7 times labor unions shaped history in Texas

From garnering better wages for pecan shellers to the first hotel strike in Texas, these labor unions have made a difference for their workers.

Texas is approaching its 200th anniversary of becoming a state, and there’s already plenty of rich history to be found. One of the more interesting components of the Lone Star State’s past is the evolution of various unions and labor groups.

These labor unions typically sought better pay, more favorable conditions, and additional benefits for their workers. Here are seven instances where the unions made a real, impactful difference.

1. Texas Typographical Association, 1838

The first big win for a Texas labor union happened before the area was even an official U.S. state. The Texas Typographical Association got its start in April of 1838 and found a cause to fight for within six months.

By October 1838, the Texas Typographical Association had extended a hand to every printer within the Republic of Texas. The union’s goal was “to promote the interests of the Craft throughout the Republic.” And it succeeded. That month, the association organized the first strike in Texas, successfully earning a 25% pay raise.

2. Knights of Labor, 1886

While earlier unions were largely organized at the regional and state levels, the Knights of Labor was the first national union to gain popularity in Texas. There were many local assemblies, including multiple in Houston, Sherman, and Harrisburg, as well as individual assemblies in Austin, Fort Worth, Galveston, Gordon, and Waco. The Knights of Labor welcomed just about every kind of occupation, from trades like railroad workers, painters, and bricklayers to farmers and longshoremen.

In 1882, the first assemblies met in Texas. Within three years, about half of Texas’s non-farm workers were organized as part of the Knights of Labor. The union had several demands that are still important today: eight-hour workdays, equal pay for women, and industrial and anti-child-labor laws. Those demands (and others) converged in the Great Southwest Strike of 1886. While the strike ultimately failed due to poor organization and violent outbursts, it led to the growth of the Texas Populist movement. And it resulted in new worker benefits, such as non-biased hiring practices of unionized workers and the receipt of all wages within 15 days of leaving a job.

3. Galveston Longshoremen’s Strike, 1920

On March 12, 1920, approximately 1,600 longshoremen in Galveston joined fellow dockworkers across Gulf and Atlantic ports in a nationwide walkout. The locals were a part of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and were seeking better pay. As the strike began, the Mallory Steamship Company and Morgan Line pitted racial tensions against the workers. They hired Black scabs to replace white ILA locals, and recruited white scabs to replace Black locals. With threats of violence running high, Governor William Hobby sent the Texas Rangers to guard nonstriking workers. That decision was likely to create fractures within union groups.

The strike ultimately damaged local ILA factions and introduced more open-shop attitudes into the Lone Star State. Workers returned to the docks between the end of 1920 and the summer of 1921 with a raise, though it was less than they had hoped for. Additionally, the new contract allowed companies to hire nonunion workers. In fact, the state government even passed an open-port law that made it illegal to interfere with the loading, unloading, or transportation of commerce. The law was ruled unconstitutional in 1926; however, it impacted a few other strikes before it was repealed.

4. San Antonio pecan shellers strike, 1938

Pecan trees have been the official state tree since 1919, and the nuts themselves earned the “State Health Nut of Texas” designation in 2001. For good reason, the state makes a lot of pecans. Last year’s farmers produced about 40 million pounds. In the 1930s, about 40% of the U.S. pecan crop was grown in Texas, with a large share of production coming from the greater San Antonio region. At the time, the majority of pecan shellers were Mexican American women. They worked under unfavorable conditions and received poor pay, ranging from $1 to $4 per week.

In 1935, an 18-year-old named Emma Tenayuca formed the San Antonio branch of the Workers Alliance of America. That group was part of several, including the Texas Pecan Shelling Workers’ Union, that were granted a charter from the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA) in 1937. The following year, on January 31, 1938, Southern Pecan Shelling Company contractors announced a pay cut for pecan shellers, which included shelled pecan halves, shelled pecan pieces, and pecan crackers. That led to about two-thirds of the workforce, including 12,000 shellers, walking out all at once.

