"unions are cool"

[Doug Henwood]

[from the front page of today's Wall Street Journal]

YOUTH ORGANIZING: Are younger workers more open to unions?

In a poll by Peter D. Hart Research Associates Inc. for the AFL-CIO, 
51% of 462 potential union members said they definitely or probably 
would vote against a union if an election was held tomorrow. But of 
workers under 35 years old, 53% would vote for a union. The result 
matches a similar poll from two years ago.

But why? Potential reasons vary, from a lack of loyalty for employers 
to a lack of memory of the big union-corruption scandals of decades 
past. For young workers, "unions are cool," says Andy Levin, an 
AFL-CIO organizing official, who cites turnout by pierced and 
tattooed 20-somethings at a recent Washington labor demonstration. 
Randel Johnson, a U.S. Chamber of Commerce official, says it shows 
older workers, "the most experienced in the workplace, are less 
inclined to join a union."