Tag Archives: Liz Shuler

AFL-CIO Young Worker Advisory Council Launched

3 Feb

The AFL-CIO is clearly moving on some of the recommendations from the Next Up Summit last summer, launching a Young Worker Advisory Council similar to their other advisory councils on central labor councils and state federations. Here’ s a new post from the AFL-CIO NOW Blog:

Labor’s Next Gen Moves Forward with Young Worker Advisory Council

Photo credit: Joe Kekeris

Nora Frederickson, AFL-CIO Media fellow, sends us this report on the first Young Worker Advisory Council meeting.

The union movement’s young workers are getting ready to shake things up.

Working off of the short- and long-term goals laid out at last summer’s Next Up Summit, the brand-new Young Worker Advisory Council met in Washington, D.C., this week to put together a three-month plan to engage the next generation of young workers.

The council emerged out of discussions held during the Next Up Summit. Young union workers and activists expressed their desire to have a greater voice in the development of AFL-CIO’s national outreach program for young workers.

Following the summit, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler, who has made young worker outreach and mobilization a top priority, began a series of conversations on the composition of the Young Worker Advisory Council and how it should inform the union movement’s outreach to young workers. Says Shuler:

When the Executive Council of the AFL-CIO created this council, our hope was to give young activists and leaders a clear voice in shaping the conversation and how to grow and develop the next generation of labor leaders.

Following the first day of discussions, Chris Lane, a public safety officer from Richmond, Va., and president of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 2201, said he was pleased with the progress that had been made since last summer.

I’ve been a member of CWA for 13 years. Obviously this effort is still in the infancy stages, but it’s a breath of fresh air for the labor movement.

Shuler says the council’s first meeting marks a major milestone in our efforts to engage young workers.

I am so excited to meet this incredible group of leaders, and I look forward to the unique perspective that their voices will bring to this initiative.

These efforts came to fruition this week as the more than 20 new members of the council—a diverse group of emerging labor leaders from national affiliate unions, state and local labor bodies, constituency groups and Working America—met for the first time in Washington D.C., this week.

Young Worker Advisory Council members include:

Tahir Duckett – Working America
Sara Kuntzler – Denver Area Labor Federation
Reggie Davis – UWUA
Sherrice Wilfong – APWU
Jessica Ingerick – OPEIU
Chris Sloan _ IUPAT
Jessica Hayssen – Minnesota AFL-CIO
Jeremy Redleaf – AFTRA
Chris Lane – CWA
Michelle Wyvill – IAM
Casey Karns – AFSCME
Nick Guitaud – USW
Allison Doherty-LaCasse – AFT
Joe Briggs – NFLPA
Lorenzo Arciniega – IBEW
Jesse Barber – UMWA
Keith Richardson – APWU
Eric Clinton – UNITEHERE!

The council focused its efforts this week on developing concrete next steps covering four young worker priorities:

  • Developing a toolkit for young workers to use in starting or leading a young worker group at the local levels
  • Connecting young workers with opportunities for training and mentoring
  • Developing a brand that resonates with young workers
  • Identifying new ways to bring young people into the labor movement.

Members also brainstormed the roles of the council, national unions and the AFL-CIO  in the labor movement’s outreach to young workers.

Over the next three months, advisory board members will work with the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions to ensure the Next Up website serves as a resource for young workers managing or starting local groups, survey young workers to find out what kind of mentoring and labor education programs they want access to and examine how to expand existing models for union internship programs and organizer trainings. They will also start planning the next young workers summit, set for this summer.

Sara Kuntzler, political director of the Colorado AFL-CIO and another Council member, put it this way.

We’re at a pivotal moment in the labor movement, and young workers are where the energy is. They are the hope of the movement. It’s so encouraging to work with a group with so much passion, energy, and hope in prioritizing areas of focus for our work with young workers.

