RICHMOND, Va. — After months of debate, Richmond City Council members took a historic vote on Monday night that gives city workers the chance to unionize and negotiate labor contracts with the city government.
"It's been a long time coming, 27 years for me," Everett Fields, who works for the Department of Utilities and is an SEIU Virginia 512 Organizing Committee member, said. "Sometimes, we know things that management just don't. I mean, a man who graduated from college, he don't know nothing about operating equipment, driving a truck, fixing a pothole. We can tell them these things, we can work as one union."
The ordinance gives bargaining agents for city workers, including police officers, firefighters, emergency workers and other city employees. It also includes temporary workers who have been employed for longer than 150 consecutive days.
While the legislation had 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. City leaders were eventually able to iron out differences between the two separate ordinance proposals by the mayor and city council members.
"I'm very optimistic if not for anything else, just having a seat at the table is worth its weight in gold," Carl Scott, the vice president of the Richmond Coalition of Police (RCOP) said.
Scott said the decision is already lifting morale.
"It has already. I've received tweets and texts saying, hey, this is a great opportunity for us. Things are looking better, that's what we work toward at RCOP. If we work together, we can make things better," Scott said.
While city workers will have the right to elect union representatives, no one is required to join a union or pay dues and the right to strike is forbidden.
However, hundreds of employees who have lobbied for collective bargaining now have peace of mind that their opinion matters.
"We are going to make the city of Richmond better for the people who live here, plain and simple," Fields said.
