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Millennials love Austin. They also love unions.
Local union leaders report increased interest among millennials and Generation Z members, while workers at a number of Austin companies – including JuiceLand, the Austin American-Statesman and BookPeople – have recently organized.
This trend isn’t limited to Austin. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than three-quarters of those who joined a union in 2017, the last year for which data is available, were under 35, even though they represented less than 40% of total employment.
Historically, younger workers have been less likely to join unions, but current trends in the workforce – increasing job insecurity and the ubiquity of part-time, contract and unpaid jobs – have led to demographic change, according to the Economic Politics Institute.
Paul Steiner, 25, is the unions co-chair of the Austin Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (and a turn of the millennium). He believes millennials are interested in unionizing for the same reason that they buy fewer wedding rings and houses. “To be honest, we are poorer than any other generation in a long time,” he said. “All of this is the result of the deterioration in material conditions for everyone in America.”
The Benjamin Button Effect
When Ken Zarifis, 57, became President of Education Austin in 2010, membership of the ISD Austin Employees’ Union turned gray. To ensure the union’s longevity, he began meeting with its younger members and asking them why more of their colleagues had not joined. “They said, ‘No longer relevant,'” he said. “That wasn’t easy to hear.”
Union profits like weekends and the eight-hour day were ancient history for millennial workers. In response, Education Austin got more involved in social justice issues that younger workers said were important to them, including hosting a number of DACA clinics to help eligible dreamers apply for work permits and sets advocate fairer vacation regulations.
These efforts have paid off. “I can’t say we’re not a little gray-haired,” said Zarifis. “(But) we’ll see each other grow young like Benjamin Button.”
Austin EMS Association President Selena Xie also noted a slight change in attitudes among the new members. “There is excitement about the identity of being in a union rather than annoying us about the specific benefits of being in the union,” she wrote in an email to Austonia.
Next generation requirements
Recent Austin labor movements have focused on social justice issues alongside wage increases and job conditions.
The United Front of Juice Crews, a group of JuiceLand employees organized earlier this month, has urged the Austin-based company to acknowledge allegations of racism, sexism and sexual harassment. “Management has consistently refused to acknowledge their role in maintaining a racist and sexist structure,” the group’s media team wrote in a statement shared with Austonia. The leadership of JuiceLand denies these allegations.
The Austin NewsGuild, which represents journalists from the Austin American-Statesman and its six community newspapers, was granted the right to negotiate a union agreement in February. Among their demands is an anti-racist action plan to revitalize the Spanish-language newspaper ¡Ahora Si!
While these demands may reflect millennial leadership, they must also appeal to workers of all ages to ensure business success. Austin DSA skews more millennials, Steiner said, but its growth in recent years has been based on the commitment of longtime members who “held their ground” during the decades when unions were less popular. He referred to BookPeople United, recognized in 2018, as an example of a union with a mixed-age membership. “It absolutely has to cross generation lines,” he said. “Otherwise you will fail.”
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