NLC’s Dr. Diane Frey Interviewed in Motley Fool on Millennials & Union Membership

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Faculty

The Motley Fool recently discovered that buried within a June 2013 Pew report was an interesting nugget of information about Millennials and unions: 61% of young adults support unions.

For more insight on millennials and unions, the Fool interviewed Dr. Diane Frey, Assistant Professor of Labor Studies at National Labor College and Director of the Labor Studies BA Degree Program.

[Frey] says the primary reason for Millennials’ low union participation rate isn’t that young people are making the active choice to avoid signing up. Instead, she insisted, most simply do not have the option.

As the American economy has become largely post-industrial, fewer private sector jobs are unionized. ‟Some of the really decent professions that have in the past been good entry ways for new generations of workers, such as public sector teaching, are being dismantled with new disposable models where younger workers are basically sweated in programs like Teach-for-America that are not meant to be sustainable as careers,” she says.

Rates of union membership are significantly higher in the public sector than in the private firms (35% vs. 6%, respectively).

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NLC Staffers are #StandingStrong with UFCW Local 400 Grocery Workers

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dc, metro dc, OPEIU, solidarity, tng-cwa, ufcw400

National Labor College staffers are #StandingStrong with UFCW Local 400 Safeway & Giant employees as the clock ticks toward Thursday’s midnight expiration of their contract.

“UFCW Local 400 workers at Safeway and Giant are fighting for their wages and health care benefits – and to keep good jobs in the D.C. Metro area,” said Jean Dearden, Director of the Bonnie Ladin Union Skills Program at the National Labor College.

Staffers, including members of TNG-CWA Local 32035 and OPEIU Local 2, met with the manager of Safeway #870 in Silver Spring on Wednesday to drop off cards of solidarity and express support for the Safeway and Giant workers.

The solidarity event was just one of dozens of actions happening in local grocery stores across the area.

For the latest news on the negotiations, visit www.ufcw400.org or follow @UFCW400 on Twitter.

Bricklayers Star in National Building Museum Show

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Bricklayers, IUBAC, Metropolitan Washington Council

This is a cross-post from the Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO.

“Ask a mason what he wants to build and he’ll say ‘An arch,’” says Bricklayers Local 1’s Matthew Redabaugh in the video that accompanies the “Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces” show currently at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

The show – sponsored in part by the International Union of Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers – explores the accomplishments and the architectural legacy of the Guastavinos, a family of first-generation Spanish immigrants, who helped build many great American public spaces between 1881 and 1962, and revolutionized American architectural design and construction.

Click here to find out more about the show and the Building Museum, and listen to Susan Stamberg’s story on NPR.

Affected by the Government Shutdown? NLC Offers Application Waiver

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federal workers, Financial Aid

Image courtesy AFL-CIO Blog

On Friday, hundreds of thousands of federal workers received their paychecks – and for many of them, those paychecks were less than half of what they should have been.  

The federal government shutdown has directly impacted families across the country, forcing working families to have to cut back and do without. (Check out the AFL-CIO NOW blog post: “5 Shutdown Stories You Must Read.”)

We don’t think it’s fair that working families should have to put off important decisions just because of partisan gridlock.  That’s why National Labor College will waive the application fee (normally $83) through November 1 for any workers directly affected by the shutdown.

It’s not too late to apply for the upcoming semester starting in January.   Don’t let the government shutdown put off your dream of earning your college degree.  Click here to request your application fee waiver and save $83.