Youth Labor Library

A union is when workers join together to have a stronger voice. Imagine if one person asked for a better lunch at school — they might be ignored. But if the WHOLE class asked together? That's a union. Workers form unions so they can ask for fair pay, safe workplaces, and respect — together.

A strike is when workers stop working to show how important they are. It's the last resort — when the boss won't listen to anything else. Imagine if every cafeteria worker stayed home one day. No lunch! That's how workers show that without them, nothing works. Strikes are how workers won the 8-hour workday, weekends, and child labor laws.

Collective bargaining is when the union sits down with the employer and negotiates a contract — a written agreement about pay, hours, breaks, safety, and rules. Think of it like this: if you and your friends want to change a rule at school, you write a petition, present it to the principal, and negotiate. That's collective bargaining! The contract protects EVERYONE equally.

Before labor laws, children as young as 5 worked in coal mines, textile mills, and factories — 12-16 hours a day, 6 days a week, for pennies. They lost fingers, got sick, and many died. It took unions, strikes, and brave kids marching in the streets to pass laws that said: children belong in school, not in factories. Every time you go to school instead of a factory, thank the labor movement.

Right here in Memphis, Tennessee, 1,300 Black sanitation workers went on strike carrying signs that said 'I AM A MAN.' They were paid poverty wages, had no safety equipment, and two workers — Echol Cole and Robert Walker — were crushed to death in a garbage truck. The workers organized with AFSCME and demanded dignity. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to support them. He was assassinated here on April 4, 1968 — but the workers won their contract. Their courage changed Memphis and America forever.

Even as a young person, you should know: workers in America have the RIGHT to form a union (National Labor Relations Act), the RIGHT to a safe workplace (OSHA), the RIGHT to earn at least minimum wage (Fair Labor Standards Act), and the RIGHT to not be discriminated against (Civil Rights Act). These rights didn't always exist — workers fought and sometimes died for them. Knowing your rights is the first step to protecting them.