RICHMOND, Va. -- After six months of intense debate, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, the city council and the administration have negotiated an agreement on a collective bargaining ordinance, legislation that will allow city workers to negotiate labor contracts with the city government.
“We’re very optimistic,” says Brendan Leavy, who represents the Richmond Coalition of Police.
Leavy says if the ordinance passes at next week’s city council meeting, thousands of city workers will finally have a seat at the bargaining table.
“It will give the right for all city employees to collective bargain and gives them a real voice so we can talk about wages and compensation and benefits and working conditions,” Leavy says. “It’s so important because we can actually sit down across the table from management and have our voices heard.”
The ordinance includes giving bargaining agents for city workers, including police officers, firefighters and emergency workers and other city employees, including temporary employees employed for longer than 150 consecutive days.
While the legislation has the support of several of the city’s 3,000 employees, as well as national and local workers’ unions, opponents worried about the ordinance’s impact on government administrators and the city budget, were able to iron out differences between the two separate ordinance proposals by the mayor and city council members.
The mayor’s original version of the bill limited rights to employees in the departments of Public Works and Public Utilities.
Another bill, patroned by six city council members, was much broader.
On Monday, the Richmond City Council met to discuss amendments to the new ordinance proposal based on consensus.
If the ordinance is adopted by the Richmond City Council on July 25, city workers will need to elect unions to represent them in negotiations with the city, a process that could take several months.
