{"id":1040847,"date":"2026-09-03T13:14:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040847\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T13:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T13:14:23","slug":"labor-unions-celebrate-recent-victories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1040847\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor Unions Celebrate Recent Victories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labor Day has special significance to Brian Garcia, a banquet cook at Hilton Americas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a> in Houston\u2019s history. The workers refused to return until they were promised fair wages and reasonable schedules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knew if it would work,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cNobody here had ever done it. There\u2019s always a little bit of hesitation, but when you look to your left and right, and you see your co-workers with you, it\u2019s like, OK, we\u2019re going to do it. It\u2019s a lot easier to take that step when you\u2019re not the only one doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019ll be joined by union members who ended a 42-day strike<\/a> last month at Texas City\u2019s Ashland Specialty Chemicals during which they received pay hikes and better benefits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation is hosting a barbecue cookoff and celebration<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Protesters with NEW Houston march in a 2025 Labor Day event. Credit: Amy Zachmeyer<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Labor Day, our Texas labor movement is officially kicking off election season and doing the work to take back our state,\u201d Aguilar said. \u201cWhen 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Katy on Monday, a different group of working-class Texans will be celebrating Labor Day by protesting in support of \u201cworkers over billionaires.\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u201cstand up for fair wages and worker power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amy Zachmeyer, executive director of the nonprofit organizing group New Economy for Working Houston<\/a>, creates union coalitions, provides research and supports policy that benefits the working class. NEW Houston does not participate in negotiations but Zachmeyer said she\u2019s seen a lot of success over the past year in workers getting better contracts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing power builds power,\u201d she said. \u201cThings are tough for people right now and affordability is a problem. When workers go to negotiate their contract, they\u2019re thinking they\u2019re finally going to get the raise that they desperately need. But they\u2019re getting told that they\u2019re not going to get a raise and their healthcare is being cut. They\u2019re fed up but they\u2019re also starting to realize their own power.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThose workers work in the same industry,\u201d she said. \u201cThey know each other and they talk to each other. They weren\u2019t 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zachmeyer emphasized that the labor movement encompasses all kinds of people and trades.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLabor doesn\u2019t just look like a white man with dirty hands wearing coveralls,\u201d she said. \u201cLabor is teachers. It\u2019s janitors. It\u2019s people working at the refineries. It\u2019s people running shipping. It\u2019s our city workers. It\u2019s all kinds of people, and we all get to celebrate on Labor Day.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garcia talked to the Houston Press on Wednesday from Austin, where he\u2019s training hospitality workers and showing them how they, too, can organize and negotiate for better pay. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt all starts with a group of workers standing together, and there\u2019s a domino effect,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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