More Texans join unions although national membership is down

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BARTONVILLE — About a year ago, Soleil Baker noticed their coworkers weren’t getting enough hours. Many of them struggled to pay rent and buy groceries.

Baker decided it was time to take action.

“I just wanted everyone to be able to afford to live,” they said.

A barista at the Starbucks in this small North Texas town, about 15 miles northwest of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, contacted Starbucks Workers United, the national union for Starbucks workers, and asked for more information about how to start a union.

Two months later after getting enough worker signatures to force a vote, Baker and about 20 other employees formed a union.

They were among 68,000 Texans who joined a union in 2023, an increase from 2022. This uptick was fueled by workers in the technology and nonprofit sectors — as well as coffee shops.

In total, there are about 586,000 union workers in Texas, a fraction of the millions who work here. And yet, the increase is somewhat remarkable given the state's long history of hostility toward unions. And nationwide, union membership dipped during the same time.

Texas is one of 26 so-called right-to-work states. Texas lawmakers first passed that law in 1993. The law allows for workers the option to not pay unions due and the right to work in a unionized workplace without being a part of the union itself. And more recently, the Republican controlled Legislature passed a law aimed at stopping local governments from enacting progressive-leaning worker protections and other policies.

Yet, the National Republican Party has shown a tone shift from the top.

At the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Teamster President Sean O’Brien spoke to a crowd typically known for supporting pro-business policies. In that speech, he championed the benefits of unions. And Ohio Sen. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s new running mate, attempted to appeal to working-class voters with his Midwestern upbringing.

“We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business but answers to the working man,” Vance said during his speech.

Baker is skeptical.

“I feel like politicians will just say whatever they want because they're trying to appeal to a broad range of audiences,” Baker said.

University of Texas at San Antonio political scientist Stephen Amberg said he doesn't expect this working-class rhetoric to trickle down to Texas.

“The very few Republicans who talk like JD Vance are in a Republican Party that's still overwhelmingly pro-corporate America,” Amberg said. “They're not in favor of unions. They're not going to lift a finger to help striking workers.

The current Texas GOP platform supports the adoption of a National Right to Work Act, which would ban requiring worker to join union and pay union dues nationwide, and calls on the Texas Legislature to eliminate all special collective bargaining statutes for public employees and “hold all public servants accountable to taxpayers through existing civil statutes.“

Despite being in a state that is hostile to unions — some state union leaders and workers said they expect that upward trend in union membership to continue.

“It's pretty hard to put the toothpaste back in the tube,” said Rick Levy, president of the Texas AFL-CIO.

Levy pointed to last year’s nationwide auto worker strike as a turning point in what working-class Texans thought of what unions could achieve. During the strike, thousands of workers at General Motors Co.’s Arlington assembly factory walked off the job.

“People are like, ‘Well, wait a minute,” Levy said. “‘I can join the union and get a full meal, or I can stay where I'm at and get thrown a bone.’”

People are going to want the entire meal, he said.

The most recent strike in Texas was at a Fort Worth Molson Coors brewery. Workers there went on a three-monthlong strike last spring.

Angi DeFelippo, the political director for the Tarrant County Central Labor Council, thinks the increase in union activity is also due to younger people getting involved and having a more positive view of organizing the workplace.

A Texas Politics project poll shows 64% of Texans have a positive view of labor unions, which is an increase from 57% in 2022. The poll also shows that younger Texans have a 72% positive view of them.

“With the new guard coming in, a lot of things are starting to shift and change,” DeFelippo said.

Baker, the Starbucks worker, also thinks unions in the state will continue as the wealth inequality continues to grow between the working class and the wealthy.

“Everyone gets to that point, and you kind of realize that the system isn't going to take care of you,” Baker said. The only way to really provide for yourself is to come together with other workers.”

Part of the effort at the Bartonville Starbucks is to establish consistent work hours, better pay and benefits. Starbucks has seen a wave of stores in the state vote to unionize. There are 22 stores in the state that have voted to unionize.

Starbucks in a statement to The Texas Tribune said the company believes in having a direct relationship with workers and that "it is core to the culture and experiences it’s has created in our stores."

“We recognize that a subset of partners feel differently and we respect their right to organize and bargain collectively, and we are eager to reach ratified agreements in 2024 for represented stores,” the statement said.

The Bartonville store had it’s second bargaining session last month. More contract talks are expected but a date isn’t certain. Baker said the increase in unions in Texas is because workers decided to improve their conditions themselves and not wait for lawmakers to care.

“The only way we're going to be OK is if we have each other's backs,” Baker said.

Disclosure: General Motors, University of Texas at San Antonio and Upbring have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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