How To Become A Union Representative: What It Is and Career Path

What is a union representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a union representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $26.83 an hour? That's $55,811 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -3% and produce -1,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreUnion RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

4.4

Avg. Salary $55,811

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 7.84%

Black or African American 9.17%

Hispanic or Latino 20.00%

Unknown 5.15%

White 57.23%

Gender

female 48.12%

male 51.88%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.0

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.4

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a union representative

Explore union representative education requirements

Most common union representative degrees

Bachelor's

47.8 %

Associate

17.2 %

Master's

15.1 %

Start to develop specific union representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Arbitration	18.20%
Collective Bargaining Agreements	16.04%
Contract Negotiations	15.01%
Labor Relations	11.09%
Contract Language	9.84%

Complete relevant union representative training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New union representatives learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a union representative based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real union representative resumes.

Research union representative duties and responsibilities

Manage extensive grievance and arbitration procedures.
Process these transactions through the computerized system - PeopleSoft.
Serve as an ERT team-member and certify in DI water.
Perform regenerations on DI systems and perform operations on 1200 ton chillers.

Prepare your union representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your union representative resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a union representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable union representative resume templates

Build a professional union representative resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your union representative resume.