Young and Organized: The pandemic and the gig economy are drawing Generation Z to unions.

• Date: 01 June 2022
• Author: Johnson, Sharon
• Published date: 01 June 2022
• Author: Johnson, Sharon

Destiny Violet Richards, a twenty-two-year-old security guard in Chicago, has managed to do what many young people cannot: advance toward the American dream, thanks to her membership in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1, which represents 50,000 workers in six Midwestern states.

"I don't walk on eggshells anymore because I have the union behind me," says Richards, who became a member last year. The wages negotiated by the union enable her to keep up with inflation. She has health care benefits that her friends in the gig economy can't afford. "But best of all," she says, "is the security of knowing that I have somebody I can talk to about the rules and how I should be treated in the workplace."

Richards is a loyal employee who, during the pandemic, worked twelve- to sixteen-hour shifts that left her exhausted. "I paid a significant price," she says. "I dropped out of college because I didn't have the energy or concentration for my studies in information technology."

But meeting other union members who were facing the same challenges "decreased my sense of vulnerability," Richards says. "It also gave me a sense of being part of a movement to bring about positive changes in the workplace that will benefit all security guards."

The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, found that only 15.8 million Americans were represented by unions in 2021, a decline of 581,000 from 2019.

Historically, younger workers have been less likely to join unions than older workers, says Marquita Walker, interim chair and associate professor of labor studies...