UE Young Activists Program Launched in Eastern Region with Enthusiastic Meeting

MONROEVILLE, PA 

UE Young Activist Meet. Top photo: Ron Safran of Local 610 talking with to Brian Cummins, Local 766. Second photo: Participants in the Young Activist meeting report to the full meeting of the Eastern Region Council. From left to right, Stephanie Masters, Local 170; Sheena Baines, Local 160; Antwon Gibson, Local 610, shown speaking; Jeremy Pratt, Local 684; and April Kelley, Local 170.

Sixteen young UE activists from six states in UE’s Eastern Region met on Friday evening, April 23 at the hotel where the UE Eastern Region Council would meet the following day. They got the program off to a strong start with lively discussions and commitment to further action. This was the third regional meeting kicking off the UE Young Activists Program; groups had previously met in the Northeast and Western regions.

Bob Kingsley, UE National Director of Organization, welcomed participants and outlined the origins of the program, which evolved from discussions at the UE national convention last September.  The goal is to channel the energy of younger union members to strengthen and reinvigorate UE and the labor movement, and to develop the next generation of union leadership.  A weakness that the labor movement must overcome, said Kingsley, is that young workers are less than half as likely as older workers to be union members. In the labor movement’s greatest period of growth and vitality – the 1930s and ‘40s – it was largely a movement of young workers, and through mass organizing, one-third of American workers were brought into unions. In contrast, today only one out of eight public sector workers, and one of 11 in the private sector, belong to labor unions.

UE Organizer Dante Strobino, youngest member of the national UE field staff, showed a short video titled “You Can Change Our World,” highlighting UE’s role as an activist union today and throughout the union’s 74-year history. 

This was followed by an icebreaker exercise, in which members paired off, interviewed each other, and then introduced their colleague to the group. Kingsley then presented a PowerPoint slideshow on the economic and social challenges facing the labor movement and, in particular, young workers today.

COMMITMENT TO ACTION

Several upcoming events were described, and before the end of the meeting each person was asked to indicate which events or activities they’d like to become involved in. All chose some, and several people signed up for as many as seven activities. The commitments included becoming more involved in their locals, taking union education classes, helping with union organizing, aiding a planned UE organizing blitz in West Virginia, getting involved in local coalitions such as Jobs with Justice, and attending the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit in June or the UE Political Action Conference in September. 

Field Organizer John Thompson led a discussion of workplace issues, asking members which issues are most important to them and to other young workers, and ways their locals have worked to improve working conditions. The group had a similar discussion of issues in society that are important to young workers, which social justice issues the union has worked to resolve, community groups with which the union has built alliances, and additional issues that the union should address. They also discussed barriers that prevent young people from becoming more active union members and community activists.

MEMBERS RANK MAJOR ISSUES

In response to the Young Activists Issues Survey, the following were ranked as the top five workplace issues: wages, health care, retirement and pensions, vacation and fair supervision (tied for fourth place), and seniority. Among social justice issues, participants chose as the top five living wage, universal health care, affordable housing, workers’ right to form unions, and public education. 

Members discussed how community groups working together on social justice strengthens all people in a community, and the interconnections of issues affecting different people. They agreed that through the union we can bring about fairness and equality, develop respect for workers, and help educate our co-workers and communities to take control of our future.

Among the barriers to organizing, the young members identified management intimidation tactics and the fear these produce. There were additional concerns about complacency, the time constraints imposed by people working two jobs or working while going to school, and workers’ lack of knowledge about unions.

There was discussion on how participants can keep in touch and communicate among themselves and with other UE young activists across the country. The UE Young Activist Program has a Facebook page, whose link is available on the UE website ueunion.org.  Other suggested means of communication included email, the UE NEWS and YouTube videos, which could highlight some of the activities the union members plan to be involved in.

Participating in the meeting were Ben Carroll of Local 150; Sheena Baines and Valecia Jackson of Local 160; April Kelley, Stephanie Masters, Shelly Shay and Trevor Swan of Local 170; Antwon Gibson and Ron Safran of Local 610, Ed Niehenke of Local 622; Rocky Mullooly of Local 642; Joshua Gates and O.J. Hammond of Local 683; Jeremy Pratt of Local 684; Nate Ward of Local 718; and Calvin Womack of the UE organizing committee at Anything IT in Patterson, NJ.

The meeting’s emphasis on developing young leaders bore results the following day at the Eastern Region Council Meeting, when two of the UE Young Activists – Joshua Gates from Local 683 in Erie, PA and Antwon Gibson from Local 610 in Wilmerding, PA – were nominated and elected to the Regional Executive Board.