Teachers and other public school employees in Richmond, Virginia, won a major victory in December when the city’s school board, in an 8 to 1 vote, approved a resolution granting them collective bargaining rights.
This victory will set a precedent for other districts in the state and public sector workers throughout the state. Richmond is the first school district in Virginia to reinstate collective bargaining rights, after the legislature in 2020 lifted the state’s 43-year prohibition on collective bargaining for local government workers.
The school board tried repeatedly to delay the vote. Winning took a mass mobilization led by the Richmond Education Association, which convened district-wide workers’ assemblies, held rallies outside school board meetings, and shared dozens of teacher testimonies during public comment periods.
A compromise resolution was approved, which stated that both the union and school district can bring only two issues to the table to negotiate the first negotiated contract. It will last for three year. Despite this compromise, it overturned the sweeping ban that prohibited contract negotiations and opened the door to expanding union power in all school buildings.
Patchwork of Rights
The new state law, effective May 1, 2021 allows any governing body (e.g. a school board) to vote to authorize collectively bargaining rights for its employees. Following that, the union is allowed to hold an authorization voting among the workers.
This means that there will be a patchwork arrangement of public sector bargaining right across the state. Virginia’s anti-union right-to-work law remains in effect; so does its draconian ban on public sector strikes. State employees still cannot bargain.
In 1946, Virginia banned all negotiations with public sector unions to end the power of Local 550 of CIO-affiliated State, County and Municipal Workers of America, an all-Black union at University of Virginia hospital.
A federal district court ruled that this prohibition was unconstitutional in 1971. Public sector unions were then allowed to negotiate contracts. The state Supreme Court restored the ban on bargaining in 1977 for all public sector employees, including those employed locally by Richmond Public Schools.
Drive for Authorization Cards
Although Richmond school employees didn’t have collective bargaining rights, they did have a union, the REA, with more than 1,000 members and a network of shop stewards.
After the new law passed in 2020, the union’s organizing committee led a grassroots campaign school by school — mobilizing both members and non-members to sign authorization cards and demand the reinstatement of collective bargaining rights.
Virginia is a right–to-work state. This means that non-members can sign authorization card to support collective bargaining. Only members will be allowed to participate in negotiations and make input on the contract.
The cards were used by the school board to show support for collective negotiation and to build momentum for an electoral to authorize the REA to be the exclusive agent for collective bargaining.
REA also helped build community support by reaching parents and other unions. They even held committee meetings at picket line for the Nabisco strike by Bakery Workers, (BCGTM), Local 358.
These acts of solidarity paid off — members of Local 358 were among those who joined the REA rally outside the December 6 school board meeting where collective bargaining rights were finally granted.
You can organize your items starting below
As organizing committee members, shop stewards and members of REA executive boards, members of Richmond’s chapter of the Virginia Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators were all involved in the campaign.
After the 2018-2019 strike, VCORE was established. The founding members, critical of their statewide union’s emphasis on lobbying, sought to transform it into a more democratic and effective fighting organization in the workplace. The Caucus of Rank-and-File Educators, which had rebuilt Chicago Teachers Union from the bottom up, inspired them.
VCORE has advocated stronger relationships with other labor and community organisations, democratic participation, and mass mobilization.
The caucus pushed REA to restructure its stewardship system. The union is currently training a new layer to organize its authorization cards campaign. These leaders will become the foundation for future contract action teams.
“Any veteran union organizer knows that the quality of the contract that the REA will win is contingent upon the strength of its organization in the workplace and willingness of its members to take action,” said Cole Oberman, a member of REA and VCORE.
VCORE members also advocated for the union to convene district-wide assemblies where all categories of school district workers — not just teachers — could identify and analyze the issues they were facing on the job and determine how to respond.
The REA has so far convened three assemblies that have brought together more than 100 workers. Many of these workers were new to the union and this was their first interaction with it. They discussed staffing shortages and uncompensated work hours, class sizes, district mandated curriculum, decrepit buildings, bullying by administrators, and other topics.
There is no easy way ahead
The REA and its parent VEA faced persistent opposition from employers and politicians, Democratic as well as Republican. They have a long road ahead.
It was Richmond’s Democratic-controlled school board that significantly delayed and attempted to weaken the collective bargaining resolution. Ralph Northam, the Democratic Governor elected in 2020, had delayed implementation of the law that reinstated collective bargaining rights. He was now the governor.
Glenn Youngkin, the Republican Governor of New Jersey, has declared his intent to launch an offensive against anti-racist education in public schools, teacher autonomy and public health. He has established a tip line through which parents can report on educators who engage in “divisive practices.” Among the regressive bills introduced in the first few weeks of his administration is one attempting to reinstate the ban on public sector collective bargaining rights.
The Virginia School Boards Association has been taking a legislative stand against collective bargaining and continues hosting anti-union trainings for local schools boards.
In this context, the REA must organize a union authorization drive (it must win an electoral election to become the official bargaining units representative) and then lead contract negotiations.
Beyond Richmond
Despite these obstacles, the terrible working and learning environments provide fertile ground for organizing. A recent study revealed that Virginia ranks 50th in the nation for teacher pay, compared to other occupations. Educational support staff, such as instructional assistants, have spoken out against poverty wages in Richmond.
The Commonwealth Institute recently conducted a study that found that 80 per cent of Richmond’s public sector employees are unable or unwilling to support a family.
Other municipalities have also been pushing for collective bargaining. Their board of supervisors approved a collective bargaining resolution for firefighters and county workers in Loudoun County on December 7. The newly formed Virginia Beach City Workers Union, Electrical Workers, Local 111, rallied in front of a city council meeting to demand collective bargaining rights.
“This victory has excited workers around the state who have long felt disillusioned with the business union model,” said elementary English as a Second Language teacher Noor Sami, a member of REA and VCORE. “People are beginning to feel like change is not only possible, but likely. Just in my school alone, everyone is looking at the REA with new eyes and excited to see what comes next.”
