Support for unions growing strong among young workers
Juan and Diego Quintanilla are sheet metal workers campaigning near their job site in Richmond, Texas — not for a candidate, but for an organization. They want to unionize.
Despite the fact that union dues would cut into their paychecks, Juan says, "the benefits that we're gonna get, it makes up for way more than what they're gonna take."
The 19- and 23-year-old brothers are lobbying fellow tradespeople to vote yes.
Unions have been out of favor for decades. Twenty percent of workers belonged to one in 1983, but by 2020, that number had fallen by half, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But attitudes seem to be changing.
Support for organized labor is at a high not seen since the 1960s, with 71% of Americans saying they approve of unions, according to Gallup. Among members of Generation Z, unions have a 64.3% approval rating, according to the Center for American Progress.
"We seem to really care about fairness and equality in the workplace. We all kind of want to get paid a good amount of money for the work that we're putting in," Diego said.
Adam Cobb, an associate professor at University of Texas who studies unions, said the increase in support reflects the "heavy concentration of power among big corporations and the elites that run them, and unions are a counterbalance to the strength of corporate power on the one hand and sort of shifts some of that power to workers."
Sheet metal worker Amber Sage Oliver is part of the young generation new to the workplace. She estimates the same work she does would pay at least $200 a week less in a nonunion shop.
"Currently, I'm making about $33 an hour, so that's pretty good in comparison to people who just got out of college or university," Oliver said.
But unions can still be divisive and not everyone is joining in.
Erin Davis Valdez, a former teacher, says she saw unions let down other teachers, and that motivated her to get into public policy to oppose them.
"If you look at rates of unionization over time, they've either remained flat or gone way down, so I don't view this as an overall long term trend," Valdez said. "I think what will happen is that they will be disappointed by what unions promise versus what they deliver."
But that argument is just noise for the Quintanilla brothers.
"100% percent, we're all in," Juan said.
It's a brotherhood that subscribes to the saying, "In union, there is strength."