AN UNHAPPY UNION - The NWU Has Officially Pissed Off This Writer

On December 5, 2025 I filled out an online application/questionnaire for membership in National Writers Union on the NWU website. On December 6, 2025 I was accepted and subsequently paid $486.95 for both my National and International credentials entitling me to membership through January of 2028. This is the first time I have joined a writers union, but it is not the first time I have been a member of a labor union. Nor does it mark the beginning of my professional work as a writer. It is the second time I have voluntarily joined a labor union and I joined with reservations.

My first personal experience with union membership was with CalPERS when I was appointed as a provisional full time employee of The City of Sunnyvale. It was not a choice. It was mandatory and it was not a positive experience. Early in my post college career I worked as an Art teacher for publicly funded Art classes for youth through adults for The City of Sunnyvale Department of Parks and Recreation. Soon I was hired part time as the Arts Assistant. Then, after some time, was appointed provisionally to a newly created (at the time) Performing Arts Recreation Co-ordinator position. The City first advertised the position internally. I applied at that time but had been denied an interview, being told I wasn’t qualified, though I had taught classes in the department, acted as department assistant AND also hold a 4 year degree in the Arts, not to mention had a list of performing Arts experience. Since The City had been unable to locate a suitable candidate internally for the position at that time it was decided by committee that I would be appointed as a provisional employee in the interim to cover the position. City policy dictated I could hold the position provisionally for no more than 12 months. In that time The City was required to cast a larger net and go out for recruitment once again, hold panel interviews, and narrow the choice to three candidates. In the time I was appointed as a provisional employee I was not permitted to approach the union for any reason myself, nor could I ask any other full time regular employee to approach the union on my behalf for any reason. I was, however, required to pay dues which were deducted automatically from my paycheck every month. 

In the time I was appointed provisionally a tenured colleague went out on maternity leave and I covered not only my provisional position, but her position as well. I did so with little difficulty, taking only a one week break with medical note for stress-related issues. I was living on the other side of the country separated from all of my family for the first time in my life and 9-11 happened and there were credible public threats against Arab men like my husband in public spaces. It was more than a little stressful. When The City went out for recruitment at the last minute of my appointment all but two of the program facilitators that reported to me organized a letter campaign requesting The City retain me in my position permanently. They did this without my request, input, or knowledge. I was one of the final three candidates being considered for the position. The other two candidates were one of the instructors that had not participated in the letter writing campaign on my behalf and the other was a woman who had been working for a performing Arts organization in San Jose. The second instructor who did not participate in the letter writing campaign in my support taught a popular Israeli Folk Dance weekly drop-in class. She did not support me because I had insisted she require her students, like the participants of all other drop-in dance programs, sign a liability release form when they arrived to participate in the class. The City required this form of participants of all other drop-in classes. I was required to enforce this liability waiver policy on all other programs and monitor and report on participation for quarterly budget monitoring purposes. I don’t know why The City made an exception for this particular program. 

When I met with the facilitator, Louie Tucker, about the policy she objected then asked me about my last name. My married name is Arabic. She then told me she thought my sympathies towards my husband were causing me to harass her and her students by demanding they sign the liability waiver. This instructor was close personal friends with my direct manager, Diane Moglen. This instructor filed a complaint against me to my manager, Ms. Moglen. I was then called into her office for reprimand. When I asked why The City was making an exception in policy for this program I was told it was because they made “so much money for The City”. I protested because since monitoring the budget was part of my position, I knew the drop-in ballroom dance program facilitated by a different teacher, Bud Ayers, made as much or more money on a quarterly basis. I was not hired on as a regular employee for the position but I was offered to be the assistant for the new hire and was asked to train them at the pay rate of a part time un-benefitted employee. Furthermore, when I asked for justification for not being hired, I was told to just drop the matter given my “mental health condition” and since I was “just going to want to have a baby and eventually quit anyway”. I turned down the insulting demotion and accepted termination. 

