The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) National Vice President, Kendrick Roberson, joined America’s Workforce to preview what organizers describe as the first Young Worker March on Washington, D.C., focused specifically on the economic conditions facing workers under 40.
The march, scheduled for Feb. 7, will convene near the U.S. Capitol and feature labor, civil rights, and student voices calling for a living wage and a future in which work once again connects to stability. The event will include a moment of silence for AFGE member Alex Pretti, Roberson said. AFGE also held a Day of Remembrance for Pretti on Feb. 2.
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Joining Ed “Flash” Ferenc on the America’s Work Force Union Podcast today was Kendrick Roberson, a National Vice President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and head of the union’s Women and Fair Practices Department. Ferenc introduced Roberson as a leader working to protect and advance civil, human, women’s and workers’ rights for federal and D.C. government employees.
Roberson came on the podcast to preview a Young Worker March on Washington scheduled for Feb. 7, a mobilization he described as historic in both intent and scope.
Roberson said the event is being billed as the first young-worker march in modern U.S. history, dedicated specifically to the economic conditions facing young workers.
He framed the moment as a response to what many workers under 40 experience daily: the sense that the “American dream” was promised, only to be replaced by an affordability crisis that touches nearly every essential expense category.
Housing costs, he said, are too high. Rent is too high. Groceries cost too much. Education costs are too high. Child-related costs are too high. The result, in Roberson’s telling, is not simply frustration but a growing recognition that the economy is not delivering stability even for people who are working, studying, advancing and doing what previous generations were told would lead to security.
Ferenc pressed Roberson on why the march is explicitly branded around “young workers,” especially at a time when labor has seen renewed organizing energy across multiple sectors.
Roberson’s answer was twofold: the march is open to everyone with a stake in labor’s future, but its agenda centers on problems hitting younger workers hardest. He also pointed to a gap that organizers believe is both a challenge and an opportunity.
“Young workers across the board… you’re talking about 77 percent of them believe in the labor movement, believe in unionization, yet only 7 percent of them are actually organized in a union,” Roberson said.
That disparity, he argued, signals a generation that is not anti-union or apathetic. Instead, it suggests a workforce that is receptive to collective bargaining, but still underrepresented in organized labor. The march, he said, is part of an effort to convert belief into engagement, and engagement into power.
Roberson defined “young worker” as anyone under 40, noting that the cutoff aligns with federal age-discrimination standards, which begin at 40. Workers age 40 and over are not “old,” but “well seasoned,” a line that underscored the march’s broader message: this is a coalition moment, not a silo.
Roberson provided logistical details for listeners planning to attend.
The march, he said, will convene at the Hyatt Regency, 400 New Jersey Avenue NW, in Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m. on Feb. 7, then proceed to the U.S. Capitol, where the rally will follow.
He said speakers will include representatives from multiple unions and allied organizations, with participation expected from the AFL-CIO and beyond. Roberson also said the NAACP and student organizations will be present, emphasizing that “future workers” must have a voice in shaping the conditions they will inherit.
Ferenc noted that the show had discussed the march previously with Tom Buffenbarger and that multiple unions were expected to take part. Roberson described the coordination effort as intense.
“As an organizer, this has been one of the most strenuous organizing processes I’ve ever experienced,” he said, calling it fun but demanding due to the volume of meetings and the work required to align unions and community partners around a shared message.
Beyond turnout, Roberson said the march is designed to confront a deeper obstacle: resignation.
He argued that many young workers have come to see today’s economic conditions as fixed—“just the system”—and therefore beyond challenge. The purpose of the march, he said, is to reverse that mindset.
“This is the system, and we don’t like the system,” Roberson said. “So we can demand change and make it happen.”
That framing places the march in a long labor tradition: public demonstration not as symbolism, but as an organizing tool meant to build confidence, solidarity and pressure for policy and workplace change.
Ferenc asked Roberson to speak more specifically about the “needs, wants, and desires” of young workers, noting that many do not see a future in which they can afford a nice car, a home or a stable life. Ferenc cited the rising cost of vehicles and the median home price as evidence that the economic ladder is pulling away.
Roberson responded with a personal comparison that captured the generational disconnect.
He said he is 34 years old, more educated than his parents were at his age and earning more than they did at the same stage of life. Yet, he said, he still cannot afford to buy the kind of home his parents bought when they were his age.
That experience, he argued, is not a story of individual failure. It reflects structural conditions that are pushing major life milestones later and later—homeownership, moving out, family stability—despite workers “doing the work” and “working hard.”
Roberson also said the march will include a moment of silence for Alex Pretti, an AFGE member who was killed in Minnesota. Roberson described Pretti as a young worker “fighting for the rights in his community.”
Roberson added that Pretti’s name had been publicly characterized in severe terms during a political campaign, and he argued that the march should honor Pretti and the principle that people should be able to exercise constitutional rights without fear of violence.
Given the sensitivity of the topic, Roberson’s emphasis remained on commemoration and safety, not speculation.
When Ferenc asked what issues would dominate the rally program, Roberson pointed to a core theme: a living wage.
He positioned the demand as a practical response to the affordability pressures he listed earlier. In Roberson’s view, the march is not only about naming the crisis but about building a multi-union, multi-generation coalition capable of changing it.
As the segment closed, Ferenc thanked Roberson for joining the program and urged safety. Roberson responded with a promise that organizers would “have each other’s backs” and deliver what he called a “fantastic and historic march.”
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NOTE: “Young Worker” is classified as 16-24 in the 2024 Bureau of Labor Statistics Report on Union Workers, and it lists the organized young worker demographic at 4.3 percent. When averaged with the 25-34 age group, which is 10.4 percent organized, it does reflect the 7 percent Roberson references throughout the interview.