The unions that compose our labor council represent workers in the public sector, manufacturing, the building and construction trades, the transportation of people and goods, and the hospitality and other service industries.

As a labor council, we play a unique role in the labor movement’s mission to build power through solidarity for working people. By bringing unions together, we amplify their voices and solidify their power so workers get a better deal at the bargaining table, at the voting booth, and in the corridors where legislation is made.

We endeavor to:
– Convene affiliated unions around shared interests and opportunities.

– Run coordinated efforts to deploy strategically.

– Add value to the work of our unions by building capacity, infrastructure, and a culture of solidarity.

For more than a hundred years, labor councils have been forces for equality and opportunity in the greater Houston region.

For a long time, the wealthy elites that ran the Texas Gulf Coast made sure working people generated wealth for them at low wages, few benefits, and under dangerous conditions. The labor movement had to out-think and out-organize against impossible odds. Solidarity and activism were the keys to winning a voice, fairness, and respect on the job —a lesson that continues to inform our work.

Gulf Coast labor councils have provided hot meals to unemployed workers, helped usher in the 8-hour workday, and fought for civil rights for those who had been denied them for far too long.

As the Houston metro region became the fourth largest population center in the U.S., spanning multiple counties, and drawing in migrants from other states and countries, the labor movement recognized the need to reorganize to build power in the emerging environment. In 2015, five labor councils came together to form the Texas Gulf Coast Labor Federation, AFL-CIO to more effectively win change for working people across Gulf Coast counties.

The Gulf Coast Labor Federation has brought new excitement to the labor movement in the greater Houston region with newly affiliated unions, combined financial resources, new staffing and programs, multi-county political mobilization, an expanded communications capacity, community outreach and involvement, and broadening relationships with the progressive movement.

The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation unites unions in the following counties: Austin, Brazoria, Brazos, Chambers, Ft. Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller, and Wharton.