Many things that happened in this process were ethically dubious and some of them were out right illegal. All of them were things that CalPERS should have addressed as union infractions. But they didn’t because the union rep, Kay (I can’t recall her last name at this time), was also personal friends with my manager, Ms. Moglen. They regularly had lunch together and socialized outside of work. I was devastated and shocked. I was young and reasoned with myself that I had the rest of my life and career ahead of me. I thought this would just be a small bump in my career. I was eager to get on with my life and work. So, when an attorney contacted me a few weeks after my wrongful termination asking if I was interested in joining a class action suit, I declined. I was young and naive. I should have joined. 

The termination made it impossible for me to find gainful employment thereafter. I had worked for The City for three years in increasing tiers of responsibility. When prospective employers called to check my resume all The City would say was they could only confirm that I had been an employee. They would not give any other response leaving it such that it appeared I was in some way unfit. I sent out hundreds of resumes in the years following my termination and was never able to even get an interview, let alone a job, and the union hadn’t only failed to represent me, but had been complicit in my wrongful termination. And here’s an interesting side fact — I am writing this some 20+ years after the fact and I don’t have any children. The woman they hired for the position, however, went out on maternity leave within the first 12 months of her employment.

My next personal experience with unions came doing community volunteer work when we moved to Santa Rosa, CA. After accepting that I probably wasn’t going to be able to find employment I began seeking out meaningful volunteer work to fill my time and connect me to greater community. I was recruited by a local organization called The California Homemakers Association. Again, youth and naiveté were my handicap. I eventually came to understand through participation the organization, an affiliate of the National Labor Federation, funds Communist Party members and agenda in the United States, something I do not support so I left the organization. However, that does not mean that everything I learned while involved with the organization was inherently bad or without value. I learned a lot about the history of labor and agriculture in the United States, about healthcare, immigration, and immigration law and met a lot of interesting people. I engaged in doing health advocacy for undocumented agricultural workers, many of whom had former ties with the United Farm Workers, the largest agricultural labor union in the western United States. I met a number of women who had been directly abused by UFW members and/or Cesar Chavez, as well as younger women who had recently survived the brutality of human trafficking from South and Central America. I accompanied these women, and some men, to doctors appointments and witnessed first hand the health repercussions of their labor, and heard stories of the atrocities committed under the guise of both unionization and organized crime. 

The first time I joined a union voluntarily was ASCAP. After joining ASCAP I had music stolen. I have written about it extensively in 1UV MONTHLY Magazine. Neither ASCAP or California Lawyers for the Arts were willing to help me and I can’t afford an intellectual property lawyer. The story is particularly horrific.

But none of this is the point of my writing these words today. I write today because this morning I woke to an extensively long email from persons claiming to be elected officials of The National Writers Union regarding a “vote of no confidence” in union committee members and events happening within the union over the past 12 months since I have been a new member….and I’m pissed off and disgusted. 

This is a link to a downloadable pdf version of the email message I received:

NWU ExCom No Confidence Statement 7-16-26.pdf

Download PDF • 476KB

The pdf was provided by the members who sent the email listed at the end of the document. I did not create the pdf nor did I participate in generating the email or it’s message. Nor have I voted in any election since becoming a member. I have only received the email and am responding to it with this rare publicly posted online exclusive article for the professional periodical I write, edit and publish on my own time and my own dime, 1UV MONTHLY Magazine. 

I mentioned earlier that joining NWU does not mark the beginning of my professional work as a writer. I worked non-union affiliated briefly for patch.com in Petaluma, CA and have been published in Lark Books and by the Peace Press in addition to independently covering public events organized by the IAF, UNA, and other civic action groups for community newsletters and blogs, AND I have written and self published a wide catalog of poetry chap books, text books, novels, and Art catalogs.

So, why did I opt to join a writers union? 

