Labor News — 3/23/23
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Growing the Houston Area Labor Movement Through Union Solidarity
Via Go IAM
After decades of union decline, the labor movement is seeing an increase in union membership. Workers across the board are using their voices to rebalance power at work. The recent success with retail and service workers has made headlines, and the interest in these sectors continues to grow. But to keep this movement trending upward, we as union activists must adapt to the ever-changing workforce — and to do that, there has to be change.
The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation is doing just that in Houston. Several times a year a committee of public and private sector union activists meets to discuss new ways to organize in today’s climate. Only four percent of workers in the Houston area unionized, and right-to-work laws make it even more challenging.
The idea is for unions to work together and grow the labor movement. Their goals are to gain members internally and in new workplaces, train more members and staff to be better organizers, and use digital tools effectively to support organizing across the board. Sharing how they currently organize with one another has been especially helpful in laying a strong foundation to build on.
Hany Khalil, Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation Executive Director, believes the timing is perfect.
“Public opinion has gotten solidly behind unions,” said Khalil. “Workers are starting to realize that unions are for all of us. They’re not just for factory workers or airline workers. We have to figure out new ways to organize larger workplaces quickly while we can.”
More Gulf Coast Union News
- Houston Seafarers featured in short documentary — ‘Sailing on a Grain Ship: Houston to Djibouti
- Parents share their outrage during first public meeting over Houston ISD takeover
- HISD frontline workers worried about job security, pay with state takeover
- Houston Firefighters celebrate Fighterfighter Appreciation Day with advocacy at Capitol
Union of Southern Service Workers Is Organizing Low-Wage Workers Across Industries
Via Teen Vogue
If you truly want to understand the history of organized labor in this country, you must look to the South — specifically, to what Black workers and other workers of color have accomplished there despite every conceivable obstacle. Nowadays, states such as Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and North Carolina are home to antiunion “right to work” legislation that makes it extremely difficult for workers to organize.
In 1935, when the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) — a landmark labor law that gave most workers the legal right to organize, bargain, and strike — was passed, it included several glaring omissions. By excluding domestic workers and agricultural workers (many of whom were Black, particularly in the South), the NLRA made it clear that, for all its New Deal-era progressivism, the politicians who passed it had decided that some workers simply weren’t worth fighting for.
Fortunately, those workers took matters into their own hands and organized anyway. Now the Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW) is determined to follow in their footsteps by organizing today’s “unorganizable” Southern workers.
More news from unions on the march
- Bandcamp Workers Form Union: ‘It’s Not Enough to Get Small Wins Alone’
- Attracting more women to plumbing
- Ski patrollers struggle to afford mountain towns. Will unions help?
- America needs technical workers — and supply isn’t measuring up to demand.
Harris County awards $4M so lawyers can keep giving free counsel to those in danger of eviction
Via The Houston Chronicle
When Colby Cummings arrived at her eviction hearing, she’d hardly slept. Rent relief had not come through, and the new eviction filing had made it difficult to get approved for another apartment. She’d sent her teenage son to stay with her mother so he would not have to live with the fear of getting kicked out.
But to her surprise, she was met by a paralegal from Lone Star Legal Aid, who offered to connect her with a lawyer, free of charge. That lawyer recognized that Cummings’ rent relief application meant that her case should be paused 60 days to give the application time to process. In the end, the extra time meant she was able to find a new apartment before being evicted, and her rent relief application was approved.
Dozens of organizations across Houston argue that Cummings’ experience should be what tenants at every eviction docket experience — and for a almost a year during the pandemic, they did. But as funds for lawyers who provide free, on-the-spot legal services ran low, legal aid lawyers found themselves forced to pick which dockets they could attend.
The Harris County Commissioners Court took steps Tuesday to shore up legal aid for evictions, awarding $4 million in contracts to two different groups. The decision extended the availability of such services, but fell short of the long-term funding to provide representation at every docket advocated by many Houston organizations.
More than 60 organizations from diverse fields — including labor groups, community advocates, teacher federations and environmental nonprofits — have signed a letter asking county commissioners to provide long-term support for local legal aid organizations, with the goal of having free legal services available at every eviction docket in the county.
They hope the Democratic majority on the Commissioners Court will agree to provide an additional $20 million in funding, which they believe will make a tenant right to an attorney possible for the next three years.
“We are incredibly thankful that Harris County is taking the eviction crisis seriously,” said Jay Malone, political director for the advocacy group Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Foundation, which signed the letter. “But this is just the start — we need funding to ensure that all tenants have access to justice in our courts.”