The striking shellers elected Tenayuca, then only 21, as the committee chair. The strike lasted a little over a month, with shellers returning to work on March 8. Tenayuca and hundreds of other participants were arrested during the strike. Tenayuca was painted as a communist, and a commission from Texas governor James V. Allred found that police had overstepped their boundaries. They weren’t punished, and Tenayuca was eventually pushed out. After an arbitration hearing from a three-person panel, shellers received a wage increase of half a cent. In October, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 bumped the minimum wage up to 25 cents per hour. However, this led pecan companies to use machines instead of humans to shell pecans, and thousands of shellers lost their jobs.

5. Austin Chicano Huelga Economy Furniture Strike, 1968–1971

Workers at Economy Furniture had been seeking better pay and improved working conditions for nearly ten years. After initially avoiding unionization, employees formed Local 456 of the Upholsterers International Union and began a strike on November 27, 1968, in East Austin. Both the UIU and the local group coordinated the strike, which lasted for 28 months. It’s the longest strike in Texas history.

The strike featured several memorable moments. Perhaps most notably, César Chávez, president of the United Farm Workers Union, led a march and rally of over 5,000 people at the State Capitol on February 6, 1971. Supporters boycotted Economy Furniture, which in turn hired Texas Rangers to round up protestors, drive them ten miles outside the city, and drop them off to walk home. The strikers, who were largely Mexican-American workers, were known as “huelguistas” and had the backing of the Catholic Church, which supported improvements for the oppressed and discriminated workers.

Student activists from the University of Texas also got involved, drawing support from notable Austin politicians, such as Gus Garcia (who later became Austin’s mayor), and Richard Moya, who earned the county commissioner seat in 1970. With more people becoming involved, the strike earned the nickname of “Austin Chicano Huelga.” The appeals court ruled in favor of the huelguistas, who voted to end the strike in March and spent the summer on a collective bargaining agreement. The result: annual pay increases, seniority and overtime pay, extra vacation, and additional benefits. Economy Furniture agreed to pay each worker up to $13,500 in backup wages.

6. ACWA Farah Strike, 1972–1974

In 1972, Farah Manufacturing Company was one of the largest employers in Texas. The clothing company employed about 9,500 people across plants in Texas and New Mexico, many of them Hispanic women, or Chicanas. The company, which made men’s and boys’ pants, placed unreasonable demands on its workers. One worker said she had received the same pay for three years despite her quota rising from 18 bundles a day, or 204 pairs of pants, to 125 bundles a day, or 1,500 pairs of pants. Those unrealistic expectations, as well as health hazards, discriminatory treatment, and poor job security and benefits, drove about 4,000 workers to strike in May 1972.

The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA) represented the strikers. Willie Farah, who owned Farah Manufacturing Company, did his best to keep the strikers down. He got court injunctions, surrounded his plants with barbed wire, armed guards, and attack dogs. He had strikers arrested—sometimes in the middle of the night while at their homes—and worked with banks to cut off loans to strikers. The El Paso plants were at the heart of the dispute, with many strikers working there. While local communities seemed to support Farah at first, the ACWA garnered national attention, and the tides soon turned, culminating in a national boycott of the Farah Manufacturing Company’s pants.

The strike finally ended in January 1974, about 21 months after it started. The Farah Strike was known as the “strike of the century,” with both sides suffering significant damage. Union costs were about $8 million, and the company faced a massive hit to its reputation, sales, and stock price. Still, the union ultimately won, with a new contract giving the strikers their jobs back, plus job security, a company health plan, more reasonable quotas, and the ability to file grievances.

7. UNITE HERE Local 23’s Hotel Strikes, 2025

Labor unions have been making history across Texas for nearly 200 years, and they’re still going strong in the modern era. UNITE HERE Local 23 is a union of hotel workers that spent 40 days on strike in 2025 to raise its minimum hourly wage. It’s believed to be the first recorded hotel strike in Texas history.

The strike paid off, figuratively and literally. Union leaders and Hilton Americas-Houston agreed to a new contract that will raise the minimum wage of housekeepers, stewards, and laundry attendants from $16 to $20 per hour. The minimum wage will increase to $22 by the end of the three-year contract. The new deal also includes increased job safety, better housekeeper workloads, and stronger job security protections for workers. Encouragingly, several other unions and community members, including local elected officials and business leaders, showed their support during the strike. It shows the power of collaboration and teamwork to advance a cause.