Union Summer is the paid ($21/hour) summer internship program for people interested in full-time work within the labor movement. A program of the affiliated unions of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Union Summer participants will spend an exciting seven weeks — June 24 to August 3, 2024 — getting hands-on experience building power for working people.
This summer, in addition to the Seattle-area cohort, the WSLC is looking for two Union Summer interns to work full time with different campaigns based in and around the Tri-Cities area.
Fill out this application. The deadline to apply is Friday, May 17.
Rashea Dickey, a former Union Summer intern who served as Program Coordinator in 2019 and now serves on the WSLC staff as Executive Assistant to the Secretary Treasurer, wrote “The Union Summer ‘family’ is labor’s future“:
“As a former intern of the 2018 cohort, I had just stepped out of the position that the new interns were stepping into, and still had so much to learn. In a short six weeks, Union Summer provides an overflow of knowledge that most going into the program do not previously hold. Union Summer allows relationship building, networking, and forms bonds that are unbreakable. It truly does become a family.
“Over the six weeks of the 2019 Union Summer Program, I saw 14 interns grow in their advocacy for working people, in public speaking skills, and in their willingness to help each other and those they met along the way. I was extremely proud of this cohort and their dedication to everything they were asked to do — from phone banking and canvassing to representing the Union Summer program during WSLC’s three-day 2019 Convention.
“Union Summer has a special place in my heart. The cohorts of 2018 and 2019 are who I hope to work alongside in the years to come. The people I’ve been introduced to along the way inspire me to stay in the labor movement.”
The program is divided into three main sections: education, actions, and on-the-job training. Weekly schedules can include attending rallies and staffing strike lines, registering voters, making job-site visits with union members, political field work, and more.
If you have any questions, email unionsummer@wslc.org.
