Last week I was reading this article about new leadership in the AFL-CIO, and a quote by their new leader, Richard Trumka, really stood out to me.

“Ultimately, it won’t matter how many unions are in the AFL-CIO if we fail to capture the imagination of Millennials.”

I love that Trumka realizes that Millennials are the future of the AFL-CIO. But with union membership declining heavily year-over-year, I wonder what kind of role Millennials play in the Union workforce. Millennials love teamwork but do they want to be part of this sort of team?

I did a little research and found one important group of Millennials who are in unions: teachers. There are a lot of Millennial teachers, and considering that most teachers join unions for the legal protection they provide, I was not surprised to see this group of Millennial union-joiners. But, I wasn’t able to find any other Millennial-friendly professions that have unions. Which makes me wonder where Trumka thinks these excited Millennial union joiners are going to come from.

The article also explains how new branded AFL-CIO social media sites have been created to capture the attention of Millennials. But I do not think it’s enough. If the AFL-CIO wants to reach out to Millennials they need to be accessible in more ways than just social media. If Unions want Millennial members they have to stop focusing on the person’s profession and focus more on the benefits membership provides.

Millennials will change professions throughout their lives more than any other generation in history. Why would I want to join the teacher’s union today if I plan to go back to school in a year and pursue a business degree?

I seriously wonder why a Millennial would want to join a union at all.

Blake Sunshine: Perennial Millennial

I am Blake Sunshine, the writer of The Perennial Millennial. I am a recent Public Relations graduate from The University of Texas in Austin and work for National Instruments on both media relations and social media. I enjoy writing about Millennials, marketing and social media. I also enjoy exploring Austin, being outdoors and learning new things.