Unions Lobby, Too!

The Texas State Legislature opened its regular session on January 11, 2005. The legislators, their families and supporters, and a small army of million-dollar corporate lobbyists were on hand. Also on hand were a small group of hard-working legislative reps for Texas unions. Among them were Dick Kelp and Marc House of the UAW.

The Texas AFL-CIO encourages all unions to work together on workers' problems during the session. They set up the United Labor Legislative Committee (ULLCO) to include even those unions that are not part of the state federation. ULLCO held its first meeting at 9 AM, three hours before the session started. They met in the Texas AFL-CIO office at 1106 Lavaca, just a short walk from the capitol.

Texas AFL-CIO President Emmett Sheppard opened the meeting. He expressed high hopes for being able to assist good legislation and stop anti-worker bills. Legislative and Political Director Walter Hinojosa explained how ULLCO will function during the session. He said that there would be an early morning session each day. Representatives of the different unions will track legislation from the time it is introduced until it is killed or passed. They will discuss bills and take positions. Once a majority position is taken by vote, all of the representatives will work together. Hinojosa said that there were 352 bills for the House of Representatives and 168 in the Senate as of the opening day, but there would be more.

Labor representatives will use the AFL-CIO "War Room" for TV access to the proceedings, for extra telephones, and for computers to help them stay on top of everything that happens.

Union legislative representatives know that they cannot compete financially with the big corporate lobbyists who have been known to hand out $10,000 checks in the capitol. Unionists depend on being able to get messages back to members quickly so that they create deluges of calls and messages from "the people back home" to influence legislators. In recent years, Texas unions have steadily improved on their ability to build a strong information flow between unionists all over the state and the capitol. Computer using members who realize the extreme importance of this effort can write to ed@texasaflcio.org to get daily union news. To participate in the effort to influence legislation, they should go to www.unionvoice.org/texasaflcio. From that site, they can also look up and send messages to their federal and state political representatives.

On the afternoon of the first day, union reps attended a rally on the capitol steps on behalf of Democrat Hubert Vo, who defeated a top Republican State Representative from Houston. The legislature was expected to consider overturning the election.

Texas union political reps: Marc House, Kym Grant, Dick Kelp, and Caroline O'Connor

Texas Legislation To Watch in the 79th Legislature

Border issues
Budget/Taxes
Building Codes
Campaign Finance/Ethics
CHIP
Civil/Human rights
Drivers licensing-Matricula Consular
Election issues
Electrical licensing
Environmental/Water issues
Equal Pay
Family issues
Film industry issues
Insurance
Minimum Wage/Living Wage
Outsourcing
Paycheck Deception
Payroll Dues Deducts
Pensions
Prevailing Wage
Prison Labor
Prison privatization
Privacy issues/identity theft
Privatization of Children's Protective Services
Privatization of state services (HB 2292)
Public Employees
Rail/Transportation issues
School Finance/Teacher Pay-benefits
Telecom issues
Tort Reform/asbestos
Unemployment
Unfunded Mandates
UtilityDe-Reg
Workers Comp

Contact Your Representative
Members may write their Texas Representative c/o Texas House of Representatives, Box 2910 Austin Tx 78768-2910. Here are some of the room numbers and phone numbers:

Ray Allen E2.910 512-463-0694
Roberto Alonzo E2.910 -0408
Rafael Anchia E1.316 -0746
Lon Burnam E2.708 -0740
Tom Craddick 2W.13 -1000
Yvonne Davis GS.06 -0598
Deshotel, Joe E2.306 -0662
Jim Dunnam E2.322 -0508
Helen Giddings GN.12 -0953
Terri Hodge E2.818 -0586
Jesse Jones IW.04 -0664
Burt Solomons E1.420 -0478
Sylvester Turner 1W.05 -0554
Carlos Uresti E1.306 -0714
Marc Veasey E1.310 -0716