May 1, 2023
Why Are So Many Young People Joining Labor Unions?
By Eleanor Buchanan
For May Day, we talked to young workers—in tech, retail, food service, and more—about what brought them to the labor movement.
By Paige Oamek
A growing number of young people are joining and forming labor unions. Some call them “Generation U.” The New York Times dubbed the phenomenon the “Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class.”
Coming of age during the Great Recession, Occupy, and Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, those under 35 overwhelmingly approve of organized labor—77 percent, according to a Gallup poll. Coinciding with a more supportive National Labor Relations Board, this wave has had tremendous consequences, with over 2,500 union petitions filed in 2022 alone.
We talked to some of these young people—in tech, retail, food service, and more—about their working conditions and what brought them to the labor movement. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
PAIGE OAMEK: What’s your earliest memory of hearing about unions?
DAMON, 23, UPS Teamster Local 544, Nebraska: My stepdad. He’s been a blue-collar industrial mechanic my whole life. He’d tell me it’s really important to have a union behind you to protect you.
