Texas AFL-CIO: Texans Deserve Better,  And We Are Not Giving Up!

News Release
Contacts: Rick Levy,
or Ed Sills, 
(512) 477-6195;
Sills cell: (512) 695-1148

Texas AFL-CIO: Texans Deserve Better, 
And We Are Not Giving Up!
 

In response to Tuesday’s election results, Texas AFL-CIO President Rick

Levy released the following statement:

  “Texans deserve leaders who respect the dignity of work and who will fight for democracy. We need leaders who believe healthcare should be affordable and accessible, teachers should be paid better, and there should be gun safety laws to protect our children and communities from violence.

  We congratulate the candidates we supported who will be sworn in next January and look forward to continuing to fight alongside them to protect workers’ rights.

  However, our state will continue to be led by those more focused on divisive and false political rhetoric than addressing the real issues that would improve the lives of working people. The consistent efforts to suppress the votes of working class Texans and people of color in this state, combined with the tsunami of money spent to distract and divide us in a tough national moment, brought us to this outcome. 

  Beto O’Rourke inspired people in every corner of this great state and left no doubt he was fighting for us. In organized labor, Beto’s star has never 

shone brighter. We convey to him our profound gratitude for an all-out campaign that clearly pointed the way to a better Texas and we look forward to continuing to fight together to make it happen.

  The Texas AFL-CIO thanks Mike Collier, Rochelle Garza and all our pro-worker endorsed statewide, congressional, legislative and local candidates for waging campaigns with dignity and championing ideas that would move our state forward. 

  To the labor movement, elections are critical but they are part of a process, never the final word. More than most organizations, the movement that has advocated for workers for well over a century knows that changing Texas is a long-term proposition. The Texas AFL-CIO will continue to fight with all our might – and with growing support from working people in Texas and beyond – to advocate for an agenda that lifts up working families.”

  The Texas AFL-CIO is the state labor federation consisting of 240,000 affiliated union members who advocate for working families in Texas.

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