Labor Day has special significance to Brian Garcia, a banquet cook at Hilton Americas.
About a year ago, the 30-year-old had just started working at the swanky hotel on Lamar Street when he and more than 100 of his coworkers walked away from their jobs, marking the first hotel strike in Houston’s history. The workers refused to return until they were promised fair wages and reasonable schedules.
“Nobody knew if it would work,” Garcia said. “Nobody here had ever done it. There’s always a little bit of hesitation, but when you look to your left and right, and you see your co-workers with you, it’s like, OK, we’re going to do it. It’s a lot easier to take that step when you’re not the only one doing it.”
Forty days later, the housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks and other workers had their wages increased from $16.50 to $20 an hour with guaranteed raises that will reach $22 by 2028.
This weekend, Garcia and his coworkers will join union members from across the region to celebrate their victory along with other wins: new contracts at the Marriott Marquis, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Houston Airport System.
They’ll be joined by union members who ended a 42-day strike last month at Texas City’s Ashland Specialty Chemicals during which they received pay hikes and better benefits.
The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation is hosting a barbecue cookoff and celebration from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, September 5, at the Crosby Rodeo & Fairgrounds, 790 Church St. The event includes a Women of Labor breakfast, games for children and an awards ceremony.
Protesters with NEW Houston march in a 2025 Labor Day event. Credit: Amy Zachmeyer
Texas AFL-CIO president Leonard Aguilar said in a statement that Labor Day rallies are being held across the state this weekend to honor workers and prepare for the upcoming November midterms.
“This Labor Day, our Texas labor movement is officially kicking off election season and doing the work to take back our state,” Aguilar said. “When working people come together and fight for each other, we can stand up to the wealthiest CEOs and the most corrupt politicians. When we fight, we win.”
In Katy on Monday, a different group of working-class Texans will be celebrating Labor Day by protesting in support of “workers over billionaires.” The Indivisible Katy group meets regularly near a Spring Creek Barbeque restaurant at 21010 Katy Freeway, and has recently held protests in opposition to the war in Iran and what they say are aggressive tactics by federal immigration agents.
The Labor Day protest will be at the Katy Freeway location from noon to 1 p.m., and participants are encouraged to bring signs and “stand up for fair wages and worker power.”
Amy Zachmeyer, executive director of the nonprofit organizing group New Economy for Working Houston, creates union coalitions, provides research and supports policy that benefits the working class. NEW Houston does not participate in negotiations but Zachmeyer said she’s seen a lot of success over the past year in workers getting better contracts.
“Using power builds power,” she said. “Things are tough for people right now and affordability is a problem. When workers go to negotiate their contract, they’re thinking they’re finally going to get the raise that they desperately need. But they’re getting told that they’re not going to get a raise and their healthcare is being cut. They’re fed up but they’re also starting to realize their own power.”
The victory at Hilton Americas appears to have motivated other hotel workers, like those at the Marriott Marquis, to see what they could get when their contracts came up for renewal, Zachmeyer said.
“Those workers work in the same industry,” she said. “They know each other and they talk to each other. They weren’t going to take less than what someone else got. Because those workers did something big and scary, nobody wanted a repeat of that for their own business. They knew these workers were serious, and they had to show up at the table ready to negotiate rather than offer them crumbs.”
Zachmeyer emphasized that the labor movement encompasses all kinds of people and trades.
“Labor doesn’t just look like a white man with dirty hands wearing coveralls,” she said. “Labor is teachers. It’s janitors. It’s people working at the refineries. It’s people running shipping. It’s our city workers. It’s all kinds of people, and we all get to celebrate on Labor Day.”
Garcia talked to the Houston Press on Wednesday from Austin, where he’s training hospitality workers and showing them how they, too, can organize and negotiate for better pay.
“It all starts with a group of workers standing together, and there’s a domino effect,” he said. “I’m kind of just telling my story and trying to get people to join the labor movement. If we can do it in Houston, it can be done in Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. There’s a really good chance for the whole labor movement in Texas to grow and thrive. When people are getting paid what they deserve, all that money is going back into the local economy.”
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