On Sept. 13, Mayor Kirk Watson dropped a long list of labor endorsements for his reelection campaign, with the email subject line “I’m With Labor and Labor Is With Me.” The coalition of organizations was dubbed “Workers for Watson” and included public safety unions Austin EMS Association and the Austin Firefighters Association, service industry union UNITE HERE Local 23, and a slate of trade workers including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 520, ironworkers, insulators, elevator constructors, plumbers, and pipefitters.
Notably, the city employees union, AFSCME Local 1624, was absent. And the Austin Central Labor Council, which consists of 500 state and local labor councils of the AFL-CIO, declined to endorse in the mayoral race at all.
“We have a two-thirds threshold for any political endorsement and none of the candidates were able to achieve that.” – Austin CLC President Jason Lopez
This is surprising given that Watson received a CLC endorsement in 2022 – no small feat. “We have a two-thirds threshold for any political endorsement and none of the candidates were able to achieve that [this year],” Austin CLC President Jason Lopez told the Chronicle. The CLC has added several member unions since 2022, meaning there are more and newer voices that don’t have relationships with Watson. Furthermore, he’s made some enemies in AFSCME, one of the CLC’s largest unions, partly because of the unpopular order to return to work in person in the summer of 2023. That order came from Watson’s former City Manager Jesús Garza. In public protests attended by supportive Council members, the union not only opposed the return due to environmental and quality-of-life impacts, but also said that Garza’s approach to notifying employees was disrespectful, reflecting a larger trend of business done behind closed doors during Garza’s tenure. They told the Chronicle at the time that Garza would send emails at 5pm on a Friday, avoid in-person conversations, and “showed no interest in negotiating” with AFSCME.
Mayoral candidate Doug Greco made much of the lack of endorsement on X, writing, “This is a major vote of no confidence by organized labor,” and attributed some of the discontent to Watson’s unpopular DPS partnership and the scandal over a favor he did for a top staffer of Gov. Greg Abbott’s. Still, Watson has received the most endorsements out of any candidate. He wrote in the campaign newsletter: “My longtime support for Labor is ultimately about supporting … tradespeople to service workers to healthcare professionals to public servants and so many others that make our city, and our country, tick. I’ll keep working to put affordability first at City Hall.”
This article appears in October 4 • 2024.