For the past few decades, organized labor has been in decline with “right-to-work” laws hamstringing unions' ability to effectively raise funds and a series of presidential administrations that have been at best unsympathetic and at worst openly hostile to the plight of laborers.
The Trump administration has sustained this legacy of removing protections once guaranteed to workers, denying, for example, protections for overtime pay and ending record-keeping of workplace injuries in companies with 250 or more employees. The working class cannot rely on the government to side with them in their struggles.
For many young people, this has become a clear reality, and this is why millennials — that is to say, people currently between the ages of 22 and 37 — have become a driving force in the recent growth of labor unions. Between 2012 and 2017, union membership among people over 35 decreased by 1,000. But among people under 35, it increased by over 400,000, thus reversing previous negative trends in total union membership. It makes sense that millennials would be drawn to unionizing: as a generation, they have witnessed the failure of neoliberal capitalism during the Great Recession, and they have been desensitized to “Red Scare” tactics. Organized labor naturally appeals to them as a means to stable living in uncertain times.
These new labor unions tend to be of a different character than those of the past, for they are increasingly composed of women and people of color. Moreover, labor unions have increasingly emerged in sectors that have traditionally been inhospitable to organizing. Consider our own UNC-Chapel Hill, where graduate students are organizing alongside campus workers as a part of the local chapter of the member-run UE 150, the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union.
North Carolina is a right-to-work state, and the conservative state legislature is hostile to labor unions, which makes it more difficult to organize; but it’s far from impossible. After all, labor unions formed long before their right to organize was protected by any laws at all. It is possible to organize your workplace by talking to your fellow workers, discussing your shared grievances and then taking action together to pressure your employer to make changes. The most vital ingredient to a successful union is solidarity — having the back of your fellow workers and trusting them to have yours.
To my fellow students entering the workplace soon or years in the future: don’t expect your employers to take care of you. Corporations operate on the unilateral principle of extracting as much labor from their workers as possible in order to maximize profit. Trying to improve your lot on your own is nigh-impossible, but you share a common cause with your fellow workers, and together you can use the leverage you collectively hold in your labor power to force concessions from the bosses. Divided you are resigned to feed on scraps, but together you can demand your place at the table!
