This is not about giving employees a voice they have the same voice we do, this is about giving Unions Control over Government *After 2 years of trying to negociate with unions San Francisco suburb Vallejo filed for bankruptcy May 23, 2008 *Miami 2010 during a declared financial crisis a state law that allowed administrators to force open union contracts capping pensions at $100,000, cutting salaries and saved the city teetering on bankruptcy the unions sued saying the city hadn't FIRED Non- Union employees,or raise taxes - Unions won! "New York 2020 unions held out for the Federal government to bail out because of an "Evergreen Clause" which you have in this bill which says a union contract does not expire until there is a new contract giving unions NO incentive to negociate a new one during recessions in NY is called the Triborough amendment H. Raskin wrote in 1968 "The community cannot tolerate the notion that it is defenseless at the hands of organized workers to whom it has entrusted responsibility for essential services." Collective bargaining with public-employee unions would mean taking some of the decision-making authority over government functions away from the people's elected representatives and transferring it to union officials, with whom the public had vested no such authority

Vote YES on HB1001: Collective Bargaining by Public Employees. It is vital that public employees in Virginia enjoy the right to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits, and working conditions. State workers contribute fundamentally to the public good from which every one of us benefits. As one person writes: "Collective bargaining is democracy in action; it allows us to build healthy, safe, and respectful workplaces where each worker is valued and supported. In turn, each worker's well-being makes Virginia a better place to work and live." HB 1001 is pro-worker, pro-family, and pro-Virginia legislation. Vote YES on HB 1001

Comments Document

OPPOSE HB1001 collective bargaining is giving control over government to unions that the public ie taxpayers has vested no such authority. We have a representative form of government and can hold our elected representatives accountable while I can vote for only the mayor and 1 council member unions can bind all 11 of them and future councils to contacts they did not vote for and the taxpayers gets no say. The cost of just administering collective bargaining hiring contract negociators, more HR personnel , labor relation specialists and payroll systems to handle it, time taken away by employees doing union work instead of the job they were hired to do will cost millions. Every dollar spent administering collective bargaining is money not spent to educate a child or provide public services.

Vote YES to HB 1001 (collective bargaining for public sector workers): As a Higher Education PhD student who has worked in postsecondary education/the public sector for over a decade, it's evident that our educational institutions operate on a schema of underpaid and undervalued labor. Research has shown how a college education advances civic engagement, public health, social welfare, community care, and economic prosperity (McMahon and Delaney, 2021) and is vital to the present and future of the Commonwealth of Virginia. The 80+ universities/community colleges in Virginia employ 122,000+ individuals making higher education one of the largest employers/employee bases in the state. Campus workers deserve a say in the workplace and in the decision making process in order to deliver on higher education as a public good. Collective bargaining will transform Virginia's public institutions and build a better workplace, community, and future for us all.

I urge you to support HB 1001 Collective bargaining by public employees. This is crucial to supporting public sector workers to continue in their positions over the long term. I have witnessed the incredible waste and inefficiencies due to the high turnover of public employees who currently have little leverage or ability to respond to issues of compensation, benefits, or health and safety that they encounter in the workplace. Allowing our public employees to elect to work with a union to bargain collectively will positively improve working conditions over the long run to benefit both employees and the public that they serve while making significant impacts on supporting middle income families of Virginia, which in turn will have great social and economic benefits for the Commonwealth. Eroding collective bargaining rights has eroded the middle class and our families and future generations deserve better.

I strongly support this bill, which would provide Virginia workers with the freedom to join a union and bargain collectively. I believe that all Virginia workers should have the freedom to join a union and bargain collectively so that they have a voice at work. But right now only a fraction of Virginia’s public service workers like teachers, firefighters, and nurses have the right to negotiate for fair wages and safe working conditions. The right to bargain collectively for a contract is a better bargain for our public service workers, it’s also a better bargain for our communities. Our public workers know what they need to do for their jobs, and as a professor at a public university, I can say with confidence that being able to bargain collectively would ensure that my job were more secure--and in turn, that would deepen my capacity to teach Virginia's college students. We are all stronger and safer when teachers can negotiate for things like smaller class sizes. We need to build on the work of previous legislation to ensure all workers have a voice on the job

Comments Document

Your estimates of the cost of public unions being able to collectively bargain is flawed. Loudoun County Public Schools recently voted to allow collective bargaining, estimate taxpayers will be on the hook for $3.3 million per year in new administrative positions. That’s $3.3 million that can’t be used for higher teacher pay, You have an "Evergreen Cluase" in the legislation, In NY it's called the Tribourgh amendment which basically says a contact stays in effect until a new one which give unions NO incentive to come to table to negociate new contracts during recessions. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1300123/unions-bet-federal-government-will-bail-out-new-york-with-massive-amounts-of-cash/ Vallejo California filed bankrupcy after 2 years of trying to negoicate with union https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN23521790/ In the 2010-2011 fiscal year, ihe City of Miami faced a $140 million deficit on its $500 million budget, which led it to declare a “financial urgency” and change its police union contract. Police union bosses sued, claiming the city had failed to raise taxes, lay off non-union employees and put in traffic cameras. The Florida Supreme Court agreed, https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article135994628.html In the private sector they are restrained by competition in the free market, customers can choose to take their business elsewhere, if business can't make money and compete they go out of business so unions can only push so far, the public sector has no such restraint they either cut services or raise taxes. https://www.hoover.org/research/case-against-public-sector-unions

In regards to HB1001: It's important to understand the benefits of collective bargaining to employers as well. It enables the interests of both workers and employees to be expressed and hears, common threads to be identified, and differences to be balances against one another to serve the creation of trade-offs. This results in the outcomes being perceived as more fair and thus more effectively honored or complied with. The positive benefits for businesses or institutions include higher worker commitment, productivity, and stability. This, in turn, can increase higher demand in the economy. Additionally, collective bargaining allows the relevant parties to fine tune agreements to their particular industry or enterprise, thus helping to solve problems specific to one's workplace.

