Resolutions From Texas AFL-CIO COPE Conventions Point Up Need for Major Changes in Texas

The Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention approved resolutions on protecting the freedom to vote, teaching the truth in classrooms, fixing the energy grid, condemning SB 8, and other matters of major concern to working families in Texas.

The 13 resolutions approved unanimously by delegates at the Texas AFL-CIO COPE Convention, taken together, are a clarion call for the change that working families need in Texas. Full texts may be found at this link: https://www.texasaflcio.org/COPE-2022-Resolutions

“The stakes in the 2022 elections are as basic as they get: saving democracy, rescuing the energy grid; opposing a war on teachers, and advocating for the health and safety of working families,,” Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy said. “Delegates to the COPE Convention addressed some of the top issues facing Texas, putting forward a vision for change that is long overdue.”

The resolutions address these subjects:

–Condemnation of voter suppression legislation and call for expanded voting options;

–Condemnation of SB 8, which has effectively limited access to health care for many Texas working women and threatens basic constitutional rights through its civil lawsuit mechanism. This resolution was put forward by the Texas AFL-CIO Women’s Committee;

–Fixing the energy grid;

–Condemnation of Jan. 6 insurrectionists;

–Support for Build Back Better legislation pending in Congress;

–Support for the PRO Act to knock down blockades to union organizing faced by millions of Americans who would like to join a union;

–Solidarity with striking musicians of the San Antonio Symphony;

–Continuing support for comprehensive immigration reform and opposition to Texas’s spending billions of dollars on a politicized border patrol program;

–Condemnation of attacks on airline workers and proposals to protect them from future attacks;

–Backing restoration of local control on local matters through local elected officials;

–Calling for additional resources to address the crisis of foster children without placement;

–Calling for a return to defined benefit plans in Employees Retirement System pensions; and

–Calling for a cost of living adjustment for state employee pensions.

The Texas AFL-CIO is the state labor federation consisting of 240,000 affiliated union members who advocate for working families in Texas. The Texas AFL-CIO COPE (Committee on Political Education) is our political arm.