Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation

08/20/2026

Last week, we gathered for the **2026 Working Families Awards Celebration**an unforgettable evening filled with energy, solidarity, and heart.

We proudly honored the unions, elected officials, and organizations who represent the very best of our movement. These leaders, listeners, organizers, and visionaries have stood on picket lines, supported their coworkers, built bridges across communities, and fought tirelessly for justice, fairness, and dignity for working families.

Please join us in congratulating this year’s awardees and thanking them for everything they do for our unions, our neighborhoods, and our future! 👏🏆

08/18/2026

This is the video we shared at our Working Families Awards Celebration on August 14th 🎥✨

Over the past year, Gulf Coast union members organized, voted, struck, and built power, winning stronger contracts, safer workplaces, better wages, worker protections, and pathways to debt-free training and high-wage union careers.

Every contract won, every apprentice trained, every voter reached, and every act of solidarity brings us closer to the future working families deserve.

Thank you to everyone who celebrated with us and to our generous sponsors who made the evening possible.

Together, we’re building a better future for working people. ✊

08/07/2026

On Thursday, TGCALF Organizing Director Linda Morales spoke before Harris County Commissioners Court to urge transparency, accountability, and continued investment in immigrant communities following the death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.

“This is not a vote against law enforcement. It is not a vote on immigration policy. It is a vote for the public’s right to know the truth through an independent, impartial review of a death that has shaken our community.”

The labor movement has always been about standing together and fighting for the dignity, safety, and rights of working people. That commitment does not stop at the workplace.

08/04/2026

There’s still time to join us at the 2026 Working Families Award Celebration. Purchase your ticket or sponsor by tomorrow Wednesday August 5th at tinyurl.com/wfac2026 or 🔗 in bio.

Join the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, for an evening celebrating leaders who stand with working families and the labor movement.

Together, we’ll honor:

⭐ Congressman Al Green
⭐ Commissioner Lesley Briones
⭐ State Representative Gene Wu

We’ll also celebrate the power of unions, the strength of our communities, and the future we’re building together, because the future belongs to working people.

📅 Friday, August 14, 2026
🎟️ tinyurl.com/wfac2026

Come celebrate worker power, solidarity, and the promise of a brighter future!

07/30/2026

Working Families Award Celebration: The Future Belongs to Working People

Join the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO for an evening celebrating the leaders who stand with working families and the labor movement.

Together, we’ll honor:
Congressman Al Green, Commissioner Lesley Briones, and Representative Gene Wu

As we celebrate our honorees, we’ll also celebrate the power of unions, the strength of our communities, and the future we’re building together, because the future belongs to working people.

Join us to celebrate worker power, solidarity, and the promise of a brighter future on Friday, August 14, 2026.

🎟️Purchase tickets or become a sponsor by Wednesday August 5th at: tinyurl.com/wfac2026 or 🔗link in bio

07/28/2026

The Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation is proud to celebrate Claude Cummings Sr., International President of CWA, as Guest Ringmaster at UniverSoul Circus!

We encourage everyone to attend, support our labor leaders, and celebrate the strength and solidarity of working people in our communities.

https://www.universoulcircus.com/info

07/24/2026

07/20/2026

I stand in solidarity with the highly skilled workers at Ashland Specialty Chemicals who are on a ULP strike for a fair contract.

Ashland must return to the table and bargain in good faith—protect trained union jobs, maintain paid sick time, and keep this facility safe for workers and the entire community.

Ashland Local 564 Pipe Fitters Local Union 211 - Houston, TX Texas AFL-CIO Iuoe.union International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers United Association
Machinists Union

07/17/2026

It is with great sadness that Plumbers Local Union 68 shares the passing of our longtime member, former Business Agent, labor leader and Texas State Representative, Brother Kenneth “Ken” Yarbrough.

Ken joined Local 68 in 1961 and spent 24 years serving our membership as an elected Business Agent. He understood that union leadership was never about holding a title. It was about listening to people, standing beside working families, and leaving the organization stronger for those who came behind you.

He carried those same values into the Texas Capitol, where he represented District 138 from 1991 through 2003. Whether he was working inside the union hall or in the halls of state government, Ken never forgot who he represented.
Many of our older members and retirees knew Ken personally. They worked with him, learned from him, laughed with him and watched him fight for the rights and livelihoods of working people.

For our younger members who never had the opportunity to meet him, much of what we enjoy today was built through the work of leaders like Ken. Their names may not come up at every meeting, but their fingerprints remain on our wages, benefits, representation and the strength of our Local.

Ken believed in listening to every side and asking a simple question when decisions were being made: “Who is this going to hurt, and how do we fix it?”
That question says a great deal about the man he was.

He is survived by his wife, Roberta Bilsky; his 6 children, and his grandchildren and great grandchildren. His commitment to working families also lives on through his daughter, Kendra Camarena. Local 68 has had the opportunity to work with Kendra during her political campaigns and through her service with Harris County. She has been a strong friend to our union, helping us pursue work opportunities and grants while continuing to champion organized labor and working families, just as her father did before her.

A strong union does not happen by accident. It is built one member, one leader and one generation at a time.
Today, we ask our members to pause and remember Brother Ken Yarbrough. We especially invite our retirees and longtime members to share their stories and memories of Ken so that the generations who follow can better understand the man and the legacy he leaves behind.

On behalf of the officers, members and families of Plumbers Local Union 68, we extend our deepest condolences to his wife, Roberta, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the entire Yarbrough family.

Rest in peace, Brother Ken.
Thank you for your service to our country, our state, working families and Plumbers Local Union 68.

Once Local 68, always Local 68.

Kenneth W. Yarbrough
May 6, 1937 – July 11, 2026

Ken’s full obituary can be read at the link below:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/houston-tx/kenneth-yarbrough-12966758

07/14/2026

Congratulations to striking glaziers! This is the second victorious strike in the Houston region in the last year. Thanks to all AFL-CIO affiliates, elected officials, and community members that supported these workers.

After 40 days on an Unfair Labor Practice strike, members of Glaziers Local 1778 have ratified a new collective bargaining agreement with Spring Glass & Mirror, saving their pension and winning better hours and pay!

Thank you to our glazier members who spent 6 weeks on the picket line, and to District Council 10 and the rest of the labor movement for their support. Your bravery has raised standards for workers in our trades all across North America.

When we fight, we win!