It’s Time to Turn the Page on Labor Relations in the South
Richmond Public Schools has the opportunity to protect workers right to organize and set an forward thinking example for public sector collective bargaining in the Commonwealth
by Kenya Gibson and Stephanie Rizzi
Today, in concert with our colleague Dr. Shonda Harris-Muhammed, we have shared with our Board colleagues a proposed resolution supporting Collective Bargaining for RPS workers. You can read our resolution here.
As we write this, we are 18 months into a pandemic that has strained the fabric of our society and brought to the fore the myriad ways our social support systems have failed us. Very few areas of the public sector have been so clearly affected by these gaps in social welfare as our public schools, which were forced to scramble to provide essential public health infrastructure while maintaining pedagogical continuity during a shift from classrooms to virtual rooms. Our schools and our workers stretched themselves to meet the mental and emotional needs of students while also connecting families to district, city, and state-level supports, directing families to material aid, and adopting new technological infrastructure after decades of lack of access. In short: public school workers, much to their credit, worked far beyond the scope of their contracts or their training.
The struggles of the past year and a half were compounded by decades of defunding, de-staffing, disinvestment, and facilities decay. This could have been avoided if our workers had a meaningful voice in public policy and allocation of public resources. Because they are our experts, the ones on the ground with our students, the ones who best know what our children need, our workers must have the right collective bargaining. Only through an organized and empowered workforce can we mitigate the struggles currently before us and prepare for the decades to come.
Why wasn’t collective bargaining already in place?The truth is, the Commonwealth of Virginia has a fraught and storied history with organized labor, and its source is the same structure that has fought to defund our schools and our public sector — systemic racism. Most notably, in 1946, segregationist Governor Bill Tuck ushered in a new era of hostility when he threatened to conscript workers of Virginia Electric and Power Company — now known as Dominion Energy and Virginia’s largest campaign contributor — and force them into labor because they were striking for fair working conditions. Governor Tuck’s machinations successfully broke their strike. After this loss, he passed so-called “right-to-work” laws to perpetually crush Virginians unionist efforts.
In the public sector, there have been numerous attempts in the latter part of the twentieth century to allow for public sector employees to collectively bargain. Although not explicitly allowed in the Virginia Code at the time, Arlington County and their school system for example had been engaging in collective bargaining with public employees, assuming implied power to do so, for nearly a decade. Then in 1977, the Supreme Court of Virginia decided that they no longer had the right and voided their collective bargaining agreements.
In exploring our history, however, it’s not all bad. Richmond, Virginia was the site of the first multi-racial union in the country. In 1885, the Knights of Labor, at the time entirely white, issued a charter for a Black union of local craftsmen. The organization, though segregated and by nature imperfect, united Black and white workers in common cause. In their unity, they struggled together in the city against unfair labor practices, often fighting side by side.
In recent times, it seems the tide is beginning to turn. In 2019, teachers staged a walkout and protest demanding higher levels of funding for public education and higher salaries for workers. (Virginia then and now ranks dead last for teacher pay.) The calls for change are clear, and it’s time for lawmakers to answer.
Although it is not within the powers of the Richmond Public School Board to repeal so-called “right-to-work” laws or strengthen public sector unions on the state level, we can use the new powers given to us by the state legislature to allow for collective bargaining for the public workers in our school system and furthermore use our authority to forge a forward thinking example for the provision of public sector collective bargaining in the Commonwealth. As a result, we are introducing legislation that will ensure that workers rights to collective bargaining are protected and have included several requirements to that end.
Read our resolution here.
First, we have followed the example of the Employee Free Choice Act and allowed for so-called “card checks” or majority sign-up of employees. EFCA was a bill co-sponsored by then Senator Obama and was pushed during his Presidential administration. Although the bill failed to pass, the principles within are still sound. Secret ballot elections present an opportunity for employers to intimidate employees and discourage their participation in a union. Majority sign-up is a better practice for recognizing an exclusive bargaining agent.
Second, we have insisted that the school administration will remain completely neutral with respect to the collective bargaining of the district’s employees. Workplace democracy must be recognized as an essential component to the functioning of our republic in that it allows workers to advocate for fair pay and working conditions. It is not the place of our school district to campaign against unionization or to guide employees toward any particular union.
Third, many of the collective bargaining ordinances that have been introduced in Virginia carve out certain non-negotiable matters related to employment, including firing, promotion and demotion, and discipline. We believe that employers are incentivized to use these actions to limit the free speech rights of employees. It is in the best interest of our students, teachers, and parents that Richmond Public School staff are fully capable of realizing their first amendment rights without fear of retaliation. We have therefore proposed that the district retains exclusive rights only regarding matters that state law mandates must be the exclusive right of the school board.
As we look ahead for our district, we do so with tremendous hope for what our educators and workers can achieve in support of students and families when they are appropriately empowered to bargain on behalf of the stakeholders they represent. There is no question that in states like Virginia, perpetual under-funding and neglect have thrived in an environment where our workforce was profoundly disempowered by laws intended to disenfranchise Black workers, Black and brown families, and our public sector workforce. We put this resolution forward with those communities in our hearts and our minds, and with the knowledge that our central commitment is always to Virginia’s students and families.
