The only truly useful job advice I’ve ever received has come from friends who’ve been on their union’s bargaining team.

Last year, after a Democratic Socialists of America socialist night school, I watched an emergency room nurse answer a basic question about work by whipping out a stack of bound contracts. Within a few minutes, he had a table full of baristas, nonprofit grunts, and building maintenance staffers oohing and aahing while he fielded questions about how long it takes to break $100,000 per year salary, how many days off one can squeeze out of a nontraditional schedule, and which sub-specialties in nursing might best suit each of their dispositions.

In contrast, a few months later, it became clear that budget cuts meant my long-term contract job as a food science lab tech will end on schedule very soon. There haven’t been any new vacancies all year I could try to jump to, so I waylaid another comrade who’s a leader in the nearest university technical workers union and asked for advice finding a new lab tech job. He suggested a quick tour back through community college to get licensed to work in hospital labs — if I can contain plant diseases, keeping quarantine in a medical lab isn’t too different. It would nearly double my salary, and I’d get the protection, and opportunity, of joining a fighting union. Most importantly, vacancies abound.