Economic Crisis Hitting Young Workers Hard
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Since the current recession began in December 2007, some 1.3 million young workers have left the workforce, while the participation rate of workers ages 55 and older increased, according to a new report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
This means many older workers are not retiring or are re-entering the labor force because they have suffered a sharp decline in retirement security, say authors Kathryn Edwards and Heidi Shierholz.
At the same time, workers ages 16 to 24—who face an unemployment rate of 18.9 percent, compared with 6.8 percent for workers ages 55 and older—are having a hard time finding jobs. Many who do find work end up in low-paying jobs with few or no benefits.
One major benefit that young workers lack is health insurance. One-third of young U.S. adults—nearly 13 million people—had no health insurance coverage in 2008, according to a government report released yesterday. In a survey of more than 9,000 people ages 20 to 29, the National Center for Health Statistics found that 30 percent of young adults had no coverage and were nearly twice as likely as adults ages 30 to 64 to be uninsured.
Shuler: Youths, Unions Together Can Change the Nation
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Saying today’s young workers are the “guinea pigs of the new normal economy,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler called for a new national economic strategy that addresses the real needs of young people in the workforce and creates good jobs that provide the security and prosperity previous generations enjoyed.
Speaking at the national conference of United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), one of the union movement’s staunchest allies, this past weekend in Knoxville, Tenn., Shuler said the union movement must reach out to its younger members and young workers in general. She said the AFL-CIO is convening a national youth summit in June 2010 to explore ways younger workers can become even more involved in helping build the kind of country we all want to live in. Click here to read the full speech.
Shuler is leading AFL-CIO efforts to engage youth organizations, online communities and young people in and outside of unions about their needs, hopes and expectations in this tough economy and for the future.
Shuler told the USAS members:
There’s no question that the union movement needs your skills, your energy, your ideas, your leadership.
Black History Month Challenge: A Youth-Led Jobs Revolution
By Leo W. Gerard and Fred Redmond
On Feb. 1, 1960, when four African American college students sat down at a whites-only lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., they ignited a youth-led movement to challenge racial segregation and injustice in the South.
The freshmen refused to stand and eat at the F.W. Woolworth counter as the policy of that time required. They were denied service but remained in their seats. The manager left the students alone hoping they would eventually leave.
He assumed wrong.
Mass. AFL-CIO Futures Convention Spotlights Young Workers
John Drinkwater, organizing and mobilization coordinator for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, sends us this report on how the state federation is helping build the future by tapping into the skills of today’s young workers.
Continuing its ongoing mission to develop young union leaders in the Commonwealth, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO’s Third Annual Futures Convention elected a new Futures representative to a serve on the Massachusetts AFL-CIO Executive Council and head the Futures Program for the coming year.
This year, delegates at the Feb. 5 and 6 convention voted among a group of three candidates nominated by their fellow delegates and chose Daniel Manning of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2325 as their new rep. Ben Sherman of Sheet Metal Workers Local 17 and Christopher Deane of Iron Workers Local 7 also ran for the Futures seat.
Manning will be the third young union member to hold the one-year term Futures seat, taking over for Allison-Doherty-LaCasse, a member of the Boston Teachers Union/AFT who served for the past year and led the Futures program through its successful second year. Jeremy McKeen, a member of the Lynn Teachers Union/AFT, served as the first Futures Representative in 2008.
Shuler: Workers Sending SOS to ‘Fix the Jobs Crisis’
When AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler is on the road talking to workers around the country, she says the issue most on their minds is jobs.
Speaking before a group of labor, management, government and academic leaders and experts at the Labor and Employment Relations Association (LERA) annual meeting in Atlanta yesterday morning, Shuler said she was
bringing an SOS from the people I’ve met: Help us fix the jobs crisis.
Shuler: Unions Need Young Workers—and Young Workers Need Unions
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler spoke at the winter conference of Union Plus, where she focused on the special challenges faced by young workers who are at risk of becoming the first generation to be worse off than their parents.