Representatives, I am writing this morning in support of HB 1001. I am a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. As a term faculty member of 10 years who teaches our first-year critical thinking and writing seminars, I am writing on behalf of myself and my colleagues to explain why collective bargaining for public workers is so needed. My job is growing increasingly tenuous as higher education is privatized despite the way in which I and my colleagues are often the primary support for incoming first year students, and our help often determines whether they continue on in college or drop out after a year with significant debt. As term faculty, we have little to no control over our employment. Even though we are specialists in student success as well as our academic areas with many years of experience and education, VCU has recently announced that it will reduce all our multi-year contracts to a single year. To commit to VCU's students and Virginia's future without assurance of a stable job for us is hard, especially when many who are in the first 10 years of our careers are still paying off our own student loans. My colleagues and I wonder every year if we should be on the job market, or if we will be fired with no warning and no clear criteria for the selection of who was fired, as 14 of our colleagues were this year, with no preference given to seniority. All of this takes away our ability to focus on what matters, and what we are passionate about doing: teaching and supporting our students. SB 374 would allow us to advocate for ourselves and our students by bargaining for things that would make our jobs stable and secure, such as the reinstatement of multi-year contracts for proven teachers and clear layoff/firing policies that we agree are fair and which allow people to plan their careers. I am just one example of the workers who allow Virginia to thrive. All public employees are so because their work supports Virginians and their communities. Please support this bill and us, in return. Thank you for your attention, Amber Pearson Assistant Professor Virginia Commonwealth University

Vote YES on HB 737 (paid family and medical leave) and HB 1001 (collective bargaining for public sector workers). Both bills will improve working conditions for Virginians. Paid family and medical leave would allow to take care of themselves and their families without having to choose between care and a paycheck. Public sector collective bargaining gives workers the freedom to have a say in their workplace and will aid with worker retention and satisfaction, making Virginia's public institutions more effective. This bill specifically includes student workers, temp workers, home healthcare workers, and transportation workers, and those categories must be protected.

Collective bargaining would enable public employees to have democratic input in their working conditions. It may seem unthinkable -- the idea that state employees have a say-- but let's be honest. We know the work best. We know our mission intimately. And we know what we deserve. Campus Workers further the mission of higher education as a public good. It's time for Virginia to show up for public higher ed in this fundamental way. Support campus workplace democracy, so that the mission of higher education is not compromised by a lack of democratic governance. When we have a say, we can transform education for our students and prepare them for the workforce. This is what students deserve, and this what campus workers deserve. Thank you.

HB 1001 would be life-changing for me, my family, and all public sector state workers in the commonwealth--not to mention the students, patients, and clients we serve. Collective bargaining is democracy in action; it allows us to build healthy, safe, and respectful workplaces where each worker is valued and supported. In turn, each worker's well-being makes Virginia a better place to work and live. Collective bargaining rights would have allowed me to speak up in support of colleagues whose long-time work was recently terminated. It would allow me to advocate for student workers whose stipends do not meet the limit of a living wage and frequently arrive late. It would give me space to speak up with my colleagues when buildings are unsafe or students lack access to resources they need to succeed. I hope Labor and Commerce will support this critical bill today, particularly in this form--ensuring that student workers are included in this language is invaluable!

There has to be someone on board to keep the other accountable for safety while operating a locomotive.to keep them alert and aware when your all alone on the locomotive your mide can wander off to sleep

There has to be someone on board to keep the other accountable for safety while operating a locomotive.to keep them alert and aware when your all alone on the locomotive your mide can wander off to sleep

The AAUP is a membership organization with campus chapters at 18 public and private institutions in Virginia. Its mission is to protect academic freedom, institutions of faculty governance, fair procedures for resolving grievances, the economic well-being of faculty and other academic professionals, and the advancement of the interests of higher education. We believe that the right to organize into collective bargaining units enhances the faculty's ability to reinforce and secure the principles of academic freedom and tenure, fair workplace procedures, and the economic security of the profession. The AAUP affirms that collective bargaining ensures that all academic professionals have an effective role in the governance of institutions. Tenure-line and non-tenure-line faculty, graduate employees, and academic professionals at both public and private institutions are entitled to choose to engage in collective bargaining in order to ensure an effective role in the governance of the institution. Public sector unions in higher education strengthen these institutions' ability to serve the public good by giving academic professionals tools to assure that academic freedom - the right of faculty and students to use their disciplinary training to explore controversial ideas and create new knowledge - is protected from external interference, and assures that administrations respect the expertise of professionals in the design and administration of the fundamental "product" of higher education, which is a rich curriculum and the development of student skills for personal success and for positive contributions to society. The opportunity to form and join a collective bargaining unit would also make Virginia more competitive in the national and international markets to attract the most talented scholars, researchers, and teachers to our public institutions.