As the present crisis of the capitalist world system continues, we are seeing organized struggle cropping up in places where movements have long seemed dormant. The increasing frequency of labor struggles in the south is a case in point.
Texas is usually described as a “conservative” and pro-business state. Like Louisiana, Texas workers lack many basic legal protections, whereas corporations are allowed to get away with barely paying taxes and health and safety regulations are scant. Texas has a poverty level close to that of Louisiana.
In 2017 alone, 81,000 Texas workers joined unions, increasing the states’ unionization level from 4 percent of the workforce to 4.7 percent. That’s still a low rate compared to some other states, but such growth in a single year is nothing to scoff at. It shows an increasing awareness on the part of the working class that we must organize and fight back.
It looks like the organizing is paying off, too. There have been big pushes for paid sick days in San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas (Austin and San Antonio city councils have now passed ordinances mandating paid sick days, though reactionary state politicians who represent the bosses are challenging them in the courts). With the union, Unite Here!, 500 Hyatt employees won the first ever contract for workers in San Antonio’s famous River Walk tourist area in 2015. Despite challenges from the United Airlines bosses, United catering workers in Houston have made progress and will soon be able to vote on unionization, along with fellow employees in Newark, Denver, San Francisco, and Honolulu