Young Workers: Taking Charge of Our Future
More than a third of workers age 35 and under cannot pay the bills; seven in 10 do not have enough saved to cover two months of living expenses; and a third are forced to live at home with their parents. How can young workers avoid becoming the nation's new underclass? Hear from panelists who are taking charge of their economic future by forming coalitions and networking with unions to reshape the traditional structure of workplace-based unions and reach young people where they're at, while building on the power of collective bargaining. Find out how you can take part in a grassroots mobilization that's shaking up the traditional face of the labor movement.
A graduate from Florida State University, Maria was active on campus and within the Latino community though her work as a radio dj and as president of the Colombian Student Association. Maria also served as treasurer of the Progressive Student Assembly, which mobilized more than 3,000 students and community members around juvenile detention centers and to demand justice in Florida's "boot camps". For the past year, Maria has been working with the Student Labor Action Project, and has helped students nationwide develop social and economic justice campaigns on their campuses and has trained students in grassroots organizing as a GROW trainer for the U.S. Student Association. Her views have been shaped by her own experience of coming to the U.S. with her family in 2000 as political refugees from Colombia.
Sara Flocks currently works on state policy and legislative issues for the California Labor Federation. Before that she was the co-founder of Young Workers United (YWU), a worker center based out of UNITE-HERE Local 2 in San Francisco. YWU organized young workers in the restaurant and retail sectors as well as at community colleges. Over the five years that Sara was there, YWU collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages for workers through direct action, won a 2 year campaign against the Cheesecake Factory restaurant, built a strong base of members and won numerous policy campaigns. The policy victories included raising San Francisco's minimum wage to over $9 an hour, indexed to inflation and winning the first paid sick days law for all workers in San Francisco. She has also published several articles and reports on young workers, including "I Know What It's Like to Struggle: The Working Lives of Young Students in an Urban Community College" She previously worked for the Berkeley Labor Center and the United Farm Workers.
