More Texas Healthcare Workers Join CWA

Last week, workers at the Harris Center for Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) won recognition for their union with CWA. The Harris Center, a government agency in Houston, Texas, employs approximately 2,600 workers with a mission to assist those with behavioral health and developmental needs so that they can live productive, connected lives.

The Harris Center Board of Trustees unanimously granted the union official recognition and established critical workplace rights, including payroll deduction for union dues, the right to hold union events in the workplace, union representation in disciplinary hearings, regular CEO meetings with union leaders, and direct union presentations to the Board. Since public employees in Texas do not have collective bargaining rights, this framework is the strongest possible legal structure for unionization in the state.

This victory comes after two years of dedicated organizing and mobilizing by the workers’ organizing committee and District 6 Staff. The campaign was led by District 6 Senior Campaign Lead Seth Hutchinson and Assistant Campaign Lead Sheronica Watson.

With this win, Harris Center employees will now be eligible to join CWA Local 6154, which already represents workers at Integral Care in Austin. This marks the second public agency in Texas to join CWA, strengthening our collective power in the state.

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This post originally appeared on cwa-union.org.