OPEIU Local 2 Rising Stars Headed to the Next Up Young Worker Summit

 Over a thousand young union activists and community advocates from all over the country will be traveling to Chicago, Illinois, to attend the largest gathering of young worker advocates this country has ever seen.  At the AFL-CIO Next Up Young Worker Summit from March 19-22, these future union and community leaders will come together to build a common middle-class agenda, provide young activists the tools they need to build power and begin mapping out the strategy they’ll need to claim the future they deserve. With over 80 workshops, topics such as collective bargaining, race relations, right to work fights, immigration reform, work-life basics, labor law and much more will be covered.

Our International union has been a big supporter of the AFL-CIO’s young workers initiative and established the “OPEIU Rising Stars” program to support the education, empowerment and encouragement of young activists. OPEIU made a commitment to make sure young workers from our Local Unions were present for this motivational summit and they encouraged all of the Locals to participate.  OPEIU Local 2 is proud to be sending five delegates from our Local 2 Rising Stars “Step Up” Committee to this important summit.   

The OPEIU Local 2 delegation is a diverse group of young workers on the Rising Stars Committee from different shops within Local 2.  Erin Farmer and Ashley Newkirk are involved and active young activists from the shop at IBEW. Ian Stublarec is a steward at IAFF and a newly elected delegate to the DC Metro Council.  Jason Burnett is a steward at AFGE.  Caniesha Seldon is the OPEIU International representative to the AFL-CIO Young Worker Advisory Council, Chair of the Local 2 Rising Stars “Step Up” Committee and Chief Steward at AFGE. 

OPEIU International will be providing transportation in a specially designed “OPEIU Rising Stars” bus for all of the different union participants to and from Chicago O’Hare airport.  Also, in addition to all of the important workshops and plenary sessions to enjoy, OPEIU participants will receive a special Rising Stars swag bag, attend a welcome reception and caucus meeting to network and connect with other motivated young OPEIU members from different professions around the country.   

The theme of the summit is Educate, Aspire, Organize!  With the support of our Local leadership, our delegation is excited to learn and bring their energy back to service the members of OPEIU Local 2! 

OPEIU Local 2 Rising Stars "Step Up" Committee

Caniesha Seldon and Jason Burnett of the Rising Stars Committee