Dayton Miami Valley AFL-CIO

Susan Phillips of the Berger-Marks Foundation reports on a speech by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler at a recent women’s organizing conference.

Young workers need a collective voice more than ever, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told a group of women activists last week in New Orleans.

The youngest person ever elected to a top AFL-CIO office, Shuler keynoted a luncheon during a women-only summit sponsored by the Berger-Marks Foundation. The “Women Organizing Women: Social Networks, Social Justice, Social Change” summit is a ground-breaking gathering of women activists from across the United States and Canada to discuss inter-generational issues relating to their advocacy work. Participants ranged in age from 23 to 65. The organization will release a report later this year on the recommendations from this summit.

Shuler is leading the effort to engage youth organizations, online communities and young people about their needs, hopes and expectations in this tough economy.

The AFL-CIO is kicking off the initiative with the first-ever AFL-CIO Youth Summit in early June. Leading up to the summit, the AFL-CIO is sponsoring a series of forums with young union and community leaders over the next two months.

Young activists have sparked some of the nation’s most significant political and social movements, Shuler said. She pointed out that major change in our country has always been led by young people. She noted that Martin Luther King Jr. was 26 when he led the Montgomery bus boycott. At 25, César Chávez was registering Mexican Americans to vote. Walter Reuther headed strikes demanding General Motors recognize its workers’ rights when he was 30.

I’m deeply committed to and passionate about leading the AFL-CIO’s outreach to young workers. It’s not that young people don’t like unions—in fact, polls show they’re the age group most inclined to like unions. It’s just that they don’t know or think very much about us.

Shuler cited a recent AFL-CIO survey of workers between ages 18 and 34 that showed one in three worries about finding a full-time job with benefits. Only 31 percent make enough money to cover their bills and put some savings aside—and 31 percent have no health coverage. Less than half have retirement plans at work.

Today’s young people have no reason to assume that playing by the rules—getting a good education and working hard—will pay off for them, Shuler said. And young people who don’t make it to or through college have an even tougher road ahead.

It’s clear that “young people need a collective voice more than ever,” Shuler said.

And as much as young workers need unions on the job and in the political process to improve their lives and their prospects, it’s just as clear that the labor movement needs young people and young leaders.

Young activists and labor activists are working side by side on many campaigns right now, and we have opportunities to deepen and expand these connections. This is a moment we have to seize.

The Berger-Marks Foundation is dedicated to achieving a voice for working women through organization and union membership. It provides funds for women workers directly involved in organizing and assists groups that support working women who want to form a union.

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