Generation Z flexes its collective power

By Fabrizio Sasso
Executive Director, Sacramento CLC

The new year is starting off with the same great union organizing energy that created a wave last year.

I am happy to report that here in the Sacramento region, we can celebrate the first successful union campaign at a Peet’s Coffee.

The Peet’s Coffee in Davis voted to unionize this month, voting 14-1 to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1021 on Friday Jan. 20.

I want to congratulate these new union members, many of them young workers, for their dedication, persistence and savvy. The effort to unionize this store has taken nine months, and endless hours of education about why unionizing is critical to creating fair, livable jobs.

It does not surprise me that young workers led this effort. Across the country, we are seeing Generation Z rise up and flex their collective might in the workplace. This generation has an important understanding of the value of collective action and unionism, not just to make their jobs better, but to make their communities and our society better.

It is so exciting and heartening to see a new generation of unionism taking shape here in Sacramento. This is where the labor movement is right now, where our energy and power lies—in young workers willing to fight for their rights.

We saw it start a few years ago with Fight for $15, which has transformed the fast food industry and successfully raised the minimum wage for all Californians. Their fight continues, as you can see from the story on our front page. The FAST Act, passed last year to help fix labor abuses in the fast food industry, has been challenged by greedy corporations such as McDonalds. They have collected enough signatures to contest that new law on the 2024 ballot—but we won’t let them win.

This wave of unionism isn’t going anywhere but up. I have no doubt that the Peet’s victory is just the first for that chain, and for our region. Though organizing at Starbucks has shown how hard it can be, and how far employers will go to stop it, we know that the workers united can never be divided, and we will prevail. So far, 273 Starbucks have been unionized, including locations in California. That momentum can’t be stopped. It’s the same for worker-led drives at places including Amazon and Microsoft.

Of course, these workers need our support and our knowledge. The exciting part is that they are doing this hard organizing on their own. But we in the labor movement have vital history, experience and resources. That’s why it’s so important for forward-thinking unions such as SEIU to back these campaigns with their might, and why this Labor Council will always stand with any workers who want to unionize.

We know well that unionizing is the only way to protect ourselves and our families from corporate greed. And union parents have clearly done something right, because the next generation knows it too.