Young People on the March

    I was just lamenting the other day that, too often, there are not young people--I maintain we are all young but I'm talking people south of their early 20s--involved in the labor movement. But, here you go, something to point out as a positive, if perhaps isolated, exception to the rule.

Meat-packing firm is target of effort
By Adrienne P. Samuels,
Boston Globe Staff
SOMERVILLE, MA

About 50 fifth-graders and their parents marched outside a supermarket yesterday to lend their voices to a growing nationwide protest against stores stocking the products of Smithfield Packing Co., the world's largest pork processor.

Smithfield's packing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., made news recently after 1,000 workers walked out in protest of what they described as unfair labor practices relating to the company's illegal immigrant, Latino, and African-American workers. Union organizers and meat packers allege that Smithfield will not allow Hispanics and blacks to work together and that people who are injured on the job are denied claims for workers' compensation.

The children, part of the Sunday school affiliated with Workmen's Circle, a Brookline-based Jewish cultural center, took up the cause as part of their educational training. The school teaches social responsibility, and each year encourages fifth-graders to conduct a protest.

Shouting "1-2-3-4, don't sell Smithfield at your store," the children and adult supporters of the United Food and Commercial Workers union waved signs and drew police to the Foodmaster store on Alewife Brook Parkway. Foodmaster, like other stores in the Boston area, sells such Smithfield products as Eckrich sausage and Butterball turkey.

Ronnie Simmons, 56, a Smithfield employee, traveled from North Carolina to help with the two-hour protest. "We need a contract, health benefits, and better working conditions," she said.

Smithfield officials have said the protests have more to do with the union than labor practices than they do with the company.

The Upnited Food and Commercial Workers union has tried since the early 1990s to unionize packers at the Tar Heel factory, where workers have twice voted down the union.

Comments

[really?]

No one under 20 involved in the labor movement? United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) not only has plenty of members in college that age, they've also been expanding into high schools with a lot of success.

Of course, most unions have done almost nothing to support USAS, so the growth is a lot slower than it could be.

[John A. Joslin]

J.T. - This comes up pretty often so here's my impression....... young people usually find genuinely interesting people & things "all by themselves " w/o much trouble . Could this be why the labor movement goes undiscovered so frequently  ? ( Today's reported exception & others duly noted, of course... ) The ol' L.M. is hardly interesting to the union members who are it's main constituents. So , exactly why should it draw the passionate attention or involvement of anyone else ? Those of us who loyally or hopefully refer to this combination of organizations , people, and principles as the labor MOVEMENT are throwing a kind of verbal bouquet that young people & others may be catching on to better than we know. ( Think: the dutiful replenishment of floral displays at a well tended grave. ) I'm guessing that the respectful dressing up of our contemporary labor "system" as a labor "movement" is such an obvious costume job that an alert observer of any age isn't going to waste any time mistaking wistful nostalgia for something vital ... or inherently interesting.

If you could take the immobilized & encrusted "International Unions " out of the mix; lose the CTW , retire the AFL , and let some air into the room.... if all you had left were everybody who worked for a living and the people who wanted to....I bet you'd have young people swarming to the action.

By the way, United Students Against Sweatshops can take what is usually called "labor leadership " to SCHOOL any day of the week .

- John A. Joslin ( Detroit )

[Tasini]

Good point re: USAS. I was focusing more on participation directly in unions, as opposed to support organizations. But, certainly, USAS activism is a welcome addition.

[Reece Chenault]

To comment:

I am a young man working for a labor union. Even with the changes in attitude and politics, young people are still seen as undesirables and complete outsiders on the local level. on the international level, lots of kids end up getting fired or quitting because the policies support very little of what you're told is your actual job. There's talk of social justice, freedom, equality, etc. but unless you actually believe and support it, the young radicals probably won't show. There are more and more people under the age of 30 getting involved every day, but they leave just as fast for that very reason.

[kimaszi]

so in San Francisco, young people are organizing themselves:
http://www.youngworkersunited.org/

They were involved in the paid sick days campaign, among other actions.

I don't think YWU see themselves as a 'support' organization. Like many workers' centers, they see themselves as organizing the unorganized, organizing the workers unions still aren't organizing (like the fast food sector, which UNITE-HERE organizers tell me they won't touch because of the franchise laws and how difficult that makes organizing--any info or thoughts on that, y'all?).

[D Flinchum]

If I were a young US worker, one of the first things I'd do is see where any union that I might be affiliated with stood on immigration. Immigration has not been kind to young workers.

http://www.thinkandask.com/2006/092206-worker.html

[janinsanfran]

Except Mr. Flinchum, if you were a young US worker, you'd probably BE an immigrant worker, wishing your union wasn't so white and actually supported your realities.

[union pipefitter]

i am a young 23 year old union pipefitter in florida. I am not a immigrant just finsh my Apprenticeship. 90% of the time my company is the only union company on the job. At my company we hire only through the union so we are most black and white. We all are getting paid good even the helpers and you can get young americans to work if you pay and treat them decent and offer them a future. The other companys(non-union) are mostly made of a few white and black people at the top who get paid good with hole crews made up of immigrant workers who arent here legally getting paid nothing. It hurts union construction company because of our contract the have to pay everybody good. So i see the damage done by immigrant everyday at work. I consider myself very luck i have a union i get paid good and get treat decent many of my friends and brother dont have unions and have to compete against immigrant for the same jobs the immigrants are willings to do for much less. The unions need to be speaking out against immigrant for the benefit of young people not for it

[M~]

Union pipefitter: If you look at the largest growing sector of the US economy it is the service sector, which is primarily made up of women and immigrants. Every worker, and I mean EVERY WORKER, no matter what their immigration status, race, religion, political beliefs, etc, deserve a union and a dignified existence. The reason the labor movement got so strong was because of the radical immigrants from Italy, Ireland, and Eastern Europe in the early 1900's who were willing to fight for what they deserved. Some unionists back then said that immigrants were driving wages down. Others said we should organize them. They got organized and the union movement grew. That is what has to happen. They are our working brothers and sisters, no matter what country they are from. There are bosses and there are workers. Which side are you on?

[D Flinchum]

"Every worker, and I mean EVERY WORKER, no matter what their immigration status, race, religion, political beliefs, etc, deserve a union and a dignified existence."

Every person in the world "deserves" a dignified existence but that doesn't mean that they have a right to move to the US.

"They got organized and the union movement grew."

It certainly did but only after the massive immigration known as the Great Wave, which started in the 1880's came to a halt as a result of restrictive immigration laws enacted by Congress in 1924. BTW, the early part of the Great Wave occurred during the Gilded Age, so called because of the rise of the super-wealthy like the Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan families. Great wealth was concentrated in a few hands. Sound familiar?

"There are bosses and there are workers."

And the bosses are big supporters of massive immigration. Big supporters. They were then and they are now. They oppose raising the minimum wage, oppose mandating certain benefits like family medical leave, oppose OSHA and health and safety laws, oppose any laws that make it easier for unions to organize and represent workers and for workers to have economic power. But they SUPPORT massive immigration.

As that old IBM motto used to say: THINK.

[GusRP]

The Great-wave was a direct result of the Immigration Act of 1864, but more importantly for today everyone should get off their asses and realize that there will never be a 'closed' policy on immigration, so get over it! This government is wholly owned by corporate America and serves it well! Therefore, those who are having trouble with immigration in their respective industries, should construct a massive regional organizing drive in their industry devoid of international union support if need be. forget international credentials! If you see a group of unorganized workers then organize them! And for the love of god quit complaining!