Millennial union members take less pride in work, Pru survey finds

Millennial union members do not share the same level of pride in their work as their baby boomer counterparts, according to the findings from a new survey released Wednesday by Prudential Retirement.While 53 percent of baby boomer union members reported that they have a strong sense of pride in their job, just 27 percent of millennials agreed.

The generations also differ in their workplace priorities, as 59 percent of millennials identified low wages as their primary concern, a sentiment shared by just 47 percent of baby boomers.

While 52 percent of boomers identified medical benefits as their top concern, just 39 percent of millennials agreed.

“The survey reveals the delicate balancing act that unions will have to navigate in meeting the changing needs of their members,” said Scott Boyd, head of Prudential Retirement’s Taft-Hartley Solutions. “Historically, unions have played a unique role in giving workers a critical voice on issues like safety, pay, work hours, as well as access to health care and retirement benefits.”

There is also some disparity in how the two generations view the role of unions, as more baby boomers credit unions for gaining access to fair wages and benefits than millennials.

Greg Lalevee, chairman of the Engineers Labor-Employer Cooperative and business manager for the Springfield-based International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 825, said that, while he doesn’t believe the generational gap is an issue that unions alone own, he’s noticed that “millennials aren’t as connected to their work as previous generations are, generally speaking.”

“We’ve had internal discussions about trying to internally build leadership-quality people for the future and it does seem to be more of a challenging environment from when I was coming up,” Lalevee said.