2010 Texas AFL-CIO Convention Report
The 2010 Texas AFL-CIO Convention took place in Austin, Texas at the Omni
Hotel on February 6 and 7, 2010. John Johnson, Bill Seely, Jason
Stingley, Rick Grant, Tom Tkadlec, Dave Rivera and I attended on behalf
of local 567. The convention agenda included a number of speakers, various
workshops, committee reports and a vote on candidate endorsements for the
2010 elections. The main focus of this convention was on candidates for
the 2010 elections.
Texas AFL-CIO president Becky Moellar called the convention to order at
10 AM Saturday morning. Austin CLC President David Adamson and
Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell gave opening remarks. Mayor Leffingwell is
a former Delta pilot and ALPA member. He reported that he and his staff
are AFSME members, that Austin Police and Fire departments have the right
to “meet and confer” and that he supports “meet and confer” rights for other
city employees.
President Moellar then gave her report. On the national level she believes
heath care legislative issues will be resolved through the budget reconciliation
process. The next important issues are to pass the Employee Free Choice
Act and “Buy American” legislation. At the state level Moellar criticized
Governor Perry for refusing 550 million in federal money for unemployment
and for wasting so much time and effort trying to pass a voter ID bill,
even though voter fraud had never been an issue. Texas is expected to pick
up 3 to 4 US Congressional seats whereas northeastern states will be losing
seats. Therefore Novembers Texas State Representative elections and subsequent
redistricting will be more important than ever. It is time to reverse a
downward spiral that began when Reagan was President.
John Patrick (the new Secretary replacing Paul Brown who resigned effective
January 31, 2010) reported on the five point AFL-CIO jobs plan:
- Extend benefits, including food stamps for the unemployed
- Put Americans to work fixing our infrastructure
- Boost aid to state and local governments to maintain vital serviced
- Directly create jobs that meet community needs
- Put TARP funds to work for main street, not Wall Street.
Texas State Senator Kirk Watson spoke on the need to govern for future
generations and not for election cycles stating we need “Leaders focused
on the future and not on how to best politicize the present.”
Texas State Representative Allen Vaught (District 107) spoke on foreign
workers here on visas performing work that could be done by Americans
such as the Italian welders working on the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in
Dallas. He also reports that Governor Perry is proposing to contract out
construction of major electrical power transmission lines and towers to
a Spanish company. He is proposing legislation wherein public money could
not be used to import labor.
U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett (25th District), a co-sponsor of the Employee
Free Choice Act, spoke on various issues including:
- The “Tea Party” and special interests
- Heath care reform passage by simple majority through the budget reconciliation
process
- Taxes on executive bonuses
Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris discussed pro-worker changes at the
agency under Secretary Hilda Solis and President Obama. “We’re the Department
of Good Jobs for Everyone,” Harris said of the agency’s aspirations.
Hector Uribe, candidate for Land Commissioner spoke on his candidacy followed
by Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie who reported on the election
outlook in 2010 and asked for the Texas AFL-CIO endorsement.
After a lunch break the convention was privileged to here from Lieutenant
Governor candidate Ronnie Earle, former Travis County DA who prosecuted
Tom DeLay.
Candidate for Attorney General, Barbara Ann Radnofsky addressed the convention
Former mayor of Houston and candidate for Governor, Bill White, addressed
the Convention. He spoke on the need to work for public interest
over private interest stating, “Perry has been eating the seed corn of this
state.” White criticized Perry noting that Texas has second highest number
of adults without a high school diploma in the country and that Perry sent
15 million to Country Wide Financial, allegedly for job creation, Country
Wide Financial later went bankrupt without creating any jobs. White also
noted that Houston was the first city in Texas to recognize a Union for
municipal workers while also cutting property tax.
Mike Cavanaugh, Deputy Director for AFL-CIO Field Department, explained
the AFL-CIO five-point plan for creating jobs. Over the last 35 years wages
have stagnated even though productivity has increased. It is necessary to
grow one million jobs a year just to keep up with population growth.
Bill Moody and John Sharp spoke on their campaigns for Supreme Court Justice
place 5 and 3 respectively. They were followed by former Texas AFL-CIO president
Hank Brown. Referring to Senators Cornyn and Hutchison Brown stated those
“Two sad sacks in Washington don’t have a 10% voting record for labor between
them.”
The remainder of the afternoon consisted of the following workshops:
- “Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!”
- “Labor at Center Stage: the 2010 Elections in Texas”
- “Religion in Labor: Labor Economics in the Pulpit”
- "The Role of Labor Reps on Workforce Boards”
The convention adjourned for the day.
The convention reconvened at 9:00 AM on Sunday, February 7, 2010.
Kinky Freidman and Hank Gilbert, candidates for Agriculture Commissioner,
addressed the Convention. They were followed by Farouk Shami, candidate
for Governor, Jeff Weems, candidate for Railroad Commissioner and Bill Dear,
candidate for Governor.
Linda Chavez-Thompson, candidate for Lieutenant Governor addressed the
convention speaking on the need for “meet and confer” rights for municipal
employees and the need to license building trades in order to protect the
public and legitimate trades people from shade tree contractors. She also
criticized governor Perry for balancing the budget with stimulus money pointing
out that there will be a 19 billion dollar deficit when the stimulus funds
run out.
Blake Bailey, candidate for Supreme Court Judge Place 9, addressed the
convention followed by Dr. Clement Glenn, Star Locke, Felix Alvarado and
Dr. Alma Aguado, all candidates for Governor.
Having heard all candidate, the body voted and made the following endorsements:
- Governor – Bill White
- Lieutenant Governor – Linda Chavez-Thompson
- Attorney General – Barbara Ann Radnofsky
- Comptroller – No Endorsement
- Land Commissioner – Hector Uribe
- Agriculture Commissioner – Hank Gilbert
- Railroad Commissioner – Jeff Weems
- Texas Supreme Court, Place 3 – Jim Sharp
- Texas Supreme Court, Place 5 – Bill Moody
- Texas Supreme Court, Place 9 – Blake Bailey
- Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 2 – No Endorsement
- Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 5 – No Endorsement
- Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 6 – Keith Hampton
- Chair, Texas Democratic Party – Boyd Richie
“These endorsements set the stage for a campaign for change on Texas
priorities,” Texas AFL-CIO President Becky Moellar said. “The labor
movement in Texas will do everything possible to alter the narrative
for working families in Texas.”
Delegates also voted to adopt the endorsements by Central Labor Councils
in legislative, congressional and State Board of Education contests. The
Texas AFL-CIO COPE represents approximately 210,000 affiliated union members
in Texas.
The convention adjourned.
The following organizations provided information:
Full text copies of various reports, the workshop agendas, daily convention
reports and any other information distributed at the convention is available
upon request. Contact me at 940-367-7156 or http://www.twu567.org/uploadpages/emailofficers/gary.html
Submitted by
Gary Moffitt,
Legislative Director
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