At the Texas AFL-CIO, a Changing of the Guard in a Time of Growth

For labor organizing, Texas was long dismissed as a forlorn place.

“Right-to-work” laws restrict organizing here, most public-sector workers can’t collectively bargain or strike, and local governments are broadly banned from passing their own worker rights ordinances.

Yet total membership in Texas unions has been growing. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 603,000 Texans belonged to unions in 2024, up from closer to half a million a decade ago (though the union density rate has remained steadier below 5 percent). For the past eight years, Rick Levy steered this growth as the president of the Texas AFL-CIO and as secretary-treasurer for the prior two. He retired in early December, concluding three decades of work with the state labor federation.