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MN AFL-CIO Young Workers Roundtable in Photos

30 Jul

On Wednesday, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler joined young workers with the Minnesota AFL-CIO to discuss ways to make the labor movement work for them.  Courtesy of a young activist, cursedthing, here are some photos from the event:

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Netroots Nation Young Workers Panel

26 Jul

On Friday at Netroots Nation, AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler led a panel of three young grassroots labor activists on “Taking Charge of Our Future“.  As Maria Escobar of the Student Labor Action Project commented, the economic crisis makes this the ideal time to build a young workers movement.  She has seen the student-worker connection grow stronger as more students leave higher education to enter the workforce because of skyrocketing tuition, and more workers go back to school to learn new skills because of the employment situation.

Shuler began the discussion by noting the precarious state of young workers in the labor market and the efforts of the AFL-CIO, but the conversation quickly evolved into how can the labor movement better engage young activists.  The panelists themselves represent the varied ways young workers get involved:

  • Sara Flocks, who founded Young Workers United based in San Francisco, became an activist because she held a variety of low-paying service-sector jobs before working for a union and learning all of the benefits of a union contract.  After looking around and seeing her friends caught in a “Bermuda triangle” of going to college so they could get a good job, but unable to pay for college because they were living on a service-sector job salary, she decided that something must be done.  She began with conversations and workplace organizing, which spread to political organizing and then involving more workers through community college organizing.
  • Cory McCray, of Young Trade Unionists in Baltimore, was an apprentice in the trades who noticed that the union gave him greater wages and benefits than his friends had in non-union workplaces.  One day the seasoned (i.e. older) leadership of the labor council brought a group of young workers together and asked them to lead an effort to engage young workers so everyone recognizes the economic benefits McCray already did.  Within a week it was up and running.  Now the group holds monthly meetings that are “fun and interesting”, but also bring young people across industries together to build solidarity.
  • Escobar grew up in a working-class, immigrant household.  As a student at Florida State University she connected with the workers on campus because she understood their struggle and led other students in economic justice campaigns.  SLAP is a joint initiative of the United States Student Association and United Students Against Sweatshops that works on supporting campus worker contract fights, living wage campaigns, anti-budget cut battles, and general economic justice awareness campaigns.

So what were the magic words of wisdom?  What is the silver-bullet?

There is none.  Flocks made the important point that the one-on-one conversations are necessary, but so is making a real difference in the lives of the members.  By first leading workplace organizing in restaurants and malls to win back wages, end sexual harassment, and prevent the abuse of immigrant workers, YWU built trust and had real success.  From there they were able to mobilize their members politically to “vote themselves a raise”.  Workplace organizing victories will only get them so far, but by winning an increase in the living wage, paid sick days, and health care for all in San Francisco they were able to help out many more workers.  Now they even have one of their own running for office!

McCray made the point that YouTube helps get the message out if videos are kept short and to the point, like their recent film: Young Trade Unionists Join Forces.  He also made the point that to re-brand the movement, unions need to do a better job of getting out into the community.  To which Shuler agreed and noted the work many of the trades do with Habitat for Humanity.

With regard to the work of SLAP, Shuler made the great point that very often unions rely on students and young activists for help when there are contract issues, but it needs to be more of a two-way street.  The labor movement needs to better partner with many of the organizations out there that are already engaging young people whether around student aid issues, or the environment, or whatever.

Perhaps the most important point for those in the 60 person crowd looking for inspiration was made by McCray: Young Trade Unionists is 100% volunteer.  Folks wanting to figure out how to make their organization work should not worry so much about economic resources.  If you see the need for a young workers organization, just make it happen.  That’s the real answer to the “how” question.

You can watch the panel here: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/8465000.

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AFL Continues Outreach to Young Workers

22 Jul

Good news, the AFL-CIO’s outreach to young workers with two events over the next week!  The first is tomorrow at  Netroots Nation where Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will join Tula Connell, the AFL’s media director, Maria Escobar, of the Student-Labor Action Project, Sara Flocks, with the California Labor Federation and Young Workers United, and Cory McCray, with Young Trade Unionists of Baltimore.   The event can be watched live on the Netroots Nation stream.

