Youth: Ready for unions

[dcsmart]

Adam Turl looks at what unions can do for young workers--and what youth could do for organized labor.

A RECENT study, "Unions and Upward Mobility for Young Workers," by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) confirms that the need to join unions couldn't be a more pressing issue for those coming of age today.

Of course, workplace organization was an urgent need for youth even before the onset of the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression. The prospects for young working-class people had already worsened after three decades of stagnant wages and rising inequality.

The CEPR study notes that average wages (adjusted for inflation) for 18- to 29-year-olds were roughly 10 percent lower in 2007 than in 1979. Earlier research showed that some young workers were making up to $8,000 less per year in 2004 compared to 1975.

This precipitous decline in the material well-being of young workers occurred even as they increasingly flocked to universities, community colleges and trade schools to prepare and train for what were once called the "high-value jobs" of a "new global economy."

"...As a result, many young workers are employed in industries that are virtually nonunion--and employers have spared no expense to keep them that way. Union-busting bosses have been able to rely on U.S. labor laws that overwhelmingly favor business--and have made it increasingly difficult to organize the unorganized, even in growing industries..."

FULL ARTICLE:
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/07/ready-for-the-union


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