In this essay, the author explains how teaching assistant (TA) unions work to the benefit not only of the graduate students who are their members but also of the writing programs that employ them. While university administrations understand unions to be bothersome at best and forces of evil at their worst, unions are essential to the maintenance of equitable work rules and the resolution of disparities in the workplace by an otherwise largely powerless and exploited workforce. It's the transparency enforced by the union--making plain the working relationship between employer (the WPA) and the employee (the TA), the insistence upon training and professional development opportunities, and the mutually agreed-upon mechanism for resolving grievances--that serves as the most valuable contribution of the unions, and not (only) their insistence upon a living wage and a distribution of health benefits. (Contains 12 resources.)