Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared July 27 as Longshoreman's Day in the state during an appearance at a major convention of port workers in Galveston, honoring the dockworkers who keep goods moving through the state's Gulf Coast ports. Abbott presented a state proclamation to the union at the gathering, praising the men and women who work the docks as reflecting the very best of the Texas spirit.
The governor spoke at the International Longshoremen's Association South Atlantic and Gulf Coast District 93rd convention, held in Galveston. In reading from the proclamation, Abbott singled out the workers stationed at every major deep-water port along the Texas Gulf Coast, framing their labor as a central and often overlooked part of the state's economic story.
Abbott used the address to underscore the scale of Texas's maritime infrastructure, noting that the state is home to 23 seaports, including 12 deep-water ports. He said Texas ports move more cargo than any other state in the country, and that the Port of Houston ranks as the number one U.S. port for waterborne tonnage, a distinction he tied directly to the longshoremen in the room.
The economic figures the governor cited were substantial. He said the ports of Texas generate more than 700 billion dollars in economic activity each year and support roughly 2.5 million jobs across the state, casting the dockworkers as essential to a supply chain that reaches far beyond the coast and into everyday life for residents.
Abbott also placed the work in a global context, pointing out that nearly 90 percent of the world's goods are transported by sea and that longshoremen are responsible for handling trillions of dollars worth of cargo each year. That cargo, he noted, ranges from food and consumer goods to automobiles and raw materials that flow through the Texas ports.
The governor wrapped the proclamation into a broader pitch about the Texas economy, touting the state as the top place in the country to do business and citing companies relocating from states such as California and New York. For the union members gathered in Galveston, the declaration of Longshoreman's Day served as formal state recognition of their role in that economic engine.