When Systems Meant to Protect Become Another Source of Harm

Unions were created to protect workers — to be a shield during moments of vulnerability, injustice, and power imbalance. In theory, they exist to advocate, to listen, and to stand with workers when institutions fail them.

Yet my lived experience has been far from this promise.

Instead of support, I was met with further challenges. Instead of being heard, I was labeled. My frustration — rooted in injustice and real pain — was reframed as aggression. My advocacy for myself was interpreted as being “difficult.” When I later sought help from another union representative, I was told, “I’ve read all about you in our system. You like to one-up representatives.”

What does it mean when self-advocacy is pathologized?

What does it say about a system when asserting one’s rights becomes a character flaw rather than a necessity?

Advocacy Is Not Aggression

For many racialized workers, particularly Black workers, there is a familiar and exhausting pattern: frustration is misread, pain is minimized, and assertiveness is labelled as hostility. When we push back against injustice, we are often described as “too much,” “too emotional,” or “aggressive.”

But advocacy is not aggression.

Advocacy is survival in systems that were not built with us in mind.

When people who are meant to support you during difficult moments instead add layers of judgment and microaggression, the harm compounds. It raises an important question: do we really need another system that invalidates us and quietly radicalizes workers simply for naming harm?

A Stark Contrast: Being Truly Heard

When I met with my lawyers, the experience was entirely different. They were compassionate. They listened. They understood the depth of my frustration without dismissing it. They did not reduce my concerns to personality traits or labels. They saw the issue for what it was: a worker responding to injustice.

That contrast is telling.

If legal advocates can show empathy and understanding, why do unions — institutions built on solidarity — so often fail racialized workers in the same way?

The Absence of Representation

One cannot ignore the lack of diversity within many local union structures. Representation matters — not as symbolism, but as safety.

When racialized workers rarely see themselves reflected in union leadership or among representatives, it becomes difficult to trust the system. How can we feel safe seeking help when our lived experiences are misunderstood, minimized, or met with microaggressions?

Without cultural competence, without education on racialized workers’ experiences, and without intentional inclusion, unions risk becoming another gatekeeping institution rather than a source of collective power.

I Will Not Be Silenced

I will not stop advocating for myself.

I will not accept labels that are used to silence, diminish, or discredit me.

And I will continue to advocate for Black and racialized representation in local unions — representatives who are educated, self-aware, and grounded in anti-oppressive practice. Representatives who understand that frustration does not equal aggression, and that speaking up is not an act of defiance, but an act of self-respect.

Unions must ask themselves hard questions if they genuinely want to serve all workers:

• Who feels safe coming to us?

• Whose voices are dismissed?

• Who is labelled instead of listened to?

Solidarity without accountability is not solidarity at all.

And advocacy — especially from racialized workers — should never be treated as a threat.