Carlos Jimenez is the Young Worker Project Coordinator for Jobs with Justice.
Over the last decade, the Bush administration pushed the agendas of the corporate and financial sectors so successfully that they are now deemed “too big to fail.” This trend recently brought our economy to the edge of a cliff until the public bailed out these institutions with our tax dollars. Now the financial “experts” say the economy is recovering, but things down here still look pretty bad to me. The Bush years had a terrible impact on working people – especially young workers.
Now here we are in the Obama era, and the many young people who made it possible continue to face an uphill battle on many issues central to their daily lives like wages and health care.
A new report by the AFL-CIO and Working America highlights a power base noticeably absent in national discussions about the economy in spite of their major contributions to the last election – young workers. Here are just some of the findings:
- More than half of young workers earn less than $30,000 dollars! Seven out of ten do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses. More than one in three live with their parents.
- Nearly 2 in 5 young workers have had to delay further education or professional development due to financial worries.
- When asked about their career goals, more than one in three young workers identified having enough time for personal or family priorities as a top career goal, and almost one third called making a difference in people’s lives a top career goal.
- When asked who is most responsible for the country’s economic woes, close to 60% of young workers place the blame on Wall Street and banks or CEOs.
The AFL-CIO report makes clear that young workers are really busy – dividing their time between school, work, civic activity, family, and personal interests. However, that doesn’t mean that young people aren’t interested in politics. Thirty-five percent of young workers say they voted for the first-time in 2008, and nearly 3 out of 4 now keep tabs on government and public affairs. Sixty-three percent say they would participate in a political rally or demonstration, but say that they aren’t being asked or given the opportunity.
Several labor institutions have built programs to engage this young power base and are having success. The Wall Street Journal reported today that Richard Trumka, who is expected to be elected the next leader of the AFL-CIO later this month, plans to send 1,000 organizers to help unions recruit young workers and to visit college campuses.
Tools like social networking sites and online mediums are a great way to connect to some younger members, but first it is important to find concrete meaningful actions in which young workers can participate. Young workers must be visible in the leadership and the face of the labor movement in order to engage their peers.
These efforts to recruit young workers require flexibility and a long-term commitment. It could mean unions trying new ways to engage and retain members to overcome challenges like job turnover, economic changes, and job market shifts. It could mean challenging the current laws about who is allowed to be part of a labor union. Taking on issues that are not traditional union issues, like making college education affordable, could be another important step towards engaging young workers.
If the “other” America mentioned during the election season is going to get issues like job creation, education, public investment, trade, the war, or immigration addressed, we need learn to to work efficiently, strategically, and collectively across generations. We need a newly rebuilt and reinvigorated labor movement in this country to rebuild the middle class. Engaging young workers will provide a vehicle to truly take back the reins of power for us all.
