Trisha Garcia attended a NextGen event a few years ago before knowing much about the program, only to discover that the exposure to hundreds of dynamic, forward-thinking activists unleashed her own desire to lead and serve.
Garcia is now a trustee, steward, grievance representative, negotiating team member and the NextGen co-chair for Local 8599, helping to represent hundreds of her co-workers in the Fontana (Calif.) Unified School District.
She’s also devoted hundreds of hours to community service, including work on a community garden dedicated to the late labor leader and civil-rights activist Cesar Chavez.
That’s precisely the impact that the USW intended to have on newer and younger union members when it created NextGen.
Unique in the labor movement, NextGen harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of these workers to build a bench for the USW, serve as ambassadors for labor and lift up working people on and off the shop floor.
In just a few years, we’ve helped to mold thousands of activist-leaders like Garcia. And in recognition of this growing impact, the International Executive Board last year elevated NextGen to a standalone department.
Unique in the labor move-ment, NextGen harnesses the enthusiasm and skills of these workers.
Forging Pathways to Leadership
NextGen held its second international conference in 2024, drawing nearly 1,200 union members—hundreds more than attended the inaugural conference in 2019—from across the United States and Canada.
Participants learned the fundamentals of organizing, bargaining, communications, legislative advocacy, workplace safety and other skills needed to represent co-workers, grow the union and boost labor’s international profile.
While inspiring one another, participants also drew strength from veterans who shared their insights and offered advice for taking the USW—and the labor movement overall—to the next level.
Fred Redmond, AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer and former USW international vice president for human affairs, urged participants to keep the USW an unyielding force for American families threatened by exploitation.
And USW International President David McCall called on participants to share what they learned at the conference with co-workers back home, a key means of growing NextGen—and union power—at the grassroots.
Putting Activists to Work
Because of NextGen skills-building, Ryan Andreas proved ready when the USW ramped up advocacy for a national infrastructure bill.
Andreas, financial secretary for Local 289M, joined the union’s efforts to push the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) through Congress in 2021.
Now, he and his co-workers at Travis Pattern and Foundry in Spokane, Wash., benefit from the increased production, new jobs and additional worker power generated by the landmark legislation.
In fact, the IIJA helped Local 289M leverage wage increases totaling 15.25 percent, along with gains in work-life balance and retirement security, in a new, four-year contract last year.
Andreas collaborated with other local union officers and District 12 staff to negotiate the agreement. Many of these other union members, more senior in the union than him, helped to show Andreas the ropes.
But he credits NextGen with helping him to understand bargaining, fuel expectations for a fair agreement, and give him an idea of what to expect at the negotiating table.
While some NextGen activists lead as stewards and local officers, others step up when needed, volunteer for committees or organize special events or solidarity- building actions.
For example, the NextGen Committee at Local 8888, representing thousands of shipbuilders in Newport News, Va., last year distributed drinks and snacks to members during shift change.
The “gate pass-out” served multiple purposes.
It enabled the local to survey members about their workplace priorities. It provided an opportunity to encourage members to vote in a critical election year. And it engaged younger members who represent the union’s future.
With hundreds of members approaching retirement, NextGen is essential to sustaining the local and helping it build on decades of gains.
Stepping into the Breach
NextGen members have a crucial role to play in growing the labor movement at a pivotal time.
Public support for organized labor soared to record levels as the pandemic underscored Americans’ need for affordable health care, safe working conditions, a voice on the job and the other advantages that unions provide.
While appreciation for unions rose across the demographic spectrum, it’s particularly strong among younger workers. They grew up witnessing the damage wrought by corporate greed, the decline of the middle class and widening economic inequality—and grasp unionism’s power to level the playing field and build an economy for all.
Because many younger people organically gravitate toward unions, it’s important to draw them into the labor movement, ignite their activism and leverage it to build still more worker power. That’s what NextGen helps to do.
Our activists’ commitment to community service is especially helpful in raising labor’s profile among younger workers, who demonstrate higher levels of concern for social justice than other groups.
NextGen activists provide backpacks to schoolchildren, raise funds for autism programs and support countless other projects.
It was the day of service at the 2019 NextGen conference that really put Garcia on the road to union activism. She recalled “how much energy we created and how much good we did” and realized that getting involved in the union meant getting involved in the community as well.
Building a Bench
The future of labor depends not only on growing the union ranks but in transitioning newer members to positions of leadership.
The USW and other unions have experienced the retirement of senior leaders in recent years, laying bare the importance of preparing the rising generations to take over their work.
Bernie Hall’s experience shows NextGen’s role in the path forward.
Hall became active in his local at an early age, joined NextGen, became one of the youngest staff representatives in District 10 history and won election as district director in 2021.
Now, he’s helping to boost NextGen’s reach and inspire other future leaders. In addition to participating in the international conference, District 10 itself offered three levels of NextGen training last year.
Partnering with SOAR
As many other NextGen participants chart their own course to leadership at various levels of the union, they have the support not only of current staff but the union’s cadre of energized retirees.
Collaboration between NextGen and the Steelworkers Organization of Active Retirees (SOAR) provides joint opportunities for learning and activism.
That’ why SOAR leaders attended the NextGen conference and participated in a workshop—“From NextGen to SOAR: A Lifetime of Activism”—intended to put members on a decades-long journey of labor advocacy.
SOAR President Bill Pienta disputed the notion that younger workers “stand on the shoulders” of retirees. Rather, he told the young activists that union members of all ages “stand shoulder to shoulder” in the fight for working people.
ADVANCING NextGen
To identify opportunities for growth, the NextGen office at International Headquarters recently surveyed USW districts about the numbers of coordinators available to them as well as what’s working and not working, their suggestions for improving the program and what kinds of assistance they’d like to receive.
Our goals include involving more locals in NextGen and ensuring coordinators get to trainings in far-flung communities.
Members can only join NextGen—and get the most out of the program—with the infrastructure to support their experience. In coming months, the department will focus on developing greater consistency and opportunity across the union.