As a recent graduate of Florida State University and current National Coordinator for the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP), I am one of the few young workers among my friends and family who is a member of a labor union. This means that unlike many of my peers I have a healthcare plan, a retirement savings account, and a say in my working conditions and wages.
Sadly, this is not the case for the majority of young workers in the U.S. As shown in the report released today by the AFL-CIO & Working America, more than half of young workers under age 35 earn less than $30,000 per year. Thirty-one percent of young workers report that they have no health insurance and only forty-seven percent have retirement plans at work.
Even though many young workers have a college degree, they still aren’t able to pay their bills and become financially independent. Twenty-four percent say they do not make enough to pay their monthly bills. More than one in three workers under age 35 live at home with their parents.
These startling statistics clearly show that young workers must become a crucial part of the labor movement.
Unionization has been shown to be the path to economic stability and the best stimulus we can give to our nation. If we are going to build a better, more sustainable economy, what better solution than to train, educate and organize our young people so the U.S. can become the best that it can be?
For the past 10 years, the Student Labor Action Project has been developing a new generation of young leaders in the labor movement. By helping to organize student-labor solidarity campaigns led by students on their campuses, building power in communities through partnerships with local Jobs with Justice coalitions, connecting students with internships at labor unions, and educating students about the importance of unions through Labor Grassroots Organizing Weekends with the U.S. Student Association, SLAP has supported the strengthening of the labor movement.
The work that unions have done with SLAP has only had a positive impact on union campaigns. Over the last 10 years that Jobs with Justice has been tracking their work with students, JwJ has found that union organizing and bargaining campaigns which involve students are 10% more likely to end in victories than campaigns which do not.
Young people have much to offer the labor movement, and labor unions have a lot to offer young people. Engaging young people as leaders in the labor movement is critical if we want to stop the steady decline in our living standards and prevent future economic crises. The future of our country depends on it.
