Workers at Seatack-North Park sincerely want to hear collective bargaining come back.
Collective bargaining is important as it will help city workers unionize and negotiate with city leaders about working conditions. Such efforts would include aspects like benefits, pay and hours.
Only as recently as 2021 did Virginia from three states bar local government employees and staff from unionizing. Even the Virginia GA had voted on a bill in 2020 that could potentially overturn the ban. The duty now rests on the laurels of the local governments.
At the rally, a speaker by the name of Laura Goren made it known that public worker are able to collectively bargain similar similar to the private sector pals with local government.
Virginia Beach workers are thinking about laying their collective bargaining hopes and wishes on the agenda all for future purposes
Collective bargaining would allow city workers to unionize and start negotiations with city leaders about their working conditions. It would include aspects such as pay, benefits, and hours.
Until 2021, Virginia was one of three states that barred local government employees and public school staff from unionizing. The Virginia General Assembly voted on a bill in 2020 that overturned that ban, and now it is up to local governments. Virginia Beach workers are already struggling to stay afloat.
There are about four in ten city workers that will not able to support themselves at the standard that the city asks for.
There were other parts of Virginia, similar to Richmond and Arlington, that would pass collective bargaining in their own local governments. But it’s currently unknown if the whole issue will be discussed with Virginia Beach leaders.
Public employees could certainly benefit from collective bargaining rights, seeing how this would increase pay for levels closer to where it may be obtained in the private sector. In total, the public sector’s collective bargaining had their pay boosted by 5% to 8% while the clear standards provided by unionization would specifically help Black and Latinx workers. Women, comprising of the whole local government workers could also benefit from collective bargaining.
This matters since discrimination against people of color and women would show for lesser paychecks than those received by white men, with the exact same education and experience in public and private sector employment.
Virginia has it tough. Local employees are getting paid 29.9% less than private-sector counterparts, whom may have similar educations. It’s also true for public employees who collectively bargain with small pay penalties. Some states have a policy similar to Virginia’s new law that would allow but isn’t requiring localities to allow employees to collectively bargain, with the general pay gap for employees to be 16.6%. If collective bargaining was intact, those rights would allow the pay gap to be less. About 10.5% to be exact.
So the very fact is, it would be radically important for unions to raise pay for individuals who for way too long have been underpaid in comparison to experience and educational levels. This would therefore create more equitable policies in the workplace.
