Questão 21 - UNEB Dia 1 2024

The Gen Zers leading a new pro-union push

 

In August 2022, Gallup recorded the highest levels of union support since the 1960s; 71% of Americans approve of labour unions, and about one in 10 non-union workers said they were "extremely interested" in joining one.

Gen Z is, according to the Center for American Progress, "the most pro-union generation alive today". Gen Z's involvement and support for organised labour makes sense considering the context of their experiences, says Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labour education research and a senior lecturer at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labour Relations, US.

"First of all, they grew up being told they were going to be better off than their parents," she says. "The fact is, they struggled to find jobs, and the jobs they found were not as good as their parents'. They and the generations that follow them are saddled with college debt. They're concerned about broader social issues like reproductive rights and gun control, and planning to hold governments and employers accountable on those issues."

"I think there's a growing understanding that if you have a job, you need a union," says Jaz Brisack. The now-26-year-old was one of the earliest leaders of union efforts at Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, in 2021. Brisack now believes in the power of unions to create equality among what they see as an inequitable power structure, saying, "I think people are looking back and seeing that what actually created improved standards of living in the past was union density, and they're more open to ideas about organising."

MORGAN, Kate. The Gen Zers leading a new pro-union push. BBC, 3 set. 2023. How we work. Disponível em: . Acesso em: 23 nov. 2023. (Adaptado).

What are the reasons behind Gen Z's involvement with organized labor?