Founded in 2002 by young workers in low-wage jobs, Young Workers United (YWU, Norman grantee 2003–2011) set out to organize the workers juggling school and jobs in the service and retail sectors, who were not reached by unions nor youth organizations. At that time in California, 41% of full-time workers under age 25 had no health insurance, and teen workers were injured on the job twice as often as adults. YWU engaged young people from college campuses and workplaces across San Francisco, building a multiracial membership base of native-born and immigrant workers in a city where the restaurant industry alone employed tens of thousands of young people.

YWU’s victories came fast. In 2003, they helped win Proposition L, raising San Francisco’s minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.50 an hour — the highest in the country at the time and indexed to inflation going forward — benefitting an estimated 50,000 workers. In 2006, YWU won a historic victory when 61% of voters approved the Paid Sick Leave Ordinance. YWU recruited 75 workers to testify at hearings, built a broad coalition of labor and community groups, and led a multilingual educational and media plan to make San Francisco the first city in the country to mandate paid sick days for all workers. The organization continues its work today as Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, a name adopted in 2020 to better reflect their community of Bay Area immigrant workers fighting for dignity and fair pay.

Media:

• Labor Notes 2007 article about YWU: Winning Sick Leave at the Citywide Level