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Texas has the notorious distinction of leading the nation in the number of workplace fatalities, exceeding California, which has a substantially larger population, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That was in 2023, when just 4.5 percent of the state’s labor force was unionized. Those figures and such factors as weak worker protections in Texas spurred the Laborers’ International Union of North America to gather in Austin earlier this month.
“We came down here because we want to organize Texas,” LIUNA President Brent Booker told Austin Free Press.
“And we’ve hired more organizers here in Texas,” he added.
Booker said LIUNA is increasing its workforce in rural Texas, “where they’re building solar farms and data centers.” Over the past three years, his union has increased membership by about 300 new workers statewide.
The group’s Texas push is just getting started, Booker said. That was evident as 350 organizers converged on Austin for a three-day conference and recruitment effort in mid-May.
The focus on Texas comes as LIUNA workers have been hired on major Texas projects. One of them is the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority’s Raw Water Intake project, according to LIUNA communications consultant Andrea Purse. That $293 million job will supply water to Round Rock, Leander, and Cedar Park.
Image credit: Patrick M. Davis.
LIUNA claims more than 500,000 members across the U.S. and Canada in industries that range from construction and energy to health care and emergency response. In addition to organizing outreach, LIUNA’s Austin conference included panels on unionizing the energy sector, social media tactics, and Texas union history.
During the conference, organizers clad in hard hats and safety vests and armed with water bottles fanned out to construction sites around Austin to try to recruit new union members.
LIUNA organizers Javier Martinez of Arlington, Texas, Pedro Ortiz of New York City, and Juan Serrato of Riverside, Calif. were among those involved in the Austin outreach. They canvassed several large West Campus construction projects. Within minutes, they found several workers interested in unionization. New York organizer Ortiz said that it’s an easy sell when he speaks with Austin workers who typically make $16 an hour compared with LIUNA’s $24 minimum.
A glass installer, who asked not to be named, said pension and insurance benefits are appealing reasons to unionize. His current employer doesn’t offer those benefits. He also said that worker safety is a concern. His employer provides safety and protective equipment, he said, but there is no safety accountability on his non-union job site.
“It’s up to you to decide if you want to be safe,” he added.
Another reason that LIUNA sees Texas as fertile organizing ground is that this state offers workers few protections.
“If you pay people 10 bucks an hour to work outside, 115 degrees without a break, it’s pretty hard to find people to do that.” Booker said. “But if you have a middle-class wage, standards for safety, health care, and retirement, it’s not hard to find people to work.”
Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO, told Austin Free Press that, “Texas is still the only state in the union that doesn’t require construction companies to have workers compensation.”
Although the Texas unionization rate is less than half the national average, organizers are optimistic.
Levy noted that Texas unionization increased in each of the last three years, even as the national average continued to decline. He said that Austin increasingly is a union city, pointing to union movements in such unexpected places as Starbucks and Via 313 Pizza. Austin Free Press previously wrote about unionization efforts among workers at Austin’s downtown REI store.
He noted that there’s also a large unfulfilled demand for skilled workers. The Texas AFL-CIO is working to fill that gap through its Construction Careers Pathway Program, which provides union apprenticeships in clean energy construction, Levy said. Booker agreed that such programs can reduce labor shortages.
He noted that unionizing can take time.
“This is a long-term commitment we’re making to organize here,” Booker said. “We’re putting the sweat equity into changing people’s lives in Austin and throughout the state.”
Patrick Davis is a Texas Intercollegiate Press Association award winning journalist and longtime Austinite. His work can also be found on NPR and Religion News Service.
