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Seven months ago I moved to Texas from the upper-Midwest, where I worked for 7 years in the labor movement. After two "purple" electoral cycles in 2000 and 2004, I witnessed the central role that labor played in re-establishing the upper-Midwest as a reliable democratic stronghold. Now I find myself in Texas, eager to help repaint this state blue--a challenge made unnecessarily difficult due to the relative low density of organized labor in the state.
The candidacy of national labor leader Linda Chavez-Thompson for Lieutenant Governor needs to be seized upon by Democrats as the first fortuitous opportunity of the new decade. At the core of this candidacy lie the seeds of powerful possibilities for both Texas workers and Texas Democrats. To paraphrase Georg Simmel, sometimes we need a stranger to point out something new about ourselves--I hope that my perspective as a new Texan may shed a novel light on this subject.
One observation I have made since arriving in Austin is that unions are sometimes held in contempt or discounted by otherwise loyal Texas Democrats. To understand why I find this startling, consider this: of the top 15 states in terms of high union member density, Obama won 14 (not Alaska). Of the bottom 15 states, Obama only won 4 (New Mexico, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida). If Texas had over 15% union density like Wisconsin, opposed to the reality of less than 5%, not only would it be easier to elect Linda Chavez-Thompson, but it would be easier to elect other democrats to statewide office. In short, there is an electoral argument that the Democratic Party can't afford to ignore: labor brings money and volunteers.
Democrats need to understand that a primary victory by Linda Chavez-Thompson would bring a keen interest from the national labor movement that will guarantee their serious involvement at the top of the ticket. Nationally, Chavez-Thompson continues to be revered in the labor movement and that means that both dollars and volunteers will flow to Texas to support her campaign. Labor will understand that her fate is tied to the bigger picture of Democratic favorability and I think that there will be a positive spillover effect to the other campaigns.
Electing Linda Chavez-Thompson would also be a boon to Texas workers. Organizing campaigns would benefit from having a major public official who would stand up to defend workers' rights to organize. I don't have to have lived in Texas to know that many Texas employers have waged shameful and illegal campaigns of harassment and intimidation to prevent their workforce from joining a union. Nascent unions would have a public ally to shine a light on these practices and ultimately that would mean more successful campaigns and more union members.
What would be the impact of greater union density in Texas? There are many reasons to believe that greater union density would help the state economically, not least those most in need. More union members also would lead to more local resources (i.e. money and volunteers) to fight politically. Moreover, unions are one of the rare institutions that have the power to counteract and deconstruct conservative ideology amongst its membership. Communication from unions to their membership via newsletters, direct mail, and general exposure to progressive ideals has the power to transform people, so it is no wonder that the fear-mongers on the right have always been afraid of the labor movement. In short, more density means more Democrats.
To conclude, many people seem to think that the labor movement can be reduced to a handful of major accomplishments in the first half of the 20th century and that it is no longer relevant to the modern American worker. The reality is that the labor movement still exists and is meaningful for millions of American workers across most sectors of the economy. The successful campaign to organize 5000 janitors in Houston in 2005, combined with the fact that 2007 marked the first year of overall growth of the US labor movement in 25 years signals that labor history is very much up for grabs. Electing Linda Chavez-Thompson, a major figure in the US Labor Movement, has the potential to reshape Texas popular opinion of organized labor and would have broad implications for the Texas Democratic Party.
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