LaborDay-08-(1-14):NWLP
8/12/08
10:03 AM
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Plight of the ‘Millennials’:
Today’s young workers face economic squeeze
By CAITLIN DONOHUE
Life wasn’t turning out the way
Josh Heiney had imagined. A stellar
high school sportsman, he bounced
around the country’s colleges on par-
tial athletic scholarships. But at age
23, Josh wound up back in Portland,
burned out on school, with massive
debt.
“In college you’re supposed to find
what you’re looking for, but there
wasn’t anything laid out,” Heiney re-
calls.
He wound up as a cell phone sales-
man, a far cry from economic success.
Heiney received no benefits and was
never paid the commission money he
was promised to support his minimum
wage paychecks. “Talk about your
dead end job.”
As a group, the “Millennials (a so-
ciological term coined to describe the
generation born between the years
1979 and 1990) are less economically
stable than their Baby Boomer parents
were at their age. While earnings for
almost every demographic have
fallen, leaving 17.8 percent of 18 to
24 year olds living in poverty, the cost
of college — often seen as the only
path to the middle class — has risen
dramatically.
Stagnant government financial aid
programs are leaving the average Ore-
gonian college grad with $19,667 in
debt upon graduation, according to a
study produced by Demos, a non-par-
tisan policy research organization,
which supplied most of the statistics
in this article. Housing costs are ris-
ing, and the prevalence of consumer
debt among youth is gaining ground
rapidly.
Heiney’s story of occupational
woe rings familiar for many fellow
Millennials. Since the 1970s, America
has been losing the solid manufactur-
ing jobs that supported the Boomers
to globalization — outsourcing to
cheap labor overseas. In return, Amer-
icans have seen the rise of the service
sector — low-paying positions with
no benefits.
These changes have dire repercus-
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sions. Median annual earnings of men
of Heiney’s educational status have
fallen (in 2004 dollars) from $44,958
in 1975 to $35,500 in 2005. Employer-
based health care, once a given for
63.3 percent of recent high school
graduates, is now supplied to a mere
one-third.
And no relief is in sight. Four of
the top five fastest-growing occupa-
tions are low-wage nonunion service
industry jobs, positioning them to
make up three-quarters of all jobs in
2016.
This injustice is not lost on the
Millennials. According to a study
done by the Center for American
Progress, young people are more
likely than their parents were to sup-
port universal health care coverage
and to want the government to in-
crease services and educational
spending, even if that means an in-
crease in taxes. They are more likely
to be concerned about jobs and the
economy and are more supportive of
labor unions than nearly any other
group over the past 40-years.
Finding ways to channel this new
wellspring of interest is leading to in-
novative programs in organized labor.
“Young people are bringing unique
issues and concerns to the table,” says
Lydia Hallay, an organizer for AF-
SCME Oregon Council 75’s Next
Wave. The group is meant to be a
friendly point of access to union in-
volvement and a forum for younger
members. Hallay notes the creation of
an environmental caucus at AF-
SCME’s recent national convention as
one of the local chapter of Next
Wave’s greatest achievements — the
idea having been raised by its youth-
ful participants.
Still in its early planning stages, the
Oregon AFL-CIO’s Youth Caucus is
another program aimed at developing
tomorrow’s leaders inside the labor
movement.
“So far we’ve started some impor-
tant discussion about what younger
union members can do to get involved
in their locals and what locals can do
to reach out to their members,” says
Elana Guiney, Oregon AFL-CIO staff
member.
“The restaurant industry has this
habit of making people believe their
jobs are disposable,” said UNITE
HERE Local 9 organizer Karly Ed-
wards.
She cites implementation of tip
credit — legislation which allows em-
ployers to pay tip-earning employees
below the minimum wage — as one
of the pitfalls that hotel and restaurant
workers who organize with UNITE
HERE hope to avoid.
“It’s about creating jobs with dig-
nity,” she said.
Local 9 workers had a recent suc-
cess winning their first contract at the
Vancouver, Washington Hilton — a
feat Edwards says was aided and abet-
ted by the passion and drive of young
workers.
“The way the service industry
works, there’s a high chance your
rights might be violated,” says Misty
Cumbie, a Portland restaurant server.
Tired of low wages, nonexistent bene-
fits and labor law violations they saw
going on every day in their work-
places and without any formal organ-
izing experience to date, Cumbie and
fellow restaurant employee Ryan Wis-
nor decided to do something about the
Millennials’ economic plight. They
started the Portland Restaurant Work-
ers’ Association (PRWA), a group fo-
cusing on education, support and soli-
darity for service industry employees.
“Only recently has the PRWA felt
that it has reached a stage where it can
approach community groups and
unions with a clear picture of its guid-
ing principles, structure, and goals,”
says Wisnor, adding that the associa-
tion looks forward to working with
these organizations in the future.
To date, PRWA has helped workers
bring lawsuits against tip-stealing em-
ployers. They have plans for Spanish
language classes to help bridge the
gap between workers, and anticipate
growing their network of worker-ac-
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 15, 2008