Labor Union Blog

Rally in front of City Hall, Minneapolis

Emmelle Israel, AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is in Minneapolis for the Next Up Young Workers Summit and sends us this report.

Along with 800 young workers, students, and activists, I marched down the streets of downtown Minneapolis, calling for “Good Jobs Now!” during the 2011 AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit.

The march from the summit to the City Government Plaza Light Rail Station was nearly a mile long. Next Up attendees chanted and raised signs to make their demand of “Good Jobs Now!” known the whole way.

Several taxi drivers, postal delivery workers and bus drivers honked their horns in support as the group marched to the light rail station.

Once at the City Government Plaza Light Rail Station, Jessica Hayssen of the AFL-CIO Young  Workers Advisory Committee and the Minnesota AFL-CIO MCed the rally. First up was Mike O’Brian a.k.a. OB, from Steelworkers (USW) Local 6500, who performed his original rap, “One Day  Longer.” The song was about a strike his union went through and encourages those on the picket line, telling them that “One day longer” makes them “One  day stronger.”

Next, Mike Stenberg, a Metro Transit Operator from ATU Local 1005 in Minneapolis, spoke about how the union job he has now  improved the lives of him, his wife and their two young children. He said:

I worked jobs before that were non-union. I wasn’t able to support my family… But now with Metro Transit I’m able to supply my family with a better livelihood. My American dream can come true where before I couldn’t see that happening.

Suzi Person, a glazier from Painters (IUPAT) in Philadelhia came next and spoke about how she was more than honored to be building cities, bridges, and schools alongside her brothers and sisters in the Building Trades. She called for more building to be done to address our crumbling infrastructure and get people back to work. She called out,

Get these guys off the bench and rebuild our America to what it used to be. Build it bigger, build it stronger, build it  now!

Closing out the rally was Natalie Yoon, a student from Ohio State and member of United Students Against Sweatshops. She emphasized the importance of student-labor  alliances in a time when students are  facing rising tuition, student loan debt, and an 18 percent unemployment rate for young   people. She said students want jobs with good wages and good benefits and they won’t take the current failing economic system anymore.

This is our future and we’re demanding change today!

The mobilization came after a jam-packed second day of the summit. Participants spent the morning and afternoon engaged in various plenaries and workshops discussing the severe economic reality facing their generation  as well as their ideas for creating a stronger labor movement that can fight back and create a new future for working people. They even spent their lunch working together to plan tomorrow’s Un-conference, a block of workshops and brainstorming sessions  that were created by and voted on by the attendees themselves.

But it  wasn’t a day of just talk. As Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis advised the crowd in last night’s opening remarks, “Don’t  just say it, move on it!”

The young workers, students, and organizers at the 2011 Next Up Summit are taking an active part in calling for change and creating change themselves. With two  more days to go, there will be a lot they can accomplish together.

At a time when Congress is focusing on cutting federal spending, the National Priorities Project has launched a new interactive tool that offers people across the nation a way to understand and respond to national budget decisions.

Because federal budgets affect millions of Americans each day, the Federal Priorities Database helps users compare the way our nation spends money with the social impact of these expenditures. The database tracks both federal spending and social indicators like poverty rates, renewable energy usage and enrollment in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, as well as information at the state, county and school district level.

You can search, map and download information on defense contracts, affordable housing units, student-teacher ratios and other data. Here are some examples of info you can find in the database:

• One in seven people in the United States received food stamps in 2010. The number of program participants increased 42 percent from 2008 to 2010. In Texas, 3.5 million people received Food Stamps in 2010, up more than 18 percent from 2009.
• With U.S. unemployment remaining above 9 percent, only one-third of unemployed individuals qualified for unemployment insurance. Nevada had a 15 percent unemployment rate in 2009 and received $50,604,191 in federal Unemployment Insurance funding.
• Some 32 million students currently access subsidized or free school lunches through the  National School Lunch Program. In the Springfield, Mass., school system, 81 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch.

Emmelle Israel, an AFL-CIO Media Outreach fellow, is taking part in the Next Up Summit and sends us this report.

A poll among young people attending the 2011 AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summit shows their highest priorites are economic security, job security and government action to improve the nation’s economy.

More than 800 young workers, students and activists took part in poll in the days leading up to the Summit which is taking place now through Sunday in Minneapolis. The poll was conducted via text message and the results were published this afternoon.

Some 67 percent of participants say they value economic security over economic opportunity
(33 percent), and 41 percent of those surveyed value job security over benefits (32 percent) and wages (27 percent).

The emphasis on job security comes as no surprise when everyone polled expressed concern that they or a family member will be out of a job. Some 40 percent say they are “very concerned,” 30 percent say they are “somewhat concerned” and 29 percent say they are “a little concerned,” with no one saying they are “not concerned at all.”

In addition, 80 percent of attendees say it is harder to get a job now compared with last year. Looking toward the future, 32 percent of participants say they don’t know if they will be better off in three years while 13 percent think their situation will worsen and 26 percent think it will be the same. The remaining 29 percent believe they will be better off in the near future.

Young people are also calling upon the government to take more action in addressing the economic crisis, with 70 percent of those polled stating that they believe the government needs to take a larger role in improving the economy.