Young workers are among those hardest hit by the economic recession and the group least likely to have health insurance. We are shockingly likely to be living with our parents because we can't afford to pay rent -- let alone a mortgage. A recent study done by the AFL-CIO and Working America found 34 percent of workers under the age of 35 still living with parents, a number that jumped to 52 percent for those making less than $30,000 per year.

Young workers know that the answers to their struggles won't necessarily come from employers. Just 41 percent said they strongly trusted their employer to treat them fairly. Young adults, in other words, need the benefits of union membership more than anyone.

That's why, as young adults in the labor movement, we were pleased by the focus on young workers at the recent AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh.

The need to involve younger workers wasn't just given lip service. This convention saw the election of the first woman and the youngest AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer ever, Liz Shuler, 39. A powerful new voice in the labor movement, she told the convention, "It's not that today's young people don't like unions; it's just that they really don't know about us."

How true. In school, most of us weren't taught that America's working people, united in unions, fought to win weekends off, the 40-hour work week, the minimum wage and safe workplaces. Nor were we taught that union members now earn 30 percent more and are 52 percent more likely to have employer-provided health insurance than nonunion workers. Or that for women and people of color, the best guarantee of equal pay for equal work is a union contract.

These omissions have done our generation a disservice by obscuring the power of collective action. Instead, we've been taught that progress comes from above and that our success should be measured by what we alone accomplish.

Even for those of our generation who want to join unions, it's difficult to do so. Decades of union-busting have left many too afraid to risk their jobs with an attempt to unionize; workers are fired in one-third of unionization attempts. Passage of real labor law reform would go a long way toward ensuring that all workers have the freedom to join a union.

Beyond that, young workers face unique challenges. As employers hire more temporary, part-time and contract employees, we feel stuck -- and ever more isolated.

That's why the renewed commitment from the AFL-CIO to help younger workers find their voices is so exciting. Every day Working America, the community-organizing affiliate of the AFL-CIO, talks to people who don't have unions in their workplaces but want to be heard on issues like health care and job security. We know that the passion for change is out there, waiting to be tapped.

To do that, the AFL-CIO is joining partner unions and organizations to engage our generation, awaken the best in us and involve us in the movement that built this nation -- and that will rebuild it better than ever.

Cartoonist Rob Rogers does "Rob's Rough," an early look at his work and his creative process, exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.