More news from Texas and the Gulf Coast
- National embarrassment Ted Cruz calling himself ‘bestselling author’ despite dropping $273,000 to buy his own books
- Houston organizers want to change how federal money is apportioned in Harris County
- Appeals court says Abbott administration set electricity prices too high during 2021 winter storm
- Houston ISD takeover: Local leaders react to Texas’ largest district being governed
- Houston fires Inframark, the company behind a sewage leak that fed into city’s drinking water supply
- Stopped trains are plaguing Houston. It’s time to make Union Pacific pay.
Texas cities have adopted ordinances to benefit workers. Sweeping legislation could roll many back.
Via Texas Tribune
(In 2010), Austin (adopted) a city ordinance providing construction workers with a 10-minute rest break for every four hours of work. Dallas followed suit in 2015. According to (Juan Pedro) Muñoz, the rule has empowered workers to expect and demand rest breaks — rather than relying on employers’ discretion.
“The workers know now what the law grants them,” said Muñoz, who is also a member of the Workers Defense Project, which advocates for construction workers.
This could soon change, however. In Texas, which has lagged behind other states in statewide labor protections, these rest-break ordinances are part of a larger trend over the past 15 years of cities and counties taking it upon themselves to adopt local benefits and safeguards for workers. But now, the ability to pass such ordinances could be removed as Republican state lawmakers push for legislation that would significantly curb a local government’s ability to regulate labor.
More news from the 2023 Legislative Session
- Preaching to the Choir: Greg Abbott Tours Private Christian Schools (Exclusively) to Make the Case for Vouchers
- Gov. Abbott Pays For Buses To Transport Voucher Supporters To Austin
- Bill mandating binding arbitration passes key Senate committee
Texas Democrats ask U.S. government to prioritize union workplaces for clean energy funds
The Texas Democratic congressional delegation, led by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, submitted a letter last week that called on the U.S. Department of Energy to prioritize federal funds for hydrogen energy development for union businesses.
The federal government is spending billions of dollars on the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Program, which, the letter said, will involve hydrogen production, delivery, processing, storage, and end-use and create jobs.
Businesses who want a piece of the funding must apply for it, and the letter laid out several things the Texas Democrats want the DOE to consider when doling out the funds.
They include “written confirmation” from businesses that they will offer good paying union jobs, a “signed community workforce agreement with participating Texas labor organizations and disadvantaged community groups,” a “written labor peace agreement” as workers decide whether to form unions, and a “written plan for existing unionized fossil fuel workers to transition into unionized hydrogen jobs.”
Texas AFL-CIO president Rick Levy, who spoke in support of the letter in a press release from the Texas Democratic delegation, said with the recent passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and all of its funding for clean energy infrastructure development, workers have a narrow window of opportunity.
“This is the moment, and this is where we’re setting the course for these industries for decades and even generations to come,” Levy said. “And that is why we are so committed to putting the resources in to make this happen, because this is going to shape the future for a long, long time. And if we miss this boat, we’re going to be swimming for a long time.”
Levy said one of the reasons creating union clean energy was so important to him was that it offered unionized fossil fuel workers a way to retain high-quality, good-paying jobs as that industry eventually winds down.
More news from the Federal Government
- ‘Humanity is on thin ice:’ Major UN report says ‘urgent’ action is needed to combat climate change
- Biden-Harris Administration Announces $750 Million to Advance Clean Hydrogen Technologies
- U.S. Maternal Mortality Hits Highest Level Since 1965
- Paid time off is not part of workers’ ‘salary,’ U.S. court rules
- Better-Funded IRS Should Increase Audits of the Top 1%, Democrats Say
- Noncompete clauses are everywhere, even for dancers and hair stylists
- Employers Liable When Contractors Exploit Child Labor, DOL Warns
Governor Greg Abbott and his handpicked Texas Education Agency commissioner Mike Morath just announced their takeover of Houston ISD. The HISD takeover of the largest school district in the state is a threat to our schools, our kids, and our very democracy.
It’s a fight you can help us win for our children’s future.
State takeovers almost exclusively target districts with high percentages of Black, Brown and low-income students. All around the country state takeovers have failed miserably. They have left school districts and schoolchildren worse off than they were before.
Write a letter to TEA Commissioner Mike Morath TODAY and tell him to keep his hands off HISD!
Read more about the state takeover here.
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The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation (TGCALF), AFL-CIO unites the power of 92 unions across 13 counties to advocate for working families in the Texas Gulf Coast. We mobilize our members and community partners to demand a fair shot at better lives for all working people — regardless of the color of our skin, which country we come from, or whom we love.
Follow us @gcaflcio
