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.

 

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Featured Stories

2019 Texas AFL-CIO Labor Wrap-Up

19 Texas AFL-CIO Labor Highlights in 2019

Ivanka Trump's Future of Work Isn't for Workers

Ivanka Trump took the stage at CES on Tuesday to muted reception. Forty minutes later, she left to robust applause.

Lorraine Montemayor Joins Texas AFL-CIO Staff

The Texas AFL-CIO is excited to welcome Lorraine Montemayor, an accomplished union leader and activist in Dallas, as our new Mobilization and Campaign Coordinator.

USMCA Is a Huge Win for Working People

After a quarter century of suffering under the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and 18 months of hard-fought negotiations, the American Federation of Labor and

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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 

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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Our Campaigns 

Read the Report

Death on the Job: The Toll of Neglect, 2019

PowerTools

A resource for union members and organizers.

Defend and Resist

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

Member Spotlight

Sam Tijerina • IUEC Local 31

"I know that it’s not just about me. It's about fighting for everyone no matter what their situation is.”

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.

Francisco Luna • Ironworkers Local 263

"I proudly construct buildings in DFW. My union helped me better my immigration status and apply for U.S. Citizenship."

Cheryl Eliano • AFGE District 10

The labor movement means solidarity.

Savanna Marvets • UA Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 286

I believe plumbing and pipefitting experience gained through my local union allows me to make a living wage.

Recent News

Two Years After Trump Tax Cuts, Middle-Class Americans Are Falling Behind

Income for middle-class Americans is growing more slowly than for both top earners and the poor, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The analysis comes two years after President Donald Trump enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a major overhaul in the nation's tax laws billed by the White House as a boon for the middle class.

Trump Appointed NLRB Appointees Are Making It Harder for Workers, Labor Fights Back

Several recent decisions by the National Labor Relations Board would make it harder for workers to unionize. However, labor unions refused to take these decisions lying down.

Read the full article on New York Amsterdam News

NPR: AFL-CIO President Touts Labor's Role In Improving New Trade Deal

A top national labor leader is touting a new multilateral trade deal, and says his union side much improved the Trump administration's initial proposal.

The comments from Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, came Wednesday, just before the House overwhelmingly approved the pact called the USMCA.

The new deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada, which now heads to the Senate, would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

Get the full story at NPR

How a Gig Worker Revolt Begins

Until last week, Li Zilles was one of the many nameless and faceless contractors toiling in the bowels of the internet, providing online services that might have been mistaken for the work of artificial intelligence.

The job: to transcribe audio files for the start-up Rev.com, churning out texts without clients ever knowing the name of the transcriber.

This was a lonely existence, and not an easy one. The pay, even though the work was full-time, was little enough that food stamps became necessary.

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