WASHINGTON —Frustrated and upset with an economy that leaves them poorer than their parents, hundreds of young workers–and some not so young–marched on Congress on February 7 to demand a living wage, worker rights, and an economy that works for all, not just the billionaires.
The marchers, organized and led by the Government Employees (AFGE), braved subfreezing cold—the high was 15 degrees—gale-force winds and ice-encrusted snow drifts that made marching slippery (or worse) to carry their message that it’s time for a change.
“We marched in the freezing cold today because young workers refuse to accept a rigged economy,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in part. “Rent is out of control. Child care is unaffordable. Student debt is endless. Young workers with AFGE and all our unions are organizing for a future they can actually thrive in.”
Besides the federation and AFGE, march contingents came from National Nurses United, the Machinists, and the Postal Workers, among other unions.
“We’re facing an affordability crisis, a housing crisis, a healthcare crisis, a childcare crisis, and a growing student debt crisis—and we’re done being ignored,” the Machinists’ contingent tweeted.
“Frustration. Exhaustion. And a system that doesn’t show up for us,” Machinists Local 1976 member Josh Charlier from Pittsburgh told the group when they were indoors. “America wasn’t built by those at the top. It was built by workers. We’re ready to build something better.”
Marchers trekked to the U.S. Capitol’s West Front, site of presidential inaugurations and also of the main force of the Trumpites’ Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack and coup attempt. Marchers then returned to the nearby Hyatt Regency hotel for speeches and strategizing.
Their lead demand is “a living wage with inflation adjustments,” followed by “health care and child care young workers can afford” and worker rights reforms, led by the right to organize without employer interference.
They also demand affordable housing, including a federally mandated cap on annual rent increases, and higher education without incurring a carload of student debt.
“This is the first Young Workers march in history,” with that type of an agenda, Roberson added. “Young workers in America have been sold a raw deal.
“Health insurance costs, food costs, education costs, child care costs, and housing costs are all too high.” Roberson, 34, says that even though he makes far more than his parents did combined, he would not be able to buy the house they live in.
That’s because the median cost of housing nationwide is more than $400,000. In major metro areas, including San Francisco, New York, Boston, and D.C., it’s approaching or over $1 million. The median is the point where half the houses cost more and the other half cost less.
“Everyone who has a stake in America” should be concerned.
Whether lawmakers will listen is debatable. Besides those priorities, Congress is tangled up in knots over yet another issue that worries the young workers—the repression by ICE—says Kendrick Roberson, director of AFGE’s civil and human rights department.
He told Ed “Flash” Ferenc on America’s Workforce Radio in a pre-march podcast that AFGE member Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a VA nurse in Minneapolis, was a young worker, aged 37, murdered there by Trump’s federal agents.
Even worse, Roberson said, is that such a bleak future produces disgust and disillusionment, with young workers giving up on the American Dream. Opinion polls show the situation is even worse than that: They’re giving up on democracy.
The march’s other point is to counter that attitude, said Roberson. “We want younger workers to know they have an opportunity to make change. This is the system, and we don’t like the system, but we can change it (emphasis his).”
The whole theme of the march was summed up in the headline on its website, in all capital letters:
“WE DESERVE. MORE. THAN. THIS.”
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