the United States not only for the past seven months, but for our entire lives. If all goes right, finding a collective stance or an action that feels right will require serious articulation and discussion between staff and Management. If all goes wrong, there is serious risk of workplace abuse and trauma, especially if you’re a member of an impacted community—especially if you’re Palestinian. 

To get results while keeping your job AND sanity: Move slow. Stay data-based. Cite experts. Use the collective—whether it’s your Union, your movement, or mission-aligned organizations—when you can. Keep it political and related to the work; avoid personal attacks and distractions like identity politics. This will be the most effective way to ward off straw-men arguments and attacks from pro-genocide employers. Remain composed and put on that shit-eating grin!

5) Using Union power to demand tangible action shifts from Management in alignment with human rights and Palestinian liberation (e.g. divestment from the Israeli apartheid state, ceasing support of pro-genocide politicians or those funded by AIPAC, Union-wide organizing for divestment) —> Now we’re organizing! These examples of tangible action shifts are, in the language of our employers, definitely SMARTIE goals! These are powerful moves in challenging the normalization of genocide and the investment in an apartheid state; needless to say, powerful moves elicit powerful reactions.

Economic demands are higher stakes—anyone who’s been at the bargaining table can tell you that! Your employer’s bottom line is ensuring the survival of the organization while remaining well-paid, whether they’re for- or non-profit. Just like “capacity,” organizational budgets and financial decisions are very political and emotional things for repro orgs, especially post-Dobbs. Challenging the economic decisions of higher-ups, even without a history of political suppression, is hard on the ego. Let them have their moment, but remain focused, professional, pleasant, and prepared!

If you are an individual without Union protection, honestly, I would not recommend pursuing this option for workplace organizing. While asking questions is fine depending on your workplace policies, it’s hard to make economic demands of your workplace without the power and protection of a Union—they can fire you or lay you off too easily. Do your research, ask your questions, but perhaps explore another option on this list to make an impact at work. In fact, maybe use this as the opportunity to organize your workplace!

6) Using Union and organizational capacity to join Palestinian youth in the streets for a Free Palestine —> There are fewer examples than I’d like of repro organizations publicly aligning themselves with organizations like Palestinian Youth Movement or Students for Justice in Palestine. There is this resistance to Palestinian-led organizing groups and efforts from the progressive left, which many repro organizations sit in. While I do think it would be productive to sit with why we are uncomfortable supporting Palestinians in mobilizing against their own genocide, I do not want to give the impression that repro workers are not engaging with or leading these groups. We are.

Because of widespread workplace retaliation, many repro workers active in the Palestinian liberation movement have not been able to push their organizations to show up in a way representative of their staff or community. While that’s often presenting itself, unfortunately, as organizations unwilling to even acknowledge the genocide in Gaza, it can also show up in who the organization decides to platform. 

Being strategic and holistic with how we show up in moments of global conflict is important; that’s why the organizing work of collectives like Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now is vital, and why we should engage with them. But when we refuse to educate ourselves about the occupation from the very mouths of those most impacted—Palestinians and Palestinian-Americans—that should raise some flags. 

So if you’re asking your organization to follow or collaborate with Palestinian organizers, you’ll need to make a convincing case for rededicating organizing capacity—especially during an election year. This definitely would not work for every type of repro workplace, but if your organization has (c)4 filing status and/or a good amount of political organizing power, it’s worth fighting for. And if you have a Union behind you, even better. Prepare your arguments, keep it in writing, take notes on calls or any in-person meetings, stay pleasant and professional, and work any personal connections you may have. If you’ve been organizing in your own capacity with a Palestinian youth collective and have relationships with the organizers, having that personal connection and trust always helps!

This is another case where, if you don’t have a Union, I’d trust your own risk assessment. This might just be an encouragement to join the Palestinian youth in your personal time!

When faced with the genocide denial and censorship plaguing our movement, it truly does feel like all we have is each other. It’s the repro workers you see at your office, at your clinic, on Slack, on Signal, even on Twitter that have kept each other sane and helped triage as their fellow workers faced threats to their livelihoods and persons. The solidarity we extend to Palestinians is the same solidarity we have lovingly extended to each other, even if we’ve never seen each others’ faces or never been to each others’ cities. We feel this solidarity because we are acting out of our shared humanity and love for other human beings. 

We care about humanity because we are a part of it. Despite all the darkness being thrown our way, I hope that fact provides you the tiniest glimmer of light.

Free Palestine and sending love your way,

Fatima delGordo