Aug. 20, 2010:NWLP
8/17/10
10:49 AM
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AFL-CIO to establish special council for young workers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (PAI) — Re-
sponding to demands from its first-ever
Youth Summit less than three months
ago, the national AFL-CIO will estab-
lish a special council of young workers
from around the country to consider,
refine, and channel their issues and to
help connect the labor movement to
young workers, or those 35 and under.
The council is the most fully devel-
oped part of the federation’s increased
outreach to youthful workers, AFL-
CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler
told Press Associates Union News
Service Aug. 5 at the labor federation’s
Executive Council meeting in down-
town Washington, D.C.
Shuler, 39, was the prime mover be-
hind the summit — along with data
showing union members are older and
grayer than the U.S. workforce as a
whole. Only 5 percent of workers aged
18-24 are unionized, compared to 16
percent of those aged 45-64.
Further, according to the 300 youth-
ful activists at
the summit,
labor doesn’t
know how to
reach and in-
volve young
workers,
needs to adapt
to changing
non-tradi-
tional work
environments,
and must start
L IZ S HULER
two-way com-
munication, among other things.
Shuler’s report to the Executive
Council touched on all those issues and
more, including the need to educate
young workers about unions. “There
are a lot of moving parts to this and it’s
still being developed, and will be road-
tested through ‘webinars,’ ” she said.
“People felt really comfortable with
what we recommended,” Shuler said of
the other union leaders. “First and fore-
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most, we’re going to establish a Young
Worker National Advisory Committee,
drawing on the participants from the
summit” and other youthful activists
named by local unions. The committee
will sift through the summit’s recom-
mendations, investigate best practices
for drawing young workers in, and pro-
pose concrete actions unions can take
to bring in and encourage young ac-
tivists.
“And the committee is going to look
at all our programs through the eyes of
young workers” to see if they’re effec-
tive, and if not, how to change them.
Shuler said.
Youth summit participants also
noted young workers are in different
arrangements from traditional ones
unions are used to. The new arrange-
ments include part-time work, contract
work, work from home, and freelance
work. Unions must figure out how to
both organize and benefit workers in
those new arrangements. The commit-
tee will handle that task, too.
Recruiting and involving younger
unionists also involves mentoring, the
summit participants said.
Shuler reported that her colleagues
were surprisingly receptive to the idea,
but warned that local union leaders
may be another story. There, mentoring
and participation opportunities — such
as holding union office or serving as a
national convention delegate — often
go to older veteran members who
worked their way up.
“Don’t just give me a mentor and a
program is what we’re saying,” Shuler
explained. “I want to be able to pick the
mentor, help develop the program and
have two-way communication. And
another thing is that union meetings are
boring and need to be turned into edu-
cational opportunities that appeal to
members,” she added.
Young labor activists — YELL— to
meet in Portland, Saturday, Aug. 28
A newly-formed youth organiza-
tion of the Oregon AFL-CIO, dubbed
Young Emerging Labor Leaders
(YELL), will convene for a daylong
meeting Saturday, Aug. 28.
Participants will elect one person
to become a voting member on the
Oregon AFL-CIO General Board.
The meeting will take place at the
NECA-IBEW Electrical Training
Center, 16021 NE Airport Way, Port-
land. Meals are provided, beginning
with breakfast from 8:30 to 9:30, and
ending with a barbecue social at 5:30
that will include union entertainment.
Workshops will delve into what it
means to be a union member, why
unions are involved in politics, and
how to organize and mobilize for
change.
And longtime political consultant
Steve Novick will moderate a forum
for candidates seeking the Oregon
AFL-CIO General Board seat.
To register, e-mail or call Oregon
AFL-CIO organizer Ian McEwen at
ian@oraflcio.org or 503-224-3169.
There are no hard and fast guidelines
as to what constitutes a young union
member, said YELL co-founder
Jaimie Sorenson, but the target age is
35 or under.
Anti-union ballot measures
to be voted on in four states
PHOENIX — Four states will ask
voters in November to undercut the
proposed Employee Free Choice Act,
a bill in Congress that will make it eas-
ier for workers to form and join a union
by allowing “card-check.”
Associated Press reported that Re-
publican-controlled legislatures in Ari-
zona, South Carolina, South Dakota,
and Utah have forwarded ballot meas-
ures that will ask voters to decide
whether the state constitution should
require a secret ballot for workers vot-
ing to unionize.
If passed, the secret ballot initiatives
would have little immediate effect be-
cause federal law already allows em-
ployers to require a secret ballot.
Rather, the ballot measures are an
attempt to pre-emptively undermine
the Employee Free Choice Act. EFCA
would allow a majority of employees
to create a union by signing cards.
EFCA has stalled on Capitol Hill,
but businesses worry congressional De-
mocrats will bring it up in a lame duck
session after the midterm elections.
Arizona Democrats said Republi-
cans were pandering to their base hop-
ing to boost Republican turnout in the
Nov. 2 election.
Arizona Republicans cast the meas-
ure as an economic development op-
portunity that would send a message
that the state is business-friendly.
Lawmakers originally referred the
issue to voters more than a year ago,
but a judge kicked it from the ballot be-
cause it was improperly crafted. The
state Supreme Court recently upheld
the decision, so Gov. Jan Brewer called
lawmakers into a last-minute special
session last week to address the issue.
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PAGE 4
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
AUGUST 20, 2010