I chose to join a union specifically to meet fellow writers AND gain a wider sense of public legitimacy through press credentials to aid my access to land interviews for my magazine, to help recruit fellow writers to contribute, and gain access to press-only events. In the time I have had my credentials it has accomplished none of these goals. In fact, it has made it harder for me to find writers willing to join the efforts of my publication. Because I fund 1UV MONTHLY Magazine on my own dime with the support of my spouse, I can not afford to pay even the minimum $.010 a word demanded by the union. That is not to say I do not offer compensation, or that I am not actively engaged in seeking to secure funding so I may be able to offer financial compensation. Information abou the compensation I offer can be found here. What I offer is fair and just. What I offer supports the 1st Amendment, ethics, and journalistic integrity. But no one from the union or anywhere else for that matter has seen fit to support my authentic and dare I say revolutionary endeavor. Instead they squabble over accused skin color politics and egos. I’m not sure what I paid for. The only concrete thing I have received are two plastic cards in a plastic case and a cheap “Secret Snowflake” holiday exchange gift. I shared copies of my publication with leadership AND provided a “Secret Snowflake” holiday gift with a wholesale value of over $200 USD in addition to my membership fee. I have also in email correspondence offered space gratis in 1UV MONTHLY to NWU and membership and have received no reply. The only interaction I have had with members has come via sporadic and unorganized emails from a litany of persons, of which I can not say with any certainty are any of the individuals named in the email I received this morning as deserving of a “vote of no confidence”. The ONLY interaction I have been offered has been via online Zoom meetings, which I have explained to those I have corresponded with via email, are unacceptable to me due to their vulnerability to corruption. I’m not offering to fly to New York, but I would consider attending face to face meetings of local chapters if they existed. I have requested such information and have offered to publish information about such events in my magazine but have been provided with no such information.

In the mean time, I continue to see concepts and influence of my work show up in network media in print, digital, and audio/visual formats with no credit or compensation. Over the years I have had copious amounts of intellectual property ranging from performance, to writing, to visual work stolen by wealthy industry individuals and organizations and no one comes to my defense. No one stands with or for me…not from any union, law office, guild, or club. And my press credentials from NWU have gotten me nothing -- no interviews, no access, no information. They just take up space in my purse and piss off politicians if I flash them.

The email I received this morning (7/30/26) from four persons claiming to be elected chairs of NWU, means nothing to me. I can’t confirm that they are or aren’t who they say they are, that anything they are talking about is accurate or not and I have yet to generate income to support me spending my dime to travel to knock on doors to investigate properly, nor do I have the time to do so. I certainly don’t have the incentive. They reference by-laws infringement but never bother to cite the specific by-laws they are talking about or offer links to the by-laws, something a good journalist would know to do to prove their argument. And when I consider my personal experiences and look in the mirror at my pale skinned reflection, their accusation of race politics sounds a little too much like the race baiting instructed by The Communist Manifesto to incite race war for the purposes of Communist overthrow. The names of none of the persons affiliated with NWU I have communicated with via email have done ANYTHING to inform me in a meaningful way whether they are a Person Of Color or not. What fucking color are any of you? What color am I? And why is this even being raised as an issue when I’ve never seen the face of ANYONE other than myself who holds NWU press credentials? Fuck you people. You got my money. It was green enough. What have ANY of you done to support or protect me or my journalistic, literary or creative work? NOTHING. Not a God-damn thing. Since joining all I have encountered has been drama and scandal.

In these times, when being a writer and/or artist is contemptible by the government and mainstream industry, I don’t understand why you’re concerned with any color other than the colors of ink or blood. And ANYONE raising concerns over the dubious ethics and implications of AI on media, whether it is digital, or otherwise is a freedom fighter.

If anyone from NWU or any media outlet wishes to schedule a face to face in person meeting (anywhere in California) with me to discuss anything I’ve covered in this article, I can be reached at larissa@1uvgallerystudio.com

You can submit a letter to the editor to be published in a future issue of 1UV MONTHLY Magazine here.

Updated additional information added at 3:40PM Pacific Standard Time 7/30/26: At this time I wish to extend to ANY independent author writing and self publishing with or without the assistance of an editor the option to become a "1UV Member Gallery". Details of cost and member benefits are detailed at this link. 1UV is not a union. It is a philosophy. It is a network. It is a movement.