A Labor Day message: join a union and Citizen Action.

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.nj.com/njv_john_atlas/2009/09/a_labor_day_message_join_a_uni.html

Posted by John Atlas September 06, 2009 8:13AM
Categories: civil society

I have two children one age 30 the other 25. They are lucky. Neither has to work on labor-day. But one in three workers under 35 do, a fact that symbolizes the difficulties young workers face.

Young workers today have lower-paying jobs than they did 10 years ago. Because of the George Bush induced recession, we have nearly 10% unemployment--the worst since the Reagan recession of 1983--and, of course, many young workers can't find jobs. Health care is a luxury, and retirement security is something for their parents, not them.

In fact, 34 percent of workers younger than 35 still live at home with their parents. I love my children and love when they are at my home. My wife and I would certainly make room for them if they wanted to live with us. But it should be by choice. Low-income young workers are as likely to live with parents as on their own, and not always because they choose to.

A new report by the AFL-CIO and Working America, "Young Workers: A Lost Decade," finds that the economic meltdown over the past decade has handicapped young workers' ability to transition into adulthood and financial independence.

Nate Scherer, 31, shares a home with his wife, his parents and his brother, writes, "After getting married, my wife and I decided to move in with my parents to pay off our bills. We could afford to live on our own, but we'd never be able to get out of debt. We have school loans to pay off, too. We'd like to have children, but we just can't manage the expense of it right now...so we're putting it off till we're in a better place."
Sound familiar?

Check out this report. http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/laborday/upload/laborday2009_report.pdf

FULL story a link.