Labor unions and their politics - are you informed?
President Obama delivers a statement at the White House on Aug. 31, 2011, as AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka looks on.
Labor unions may not be a topic at the forefront of many students’ minds. However, Jeff Hauser, lead for political media at the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) says students may owe labor unions more than they might realize, even if they aren’t members.
“Younger people take for granted a lot of the accomplishments of the labor movements, be it the eight-hour workday or the weekend,” Hauser said.
The AFL-CIO represents 56 affiliate unions, and with Labor Day just vanishing on the cultural horizon, these labor unions have been brought to the forefront of the American consciousness. Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka delivered an impassioned speech in support of President Obama.
“Prosperity requires economic security,” Trumka said. “Working Americans will stand with leaders who protect and strengthen Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid -- not those who plan cuts to benefits working people have paid for, earned and are counting on.”
In that same speech, Trumka again endorsed Obama, for whom the AFL-CIO formally declared support back in March.
Though the Boston Globe reported this week that labor union politics are falling from power, Hauser notes that a prosperous America isn’t just about standing with leaders, but also fellow citizens.
“Ever since the Wisconsin attack on workers, Ohio and the occupy movements, the importance of unions is becoming more and more clear to young people,” Hauser said. “The extent of economic inequality and the fact that the economy can be working tremendously well for the CEOs and the shareholders, and not for hardworking people ... Obviously, we’re not rooting for the inequality to help reach out to young people but the reality of it means the importance of unions has never been greater.”
Noah Lange, 21, of Green Bay, Wisc. is a junior English major at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. He’s wary of the support Hauser and others will be able to attract.
“We’ve been living a pretty aggressively anti-labor sort of epic since the Reagan administration, when the government took part in breaking unions,” Lange said. “I’m just disappointed that labor history has been pushed under the rug. It’s not attractive and people don’t think it’s important anymore because we have those benefits from the labor movement.”
Hauser also feels there’s untapped history that could benefit those entering the workforce out of college.
“[Many young people] have been beat down into thinking they don’t deserve to have a voice in their workplace as the contemporary economy has increased the number of part time jobs and basically de-humanized the workplace,” Hauser said. “... I think that young people should be aware that there exists this vehicle to promote equality.”
Michael Crowe is a Fall 2012 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.