New wave of unionization hits Texas

Workers’ unions have been cropping up in nontraditional places in Texas over the last few months. The trend gained widespread recognition when employees at a Buffalo, N.Y., Starbucks store unionized in 2021. Now, in Texas, at least five workplaces have filed for unionization, four of them Starbucks stores in San Antonio and Austin. Those are among the 54 Starbucks stores in 19 states that now have unions. Lillian K. Allen, a union member at a Starbucks near the UT Austin campus, says the union gives employees more ability to negotiate with their employer. “We're forming a union to obtain a voice, to advocate for ourselves and for the issues that are central to us as partners, in a way where we have actual leverage,” Allen said. Allen’s store, on 24th Street and Nueces, near UT’s famed “Drag” strip of shops and restaurants, unionized in March.

But service industry workers like Allen aren’t, historically, typical union members. That’s because service jobs, says Texas State University history professor Tom Alter, used to be considered temporary. People didn’t stay in them long enough to make unionization possible. But that changed after the 2008 economic collapse; the instability of the job market forced people to stay in lower-paying jobs for longer than expected, Alter says. “I think a lot of people are realizing this is becoming more permanent. And once you see something as permanent or at least longer-lasting, you start to become more invested in the workplace and want to improve it,” Alter said. At Alamo Drafthouse, another Austin establishment, movie-theater workers at a South Austin location formed a union in February with the help of Industrial Workers of the World. “There's definitely a rejuvenation of labor unions,” said IWW spokesperson Maxim Baru, “[and] a change of demographics and unions, among memberships, that's taking place that are changing priorities for labor unions.” Baru credits the pandemic for the seemingly sharper rise in unions more recently. That was the opposite of what Baru had expected.