Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Harris County Workers and Local Unions Win Campaign for Consultations Policy

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

After Harris County workers, commissioners and labor allies gathered for a press conference on Wednesday to call for the passage of a consultations policy that will give county workers a seat at the table to address workplace concerns, the policy was approved in a 3–1 vote.

At the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation meeting hall, representatives from HOPE AFSCME Local 123, AFSCME Local 907, the Houston Federation of Teachers, the Culinary Union, and the Houston Gulf Coast Building and Construction Trades Council stood together to urge commissioners to approve the policy. Texas law currently prohibits public workers from collective bargaining, but this local program will make it easier for county workers to file grievances related to pay, working conditions and terminations so they can continue to deliver essential services to residents. Similar policies are already in place in the Houston and Austin independent school districts and the City of Austin, but now that commissioners have adopted this program, Harris County is the first county in Texas to have such a policy in place.