** Spanish Translation attached at bottom
You have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same political party and strike and vote together, and the hour you do that, the world is yours.
— Eugene V. Debs, American socialist;
conclusion of oft repeated speech, 1919
As youth in America we are confronted with ever more need to struggle and fight for our basic human needs and rights. Everyday there is news of home foreclosures, jobs being outsourced and exported, health care premiums skyrocketing, and an education system that is failing. What can we do to guarantee our survival?
We all are now or will be workers. In a capitalist society everything in our lives revolves around money, and having a job with a living wage is our means of survival. Finding that job is getting harder every day due to the constant drive to limit wages and benefits as a way of increasing profits by big companies, which are the predominant employers in the United States. Further, as a result of ceaseless anti-union activities by these same corporations, union membership is at an all time low. In the 16-24 year old age group it stands at a mere 4.4%. Unions have historically set the standard for all workers, providing affordable health care, pensions, paid time off, and, most importantly, fair wages and a safe place to work.
But union organizers are facing continued attacks, at a time when we need them more than ever. Every 23 minutes a worker is fired or discriminated against for trying to organize a union in their workplace. The Employee Free Choice Act would make it much easier to form a union, though we have to wait until it is passed by Congress. Within unions the membership is aging, and Big Business is doing everything it can to keep from replacing retiring workers with new union members.
So what can we do about it? Why, join a union of course! But how do you do that? Well, there are a few options.
Get a Union Job
Due to our aging workforce, there are many skilled trades that need young workers to enter into apprenticeships or training programs, such as electrical workers, the railroads, and the building trades.
In Southern California, due to non-union competition and an aging membership, the building trades unions have stepped up recruitment in minority enclaves where many young men have been incarcerated or have in other ways struggled with the legal system, with great success. Apprenticeship coordinators now fill their schedules with trips to high schools and career fairs; one even seeks recruits at probation offices.
There are three industries at the core of our society: auto, steel, and transportation. From each of these industries, jobs ripple outward, and our society cannot function without them. The unions representing the workers are historically the strongest and best known for setting the bar for wages and benefits in all workplaces. Unfortunately steel and auto jobs are steadily declining due to corporations seeking to increase profit and production, while decreasing their workforces or moving jobs to other countries where labor costs are cheaper. Many of the auto corporations are forcing older workers to retire and replacing them with temporary, non-union members. According to a 1999 study by Helene Jorgensen (“When Good Jobs go Bad: Young Adults and Temporary Work in the New Economy”), young workers are more likely to be hired as temporary workers; 53% of all temp workers are under the age of 35. Temporary jobs on average pay lower wages, and temp workers are more likely to suffer periods of unemployment and be poor than are permanent workers.
Minority Organizing: Taking it back to our roots, and the grassroots
The auto workers at the Toyota factory in Kentucky are trying a different tactic. They are currently not represented by a union but would like to be. Since the plant opened 22 years ago, the UAW has tried to organize, with little success. Recently, after increases in worker injuries and the number of temporary workers (who are hired at $13 an hour with little or no benefits, working alongside regular, full-time workers making $30 an hour plus benefits), and two worker terminations simply because they provided information to other workers on Toyota’s proposed wage and benefit cuts, the community got involved.
Rather than previous efforts that focused mainly on gathering workers’ signatures on union cards, this new movement, led by a growing number of workers, the UAW, community activists, local politicians and workers’ rights advocates, is drawing attention to issues like wage stability and workplace safety. This is one of the best current examples of what is known as “minority organizing,” which would allow workers to form a union and bargain with the employer without having to demonstrate majority status.
While minority organizing remains a controversial tactic, it is a right legally protected under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which says:
“Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”
This means that the members of the minority union are asking for the employers bargain with their members-only group. On August 15, 2007, seven labor unions asked that the National Labor Relations Board order employers to bargain with unions such as these. While initially this type of bargaining would improve the working conditions for only those workers, it would encourage non-members to join, increasing the number of members to the point of a majority, and therefore eligible for a fully unionized workplace. In essence, this is how our comrades first organized the steelworkers and autoworkers.
Not just in manufacturing
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, young union members in low-wage jobs earn a great deal more than non-union workers in the same occupation: union workers in food service preparation jobs make 36% more than non-unions in the same occupation (source: Young Workers United, www.youngworkersunited.org). A recent report released by the Center for Economic Policy Research found that in 15 of the most common low-wage occupations, unionization raised workers’ wages by just over 16 percent. Unfortunately, workers in these occupations, all service-based, are historically the hardest groups to organize.
This is where the majority of young workers find jobs, mainly due to a patriarchal society that dictates this type of job as a right of passage, and also due to many of them working while in school. They are looked at as short-term jobs, something to subsidize the things student loans don’t cover, or the spending habits a consumerist society encourages. The reality is that Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the United States and that job you think is only short-term may end up being the only job you can find.
A few years ago, workers at Starbucks joined forces with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to fight for improved working conditions. Initially in New York City and then across the country, small groups of employees banded together to shame Starbucks into higher wages, more consistent scheduling of hours, and improved health and safety in stores. Led by young workers, two of whom were fired as a result, they have won wage increases for Starbucks employees city-wide in both NYC and Chicago, and filed 30 unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.
This is an unprecedented organizing campaign with great success that has benefited Starbucks workers nationwide. What it doesn’t have is any kind of tie to major organized labor, the primary force in improving conditions for all workers. This is referred to as “dual unionism” and has a long and problematic history in the U.S. labor movement, a movement that needs to be strengthened, not fractured.
Worker Centers
Immigrant, African American, Latino, Asian, and workers of other races and nationalities are by far the most exploited. Over the last 15 years a movement has emerged as a central component in immigrant communities, playing an indispensable role in helping immigrants navigate the world of work in the U.S. These are worker centers, and as of 2005, there are more than 140 in at least 32 states. They are community-based and community-led organizations that provide support, advocacy, and organizing to low-wage workers.
Worker Centers are at the forefront of the fight for immigrant rights. Campaigns led by worker centers, notably the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the organizing drive for Smithfield workers in North Carolina, have received national attention and have led to wage and safety condition improvements for thousands of workers. This past week, after major public pressure, Smithfield execs finally agreed to meet with workers and representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Through community and labor coalitions, immigrant workers are fighting for, and, slowly but surely, gaining the rights they deserve.
Already in a Union?
Are you already a union member? 60% of 16-24 year olds in unions are in the service industry, and don’t always have a good experience with their unions. Sometimes unions, just like employers, don’t listen to young people. The unions need to know that their young members are speaking out, loud and clear. So before you start complaining about your union, what are you doing to get more involved? Find out when your next local meeting is, and if there isn’t one, try to organize one. Make friends with your steward. What is your union doing in the community? Did you march with your local at the Labor Day parade, or go to a picnic? Does your union have a youth organization? The key is to get involved and speak up.
What we as young workers need most is education, solidarity, consciousness, and the identity of being a part of the working class. We are all workers, or will be. We have a huge stake in this issue; our future is on the line. We have to stand up for ourselves, fight for the workplaces we deserve, and prove that not only are we a valuable part of the workforce, but that we have voices that need to be heard. We cannot take for granted that a college degree will guarantee us a fair wage, a job with health care and a pension, or even safe working conditions.
Melissa O’Rourke is the Labor Commission Coordinator of the CPUSA, and a former retail worker. The Future of Young Workers in the United States
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