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Labor Copes with Crisis

Gene Lantz, Dallas President
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“Are you willing to take dramatic action to save your country, or not?” -- Texas Representative John Bryant

First thing in the June 19 meeting of the Dallas AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, principal officer Lou Luckhardt gave out a leaflet asking everyone to push congresspersons to stop Trump’s so-called “big beautiful,” but patently ugly, budget bill. We should call 1-877-607-0785.

The main event was reports from state representatives who were members of the Progressive Caucus in the Texas Legislature just past. Silver haired Johnny Bryant made it plain: “The legislative session of 2025 was probably the worst in Texas history for working people.” He said that the Republicans had pushed through the “Biggest voucher bill in American history.” Bryant predicted that the effect will be devastating on Texas education with around 28,000 teachers and other school employees getting laid off.

Representative Bryant with Political Director Earnest Tilley

Bryant went on to say that the Republicans were dedicated to “keep moving money from the poor to the wealthy.” Republicans did not get the totality of blame. Bryant also blasted some individual Democratic legislators for failing to come together. He said that some individuals made their separate “deals” with Republicans for their own advancement. He compared it to shabby union members who ignore their brothers and sisters to negotiate separately with bosses. 

Representative Ana Maria Ramos at the Dallas CLC

Representative Ana Maria Ramos also blasted opportunistic Democrats and insisted that labor should ask them, next campaign, how they voted on the Speakership and whether or not they joined with the Progressive Caucus to vote as a unit. She said, “We fought like hell!” and “It was a  horrible session!”

Representative Jessica Gonzalez did not disagree. She called the session “One of the most horrible.”

Representative Aicha Davis made her condemnation in numbers. She said, “We gave about $9 billion to public schools, they needed about $15-16 billion.”

Representative Cassandra Hernandez

Representative Cassandra Hernandez had asked old timers what they thought and they told her, “This was the worst session that they had seen.” Like all the other speakers, she expressed her gratitude to the Dallas Labor Council for keeping them informed and helping build support for legislation benefiting working families. Toward the end, she dropped this bomb. “A special session is likely!”

The first question from the floor was “Where can I hide?”

Alliance/AFT leader Hobie Hukill asked how we can resist discriminatory redistricting. Johnny Bryant responded that “Trump is insisting on these redistricting’s all over the nation.” Everybody needs to be in the fight.

Kenneth Stretcher asked about bargaining for state employees and why some good bills were never voted on. Ana Maria Ramos made it clear that certain opportunistic Democrats could have done more to get good bills to a vote and to defeat bad bills. She emphasized that our future endorsement procedures must weed out the opportunists.

Good News From Our Political Committee

Political Director Earnest Tilley awarded special gift certificate prizes to three outstanding participants in our successful local election effort. Arash Arafat was cited twice, then David Lowery and Kenneth Stretcher received their awards to generous applause. It is noteworthy that 2 of the outstanding election workers were from Young Active Labor Leaders and the other one was from Texas Alliance for Retired Americans.

Tilley reported that our accountability program was underway. Concerned Council members met with Councilman Jesse Moreno to discuss what he has done and what he intends to do for working families. These accountability meetings with office holders will be held regularly.

In the Legislatures and On the Streets

The Texas American Federation of Teachers kicked off their two-day convention with a rally at Senator Ted Cruz’s Dallas office. One of their chosen speakers was the nationally renowned union leader Sheria Smith, a delegate to our Council. She wrote her speech in advance:

Hello AFT! 

It’s good to be amongst fellow public servants, who have not forgotten who they serve.

I’m a former classroom teacher. I served 5th grade students and their families in the Rio Grande Valley. Currently, I’m the President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 252, where I serve my coworkers at the U.S. Department of Education. 

My members and colleagues served you and our fellow citizens by providing educational data, awarding grants, processing student loan applications, processing student loan forgiveness, and holding schools accountable for how they use our taxpayer dollars.

But now, thanks to elected officials like Sen. Cruz, my members can’t work for you. We can’t work for you. Ted Cruz has forgotten who he is supposed to serve.

Though Ted receives a larger tax-funded salary than any of us, he has forgotten that his job requires him to check the illegal actions of the President to best serve Texans. But, he has, instead, co-signed every illegal action of the Executive to the detriment of Texans. 

Ted is allowing this administration to waste over $7M+ a month of OUR tax dollars to keep my members from serving you, serving us and our fellow Americans. 

By keeping my coworkers and I from working, this administration has made it impossible for you and your students to receive vital services like educational data, student loans, student loan forgiveness, and enforcement of our and our children’s rights to receive a free and appropriate education regardless of race, gender, nationality, or disability. 

Worse yet, Cruz is standing idly by while his colleagues in the Senate work to limit Texans’ access to qualified educators by restricting access to higher education to the super rich. He is allowing this administration to continue to waste our tax dollars and limited resources to bully school districts and schools that want allow the President to serve as their de facto Instructor-in-Chief,…including Sen. Cruz’ and my shared alma mater, Harvard University 

Sen. Cruz is acting like he was elected to serve the President, not check him. But I’m so glad we are here to remind him that he is paid to serve us. I’m glad we are here to remind him that he must earn his salary and do his job by letting my colleagues get back to our jobs and forcing this administration to take their hands off Education! Say it with me!


Hands off ED and Education!
Hands off ED and Education!
Hands off ED and Education! 

 

We Did Good and Will Do More Good

Labor participation in the world-shaking, five million strong, demonstrations of June 14 was very good in the Dallas area. We had tables from the Dallas AFL-CIO, Alliance/AFT, Steelworkers, Young Active Labor Leaders, and Texas Alliance for Retired Americans. Two labor speakers, David Marshall of CWA 6215 and Justin Chen of AFGE 1003, outlined issues and solutions that were far broader than their immediate local union concerns.  Their speeches are quoted in this podcast. 

The “No Kings Day” sponsors from June 14 have already announced more world-shaking protests for July 17. We’ll be there. Meantime, the Dallas Labor Council has already begun work on the biggest and best worker-unifying effort in Texas – our annual Labor Day Breakfast. The leaflet contains a QR code to this link that can be used for sponsorships, donations, and ticket reservations.

Dallas Labor Day breakfast is the premier event for unions

Need More Information?

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Click here to get updates whenever activists are needed. For text alerts, send the word "action" to the phone number 235246. Paste Bit.ly/DallasCLC?r=qr into your browser and join our Dallas political program. Everyone is encouraged to join the national Department of People Who Work for a Living. Please also subscribe to the Texas AFL-CIO weekly newsletter by writing to labor@texasaflcio.org. We are fighting for working families in every available arena.

MORE ACTIONS COMING UP

Jun 20-21 : Texas AFT convention in Dallas

Jun 21, 8 :30P : Democratic Socialists of America Karaoke Party and Raffle at 325 Centre 

Jun 22, Doors open 3:30p, speeches 6P: Bernie Sanders at Dickies Arena, 1911 Montgomery St, Fort Worth

Jun 23, 6P: Campaign kickoff for Representative Cassandra Hernandez at 4488 Spring Valley Rd in Farmers Branch. RSVP 

Jun 26-28: Texas AFL-CIO convention in San Antonio

Jun 28, 2P: Democratic Socialists of America will explain the importance of the labor movement at 334 Centre

Jul 2nd Thursday, 11A: Retiree on-line update. Contact Genelantz19@gmail.com. If you haven't registered already, register here

Jul 17, 7:30P: Dallas Central Labor Council meeting for all affiliated union members.

Jul 25-27: YALL state convention in Dallas Convention Center