‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’: Young Workers Hit Hard in Bad Economy
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We all know the nation’s jobless rate—with more than 16 million U.S. workers unemployed—is really, really bad. In fact, overall unemployment increased by 4.7 percentage points from December 2007, when the recession began. Yet the situation is even worse for young workers, worsening by more than 7.4 points since the recession’s onset.
The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) released a report today on the severe economic difficulties facing young workers, who now account for 26.4 percent of unemployed workers, even though they make up 13.5 percent of the overall labor force.
As “The Kids Aren’t Alright” points out:
Young men have an unemployment rate 7.5 points higher than that of young women. Young black workers face an unemployment rate of 32.5 percent, compared with 15.2 percent for young white workers. Among young Hispanic workers, the unemployment rate has more than doubled since the recession began, from 11 percent in December 2007 to 24.2 percent in January 2010.
ITUC Launches Global Youth Campaign
To reach a new generation of young people, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), in recent days, launched a new global campaign to help global unions combine their day-to-day work and help young people join unions.
The Youth Campaign involves a range of tools, including video, social networking, posters and websites, as well as a special campaign guide. The campaign aims to show that by joining unions, young workers can influence issues and events they are concerned about at a global level, as well as improve their own working conditions. Check out ITUC’s youth blog here.
Trade unions can choose from a menu of materials that fit into their campaigns or activities already under way in their countries.
Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers
Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting ”Justice now!” and holding signs that read “Hasta la Victoria” (“Onward to Victory”), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF’s Gainesville campus.
The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.
The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF’s food provider. “Somebody’s got to fight for social justice,” said UF junior Justin Wooten.
