Texas AFL-CIO

THE VOICE OF LABOR IN TEXAS

We are teachers, firefighters and farm workers, actors and engineers, pilots and public employees, painters and plumbers, steelworkers and screenwriters, doctors and nurses, stagehands, electricians and more. We believe that people who work make Texas work and that together, we are better.

 

237,000+

460+

20,000+

Affiliated MembersAffiliates & LocalsActivists

 

What We Care About

Workplace Rights

We are at a moment when a fighting union organization could kindle the imagination of millions of workers and inspire a new labor movement.

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Support Working People’s Freedom!

Working people must come together to defend our rights and fight for a fair economy that works for everyone.

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Better Pay and Benefits

There is something fundamentally wrong with our economy. The rich keep getting richer while working people are working longer hours just to make ends meet. Despite year after year of increased productivity, we are not sharing in the fruits of our labor.
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Sign the Petition: Raise the Wage in Texas

The state minimum wage of $7.25 an hour condemns hundreds of thousands of working people to poverty, costs taxpayers and shuts out business customers. It is high time for Texas to join 29 other states in raising the minimum wage above a federal level that has become a victim of congressional gridlock after decades of bipartisan support for a decent wage floor.

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Trade/Manufacturing

A strong manufacturing sector is essential to our nation’s economic success and to our ability to raise wages and provide family-supporting jobs. But decades of devastating trade policy and attacks on unions have taken their toll.

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NAFTA Needs to Work for Working People

Renegotiations of the failed North American Free Trade Agreement are underway and the recently released objectives are vague and unambitious. Sign the petition calling for a new NAFTA that prioritizes working people.

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Immigration

Since our nation’s founding, immigrants and refugees have enriched the fabric of our communities, our workforce and our labor movement.

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Pledge to Stand United

Pledge to oppose the "show me your papers" law, SB 4 - which will drive immigrant workers further into the shadows. Immigrants will be more afraid to speak up when employers manipulate and exploit them, which will drive down standards for all Texans. Working people are stronger when we stand together.

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Get Involved. We Need Your Voice

Every Texan who is willing to work hard and do their part deserves a fair shot to get ahead. 

It's time we hold politicians accountable and demand they stand up for policies that help working families.

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Fair Shot Agenda

Fighting for Texas Working Families 

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Sign the 2019 Union Pledge

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Our Campaigns 

Featured Stories

Texas AFL-CIO Broadens Legislative Agenda

Focus on Fair Shot for Working Families

The Texas AFL-CIO launched a Fair Shot legislative agenda that includes both perennial wage and benefit topics and cutting-edge issues that affect a broad spectrum of working families in Texas.

Texas AFL-CIO Backs ‘Fair Shot’ Legislation for Working Families

An Inclusive Vision for Texas

The Texas AFL-CIO will advocate for its broadest legislative agenda in years – a Fair Shot agenda that empowers Texas working families to improve their lives.

Texas AFL-CIO Testimony on Gig Economy Rules

On behalf of the Texas AFL-CIO, a federation of public and private-sector labor unions, I am here to submit oral testimony that supplements the public comments we have submitted on the proposed une

Legislative Lowdown - Jan. 11, 2019

Today is Day 4 of the 140-day regular session of the 86thTexas Legislature.  

Recent News

A Manufactured Crisis

Eight hundred thousand workers. That is the number of government employees and contractors impacted by President Trump’s shutdown of the federal government. The average take home pay of impacted workers is around $500 per week, and any financial uncertainty is sure to cause stress and anxiety over how to make ends meet. Each day of this manufactured crisis, working families lose money for housing, healthcare and groceries — the essentials we need to get by.

‘Pay the Workers, Furlough Trump’: Federal Workers Rally for End to Shutdown

Furloughed federal employees and out-of-work contractors greeted one another Thursday with a sarcastic nickname that, on the 20th day of a partial government shutdown, captured their feeling of powerlessness: “Hello, fellow pawns.”

They shouted it to one another over the brutal wind and bitter cold on Thursday in downtown Washington, where hundreds gathered to demand government leaders put an end to the shutdown and allow them to get back to work.

Rule Would Let Companies Deny Many Workers in Texas Employment Benefits

Texas AFL-CIO Opposes Workforce Commission Proposal That Could Convert Some Gig Economy Workers Into ‘Marketplace Contractors’

The Texas AFL-CIO has formally opposed a pending rule that would give employers who conduct business via digital networks blanket authority to deny basic employment benefits to employees simply by calling them “marketplace contractors.” 

The Texas Workforce Commission voted to publish the rule proposal in December and could enact it later this month. 

Trump’s ‘Photo Opportunity’ in Texas Not Helping 800,000 Federal Workers

Texas AFL-CIO: Communities Everywhere Being Harmed

With President Trump in Texas today for a pointless “photo opportunity,” the Texas AFL-CIO called for a resolution of the nearly three-week government shutdown that is harming not just 800,000 federal workers, but the entire nation.

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David Lopez Jr. • IUEC Local 21

I fight to expand access to job training and registered apprenticeship programs.

Areli Zarate • Texas AFT 2048

Our union has kept me going. It has given me hope.

Paul Arebalo • IATSE 205

Being in a union means I have a voice. Whether it's regarding safety, pay or even work practices, my voice will be heard and that's one of the greatest rights I can think of.

Kristie Veit • CWA 6137

Being a union member is one of the most treasured privileges I have in my life. Working with and for a group of folks who want to promote and develope workers rights is an amazing experience.

Cheryl Eliano • AFGE District 10

The labor movement means solidarity.

Rebecca Stamm • AFSCME

Being a union member is one of the most treasured privileges I have in my life. Working with and for a group of folks who want to promote and develope workers rights is an amazing experience.

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Our Campaigns 

Register to Vote

Click here to register to vote, confirm your voter registration, or change your voting address. To vote in the 2018 election, you must register by October 9.

PowerTools

A resource for union members and organizers.

Defend and Resist

A toolkit for organizers and advocates on workplace raids and audits.