SAN ANTONIO – In 1982, Betty Jean Alden created a sculpture honoring the labor leader, Samuel Gompers. After years of damage from natural elements, the art was demolished. However, on Monday, a new public art tribute was unveiled in honor of Labor Day, paying tribute to leaders in San Antonio.
The Labor Plaza features a spiral walkway. On the ground, visitors can read San Antonio Poet Laureate Octavio Quintanilla’s poem “So that Our Crossing May Never be Obstructed. Quintanilla’s artwork, which the Labor Movement inspires, is printed on ceramic tiles.
“San Antonio has a great labor history that no one knows,” Tom Cummins said. Cummins serves as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations or AFL-CIO San Antonio chapter president. “It was the building trades, the service employees, the teachers, the ones who really built San Antonio. Their sweat was in these buildings around here and in classrooms and in hospitals.”
The names of eight brave individuals, including Emma Tenayuca, take center stage at the Labor Plaza.
“She led the Pecan Sheller Strike back in 1938. The centerpiece is modeled after the auditorium where she made a speech but was violently attacked by a mob,” Cummins said.
The centerpiece is one of three stainless steel sculptures titled “I Remember Everything” by artist Ries Niemi.
According to the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts and Culture’s website, “These sculptures provide a nod to several groups important to San Antonio’s labor history, including but not limited to the beefmaster breeders, beer bottlers, brewery workers, laborers, stone masons, and brick layers unions.”
Union leader and former president of the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel, Shelly Potter, is also honored.
“She was instrumental in bringing air conditioning to the San Antonio schools way back in 1986. And then she also brought about the merger of two unions,” Cummins said. “[She helped merge] the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers in the San Antonio School District, which has made the teachers and support personnel much stronger and in fact, has resulted in the unions doing a lot of professional development in that district.”
Mario Salas is recognized for his ties to civil rights causes.
“Mario Salas, who actually belonged to four different unions,” Cummins said. “He has been active in the civil rights movement, bringing together the unions and the civil rights movement to better San Antonio.”
Visitors at the Labor Plaza will also learn about Henry “Hank” Brown’s contributions to help bring equality to minorities.
“He’s from the (United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters) here in San Antonio, and then, he was elected president of the Texas AFL-CIO,” Cummins said. “And while president, he not only represented working people, but he also transformed it into a civil rights organization.”
Workers’ rights activist Joan Suarez is also honored.
“Then we had Joan Suárez, who was president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers (Union). She was president of the San Antonio AFL-CIO,” Cummins said.
Suárez helped lead various events including labor meetings and strikes to bring attention to workers’ struggles.
The work of Robert Thompson from the early 70′s is also memorialized.
“We also have Robert Thompson, who is president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents the workers at Havemeyer,” Cummins said. “He was very instrumental for not only San Antonio but across the country because under his leadership, his union went all the way to the Supreme Court. And we received a ruling that all public employees across the country must be paid overtime past 40 hours… 35 million public employees were immediately affected. And all those since then have been affected.”
Union leader and Lubbock native Linda Chávez-Thompson’s contributions are recognized. According to the AFL-CIO’s website, Chávez-Thompson, “was the first person to hold the post of AFL-CIO executive vice president, and she was the first person of color to be elected to one of the federation’s three highest offices.”
Farm worker activist, Rebecca Flores was present during Monday’s ribbon cutting ceremony. She reflected on her life’s work as she looked at her name on the ground.
“Rebecca Flores led United Farm Workers in Texas. She led the march that went from the Valley to Governor Conley’s office in Austin,” Cummins said. “They marched for more pay and decent working conditions. Unfortunately, it (was) very disappointing (that) the governor did not come out to greet them as they should have, but nevertheless, the goals were achieved.”
“The greatest moment for me was was when I saw farmworkers organized sitting in a convention for the Farmworkers Union in Pharr, Texas, for the first time in the history of Texas and voting on what they thought their priorities were for them as workers,” Flores said. “It was the best form of civic education.”
Flores hopes the Labor Plaza keeps workers’ rights in the forefront of people’s minds.
“I hope that it’s going to be a constant reminder to people who walk by here that people who labor people who work every day are the ones that construct the city,” Flores said. “If we can get that message out, that’s where we start educating. Because I don’t think people understand that the fruit and vegetables that you buy in the grocery store don’t just appear there, right? It’s really there because a lot of people harvested those and put them in a truck and the truck drove here.”
Although the contributions of those honored today have helped improve working conditions, they said there is still a lot of work to be done.
“There’s so many people living in poverty in San Antonio, having to work two jobs or having to be underpaid in so many jobs,” Cummins said.
“We as as unions don’t have the resources to keep fighting every day,” Flores said. “The growers have so much money. They form their own unions, right… to fight us every step of the way.”
Flores said the key to momentum and change was and will always be to be organized.
“How do you, as an individual know that your issue can be transformed into something that a politician will accept and do something about? But only if you’re organized, only if you have thousands of people working with you on the same issue,” Flores said.
The Labor Plaza is located in the River Walk Public Art Garden off of Market Street across from the Henry B. Gonzáles Center.