Shuler’s speech was webcast live, and you can watch her speech, and her conversation with attendees at the conference, here.
Shuler will host a summit for young workers next year, and she’s reaching out to youth organizations, online communities and young people across the country to engage young people about their needs, hopes and expectations in this tough economy and for the future.
Shuler talked about the ways the union movement is working to demonstrate our relevance to young workers and to the growing portion of the working population who are women. She noted that many workers don’t have access to a union—and to the benefits that come with bargaining for a contract—in their workplaces, in part because they’re operating in a new model of the workplace:
That’s a challenge for us: to change our movement to match the evolution of work—and as we know, the workplace is changing. There’s more contract [work], there’s more part-time [work], there are more freelancers out there, and those are some of the positions that young people are holding.
Young Workers: Hit Hard, Hitting Back
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As the newly elected secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, I traveled the country this fall, talking with workers and hearing their concerns. The economic crisis is causing a lot of pain. So many people have no jobs, no health care—and many are losing their homes. And as I looked into the faces of young workers, the reality hit home that these young people are part of the first generation in recent history likely to be worse off than their parents.
This is a tragedy.
The AFL-CIO and our community affiliate, Working America, recently surveyed young workers—and I’m not talking about 17- and 18-year-olds. I’m talking about 18- to 34-year-olds. In the past 10 years, young workers have suffered disproportionately from the downturn in the economy:
- One in three young workers is worried about being able to find a job—let alone a full-time job with benefits.
- Only 31 percent make enough money to cover their bills and put some aside—that is 22 percentage points worse than it was 10 years ago.
- Nearly half worry about having more debt than they can handle.
- One in three still lives at home with parents.
AFT Civil Rights Conference: Help Turn America Around
Public school teachers must work hard to make the nation’s schools places where the suffering of the nation’s children is alleviated. In her keynote address to AFT’s Civil, Human and Women’s Rights conference, Oct. 23-25 in Miami, union President Randi Weingarten said teachers can help turn America around by advocating for change inside and outside the classroom.
Building on the conference theme, “Rise, Advocate, Collaborate, Educate: Our Civil Rights,” Weingarten urged the hundreds of union members and allies to fight for health care reform, affordable housing and after-school activities for students, as well as for tools and resources in the classroom.
Said Weingarten:
We know that it takes a village to raise children. We have to pull in partners and fight to ensure that parents and children get the services they need.
Shuler: We Need to Let Young People Know About Unions
Nearly 300 young activists and students came to Washington, D.C., last week for the A Better Deal 2009 conference, and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler was on hand to let these young people know that the labor movement is here to fight for them.
Sponsored by Demos and an array of youth and progressive organizations, A Better Deal 2009 looked at jobs, debt, education, health care and other issues facing young people in a challenging economy. The Electrical Workers (IBEW) were there as well and have a great new video on the conference and young people’s concerns about building a strong economic future.
Here’s what Shuler has to say on the need to make the union movement accessible, relevant and attentive to the next generation:
I think now is the perfect time to reach out to young people, because of the economic devastation that we’ve been experiencing. I think young people have been disproportionately affected, and we need to connect the dots for them and make sure they know that the labor movement is the best answer to their economic troubles.
Shuler in Pennsylvania: We Must Inspire Next Generation
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Speaking at last night’s annual dinner of the Southeastern Area Labor Federation of Pennsylvanian, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler told the state’s union members we must get energized and active so that we can address the needs of a generation of young workers left behind by an economy that isn’t working:
We need to reach out to millions of unorganized workers who just don’t see us as the answer to their problems. To tell you the truth, they don’t see us at all. Above all, that means young workers in their 20s and 30s….They don’t have a connection to the union movement….No wonder young workers don’t realize what we have to offer them.
Shuler, who has been traveling nearly non-stop since becoming the youngest person ever elected as a top AFL-CIO officer last month, cited the AFL-CIO report “Young Workers: A Lost Decade,” which found that workers under age 35 have been hit especially hard by the economic crisis. The economic hardship damages their earning power now and well into the future.