Young Workers: Taking Charge of Our Future

Friday, July 23rd 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Panel, Brasilia 1

More than a third of workers age 35 and under cannot pay the bills; seven in 10 do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses; and a third are forced to live at home with their parents. How can young workers avoid becoming the nation’s new underclass? Hear from panelists who are taking charge of their economic future by forming coalitions and networking with unions to reshape the traditional structure of workplace-based unions and reach young people where they’re at, while building on the power of collective bargaining. Find out how you can take part in a grassroots mobilization that’s shaking up the traditional face of the labor movement.

The second event features Shuler talking with young union members in Minnesota as a follow-up to the Next Up Summit in DC last month:

Young Workers Roundtable with AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler

July 28, 2010 – 4:00pm – 6:00pm

How can we reach young workers and build the labor movement ? How can young union members shape their unions? How can we build upon what so many others fought for to protect working families? How can we take advantage of technology to communicate with union members?

Curious? These are some of the questions that will be asked at the Young Workers Roundtable Discussion hosted by AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler on July 28. Sponsored by the Minnesota AFL-CIO, this event builds upon the Next Up Summit held in Washington, D.C. in June that brought hundreds of young union members together to discuss the same questions. Minnesota’s union members are ready to take it to the next level through this discussion and design a program that local unions can use to engage locals and bring the young worker’s voice to the table.

If you are a union member between the ages of 18-35 and would like to participate in this discussion, please contact Jessica Hayssen, Field Coordinator at the Minnesota AFL-CIO, at 651-261-8559 or jhayssen@mnaflcio.org by July 19.

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Opportunity Time for AFL-CIO

14 Jun

The Next Up Summit gave the AFL-CIO a fantastic opportunity, for the labor movement’s sake, for their own sake, for young workers sake, and for America’s sake, lets hope they don’t miss it.

The delegates that attended Next Up were skeptical, anxious and unsure what to expect from the conference, but in the end wanted much, much more.  They were eager to point out false assumptions about their values, priorities, and ways of communicating.  On the final day, during the plenary, one delegate took a flip-chart to the stage to trash the text message sent pre-conference saying the pool party was a “no Speedo zone”.  Echoing this larger theme, one delegate denounced the AFL-CIO staff for narrowing the selection of “candidates” for best picture of Flat Broke taken the night before without putting it out there for everyone to vote on.  Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler apologized for the speedo txt, blaming (and firing) the txt message company. Assistant to the Secretary-Treasurer, Amanda Pacheco, apologized for the picture selection citing logistics and Shuler promised to make the process more open going forward.  Obviously, (or hopefully) neither of these were really about the txt or the pictures, they were about the anxiety this group of young workers has in putting its trust and faith in the AFL-CIO leadership to take them seriously.

But the angst that flared in those and a few other heated moments was really a call for more opportunities for two-way dialogue.  With every work group demanding annual summits or other events to continue the discussion, a plurality of delegates voting that they did get a chance to say a lot of what they wanted to say, and all wanting more national AFL-CIO involvement, the event was certainly a success.  The question really is how will the AFL-CIO deliver and how quickly?

This is clearly a group of people that has lots of passion and energy, but is also short on patience.  They want to see action and results.  Millennials grew up with the internet, which has the answer to every possible question ever.  TiVo, so they can block out anything they want.  And smart phones, so they will always be connected.  This is not a group that knows how to relax, step-back, and let an organization work.  The worst thing the AFL-CIO leadership could do is take their time to begin rolling out elements of the “game plan”.  Pick one or two items, say the internship database or a letter to all affiliate saying youth mobilization is a priority, that can be done quickly and start on them before the end of next week.  Provide check-in progress updates as the plan is formally written.  Make the delegates feel that they are a real part of a process that’s actually moving.

If that does not happen, if young workers feel they have been used for a flash-in-the-pan media event, not only did the AFL-CIO miss out on a great opportunity, but they have further damaged their image and reputation.  Having a generation as mobilized as this one at a time when that energy is so needed, will not happen again anytime soon.  Missing this moment will hurt the labor movement and the future middle-class in an irreparable way.

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