The Pacific Media Workers Guild is thrilled to welcome a new group of workers to our Local, the Autistic Self Advocacy Union. This unit is comprised of 14 members from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, a non-profit devoted to disability rights advocacy. The ASAU has unanimous support and is seeking voluntary recognition from their management. We’re sharing their mission statement below, both in Formal Language and Plain Language. Follow their union campaign on various social media platforms @AutSelfAdvUnion and on their website https://cwalocals.org/asau.

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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is a 501c(3) nonprofit created by and for autistic people. ASAN believes that the goal of autism advocacy should be a world in which autistic people enjoy equal access, rights, and opportunities. We work to empower autistic people across the world to take control of our own lives and the future of our common community. ASAN also seeks to organize autistic communities to ensure our voices are heard in the national conversation about us. 

To that end, Autistic Self Advocacy Union (ASAU) seeks to cultivate greater equity, transparency, and collaboration in our workplace so we can better live those values through our work. We want staff at all levels to be a part of the decision making processes. We want to actualize and operationalize our equity plan. ASAU wants to truly and meaningfully center and uplift autistic people who are marginalized even within the autistic community. Above all, we want to further cultivate a respectful, equitable, and accessible work environment that allows all staff members to sustainably thrive and, in turn, more effectively serve our community. 

ASAU wants ASAN to succeed and have a positive legacy as a crucial part of the disability advocacy world. Unionizing will help us make ASAN the best it can be. 

Disabled people, including autistic people, face low pay, poor treatment, and ableism at work, when we can find work at all. Unionization is a proven way for workers to protect their rights and increase their pay and benefits: unionized workers earn more than non-unionized workers and enjoy better health insurance and paid sick and leave time. Unionized workers with disabilities, in particular, earn on average 30% more than non-unionized disabled workers, and have more protections against discrimination and poor treatment at work. The Autistic Self Advocacy Union wants to set an example for all workers with disabilities: unionization is possible and is valuable in creating a more equitable workplace for all.  

ASAN’s motto is “Nothing About Us, Without Us!” This means autistic people should be involved in all decisions that impact our lives. It is not fair that ASAN’s motto is not applied to ASAN’s employees. The Autistic Self Advocacy Union believes that if ASAN claims to represent the autistic community, it needs to start by listening to its staff and taking our input seriously. Nothing about us without all of us!

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The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) is a nonprofit made by and for autistic people. ASAN thinks autistic people should have all the same rights as non-autistic people. Autistic people should get the same chances to do well in life as non-autistic people. 

The goal of ASAN’s advocacy is to make the world a better place for autistic people. ASAN works to help autistic people around the world learn about advocacy. Advocacy helps autistic people take control of our own lives. Advocacy helps us fight for our communities, so everyone can learn how to support autistic people. ASAN believes autistic people have the power to make our voices heard in conversations about autism. No matter where those conversations happen, autistic people should get to be a part of them.

To help ASAN reach those goals, ASAN staff made the Autistic Self Advocacy Union (ASAU). A union is a group of workers who come together to protect their rights at work. 

ASAU wants ASAN to be a place where we can work well together. We want work to be a place where we all get treated fairly. And we want staff at all levels to be a part of making decisions at ASAN. 

ASAU wants to put ASAN’s equity plan into action. This will help ASAN center the voices of autistic people who get left out of the autistic community. For example, autistic people of color and non-speaking autistic people. 

ASAU wants our workplace to be accessible, and to respect who we are. This will help us feel better about ourselves and our jobs. And when ASAN staff feel better, we can do a better job helping autistic people.

Autistic people, and people with other disabilities, deal with many problems at work. We have to deal with low pay. We have to deal with ableism, and being treated badly because of who we are. Many disabled people can’t find work at all.

Starting a union helps workers protect their rights. Unions help protect people from getting treated badly or unfairly at work. Unions help workers get better pay and benefits. Benefits are things like health insurance and paid time off.

There is lots of proof that unions work. We know that unions work well for workers with disabilities. Workers with disabilities in a union got paid more than workers with disabilities who were not in a union. The workers in a union made 30% more money than the workers without a union. 

ASAU wants to set an example for all workers with disabilities. We want to show that disabled workers can make a union. We want to show how important it is to make workplaces that treat every worker like they are important.

But what’s most important is that ASAU wants ASAN to do well. We want other people to see ASAN as a big part of the disability advocacy movement. Making a union will help us make ASAN the best it can be. 

ASAN’s motto is “Nothing About Us, Without Us!” This means autistic people should get to be a part of all decisions that affect our lives. It is not fair that ASAN’s motto is not applied to ASAN’s workers. The Autistic Self Advocacy Union believes that ASAN needs to listen to its staff. ASAN says it speaks for the whole autistic community. That means ASAN needs to listen to what the workers at ASAN want, and take us seriously. Nothing about us without all of us!

ASAU Signatories