Wall Street’s collapse last year, which has already destroyed more than 7 million jobs, is hitting workers under the age of 35 with an extra impact. The unemployment rate for young people is nearly double that of the national average and, according to a recent study nearly half don’t have health insurance. Retirement security for the new generation of workers has become an inaccessible dream – only 27 percent have a pension or retirement plan.
Adding to the crunch are record levels of student and credit card debt, which have made getting ahead in today’s economy harder than ever for those in their 20s and 30s.
Recently, the progressive think tank Demos brought together activists from across the United States for its annual conference – titled A Better Deal: Reclaiming Our Economic Security Now! – to address the concerns of young people in today’s economy.
"The new ‘normal’ economy isn’t working for this generation," said AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler to the more than 300 conference attendees.
She continued:
The clearest lesson of this economic crisis is that you cannot base a consumer economy on debt and low wages. It is not sustainable. It has failed.
Shuler was on hand to lay out the problems facing young workers in today’s economy and to dialogue with young leaders on how the labor movement can be a part of the solution.
Like many others in her generation, AFSCME Council 75 member Keri Carter admits to not knowing much about unions when she started as an inspector for the Portland Housing Authority in Oregon.
Today, she is a leader of the Next Wave, an organization of AFSCME members under 35 that provides tools to encourage younger members to become leaders in their union.
Says Carter:
There is this great myth that workers between 18-35 don’t care about unions. Some of the things I think unions can do (to reach out to younger workers) are tools that are already out there: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace,
Watch Carter tell her story:
For 24-year-old Cedric Lawson, development director of the United States Student Association, one of the best ways older union members can connect with new workers is to make sure they tell their children about how important the union has been to their families:
My grandmother was a certified nursing assistant at a nursing home and they went out on strike ... and I remember it very vividly. If there are parents who are in unions, they need to talk to their children about it ... It all starts at home.
Lawson knows firsthand the economic obstacles faced by young people. A recent graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he was forced to drop out for a year so he could save enough money to pay his rising tuition bills.
Lawson says he looks forward to helping students and recent graduates find common ground with the labor movement around important policy issues:
We have to coalition around our common interests. The USSA supports the Employee Free Choice Act, so we certainly hope the AFL-CIO supports the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Watch Lawson:
The majority of young people currently in the workforce aren’t union members, but that doesn’t mean the under-35 generation has bought into the "go it alone" mindset pushed by the right-wing and corporate America. More than half believe in the idea of collective action to resolve problems with their employers, while half think that union employees are better off.
Reaching out to these workers is one of 29-year old Maggie Priebe’s top priorities. Priebe, a native of Cleveland, is program director for Working America – the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO.
Priebe came to the labor movement through electoral activism, knocking on doors for America Votes, a progressive grassroots voter mobilization group that works closely with many unions, an experience which gave her a new appreciation for the collective power of working people. But before this, she admits she knew little about unions.
As a young worker, I didn’t know much about the labor movement at all or what it meant to be part of a union. One of the things the labor movement can do to reach out to young people is get it out there that Working America is a way to learn about the labor movement ... The first step is educating these young people on what the labor movement is all about.
See Maggie’s story:
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