Unions Must Tap Young Workers

When the AFL-CIO held its national convention at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas this month, they had only to look at the men and women who were cleaning the tables, serving food, or doing security to get a good picture of today's American work force: young, brown, and knows very little about unions.

The working person the U.S. labor movement is trying to engage is not the white, middle-aged union man of yesterday. Today, the fastest growing employers of the new economy—the service sector and temporary agencies—have low or no union density, and are hiring people under the age of 25.

It was for this reason that the International Labor Communicators Association started the convention off with the question, “How do unions communicate with this new workforce?” In fact, the conversation is so critical to the survival of unions that for the first time in 40 years, the AFL- CIO president participated in the forum. The attendance of union leadership marks their understanding that the future of the U.S. labor movement is not just about signing on new members, it's about communicating with them.

Since John Sweeney took charge of the AFL-CIO six years ago, the union has been actively organizing to stop 50 years of declining membership and to show itself as a much-needed institution for equity in the modern economy. Consequently, unions have built surprising new bonds with young, idealistic college students. The relationship has helped ignite an anti-sweatshop movement on most major campuses, and has enlisted hundreds from the university to become union organizers through a program called “Union Summer.”

But ironically, the AFL-CIO has been less successful with communicating to young working people.

The difficulty the labor movement now faces when trying to reach young workers is that many people these days do not feel their job is part of their identity.

When I worked for the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents grocery store workers, I saw how different the union looked based on the generational lens one looked through. My job was to talk to union members and ask them to come out to important pickets against non-union stores. When speaking to an older member, I would hear how his work and the union were woven into his identity. He would give me his name, tell me what he did for a living, and mention how long he had been part of the union.

“Butcher. Been part of my Local for 15 years.”

Those were the people who would come out to the picket.

Things were very different when I spoke to members in their early 20s—a growing population of grocery store workers. I would get a name, and what they did—not their job, but what excited them in life outside of work. “I make beats in my garage,” or “I do art, murals and stuff,” or “I go to school, and I skate.” Sure, they worked 40 hours a week, but that was not how they defined themselves. These were the people who didn't come to the pickets.