We’re huge fans of Young Workers United here at Left in SF. They were the driving force behind last year’s historic sick pay victory, and have been doing a great job of fighting for the rights of, um, young workers.

I missed it when it came out, but there was a great article in the Chron about Young Workers a couple weeks ago.

“Anyone can walk in the door and say I need help,” explains Sonya Mehta, one of the group’s organizers. From that point the aggrieved enumerates their complaints against their employer. The complaints may be something solid, like wage and hour violations, or as hard to define as an inimical relationship with a manager. From there the person must find other employees with similar concerns, attend one Policy Committee meeting and assist YWU members on two separate occasions. If they do these things, “We’ll figure out a way for them to confront their boss,” Mehta says. There are no other membership requirements, dues to pay, or hoops to jump through.

In the past five years the YWU’s campaigns against employers have included negotiations with managers and owners, street protest, flyering patrons outside businesses, and lawsuits. The group also informs members about how they can recuperate unpaid wages through the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement. Members won claims totaling $150,000 in 2006 alone, the YWU says.

YWU searches for new members outside of the workplace. It has standing agreements with several departments at San Francisco State University and City College of San Francisco to speak during class time about the work it does, and members who are also students hand out material while on campus. YWU also has agreements with Lincoln, Galileo and Thurgood Marshall High Schools to speak to students in class about labor law before, or in the case of some students, as they enter the workforce.

These tactics combine to make YWU “one of the most innovative, multiracial, multilingual organizations in San Francisco,” according to Tim Paulson, executive director of the San Francisco Labor Council, an umbrella organization representing 150 unions and 100,000 members.