The following resources, organizations, literature, and professionals in the field offer a wide scope of information to localities, and the practitioners advising them, as they face issues arising from the Virginia collective bargaining statute, Va. Code § 40.1-57.2. (2021).
ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCES
ABA State & Local Government Bargaining & Employment Law Committee
Contact: Brad Hoffman
Director, ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law
State and Local Government Bargaining and Employment Law (americanbar.org)
American Arbitration Association
This organization provides arbitration and mediation services for employers and unions.
Americans for Fair Treatment
This organization provides information about public-sector collective bargaining, including information on workers’ rights.
Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism
This organization provides information about compulsory unionization in public education.
Home – Concerned Educators Against Forced Unionism (ceafu.org)
Cornell University – Scheinman Institute – School of Industrial & Labor Relations
This group provides information and generates research regarding labor and employment issues.
Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service
This organization provides mediation services to employers and unions, and it provides training on various topics, such as conflict resolution and communications.
Free to Teach
Free to Teach specializes in informing public teachers about their rights in the context of collective bargaining.
Labor Relations Institute
This organization provides training for various aspects of collective bargaining, including keeping positive labor relations between the employer and a union, negotiating with a union, staying union-free, and more.
Home | Labor Relations Institute (lrionline.com)
LERA (Labor & Employment Relations Association – Virginia Chapter)
This organization provides a network for professionals in the human resources field to share their knowledge.
http://www.LERAchapter.org/virginia
National Institute for Labor Relations Research
This organization specializes in researching and disseminating information regarding labor relations policy.
Resources – National Institute for Labor Relations Research (nilrr.org)
The National Public Employers Labor Relations Association (NPELRA)
This organization provides networking and advocacy services to labor relations and human resource professionals.
National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation
The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation specializes in educating people about workers’ rights and provides legal services for collective bargaining issues.
National Right to Work Foundation Home – National Right to Work Foundation (nrtw.org)
LEGAL RESOURCES
Va. Code § 40.1-57.2. (2021) https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title40.1/chapter4/section40.1-57.2/
City of Alexandria Ordinance City of Alexandria – File #: 21-0960 (legistar.com)
Clarke County Collective Bargaining Resolution 2021-09R (located on p. 78 at https://www.clarkecounty.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/7769/637589133553188807).
Timothy M. McConville, Esq., New Virginia Labor Law Makes Localities an Offer They Can’t Refuse, (Dec. 21, 2020) https://praemialaw.com/blog/f/new-va-labor-law-makes-localities-an-offer-they-cant-refuse (republished in Employment Law Daily, Wolters Kluwer) (explaining issues arising from Virginia public-sector bargaining statute).
POLICY RESOURCES
Daniel DiSalvo, The Trouble with Public Sector Unions | National Affairs (2010) (examining the history of collective bargaining and highlighting the massive political power public sector unions hold).
Edward Ring, Tips for Negotiating with Public Sector Unions | California Policy Center, (Aug. 16, 2017) (providing tips and sample language for negotiating with public sector unions).
Geoffrey Lawrence et al., How Government Unions Affect State and Local Finances: An Empirical 50-State Review | The Heritage Foundation, Heritage Foundation (April 11, 2016) (analyzing how mandatory collective bargaining leads to state and local government spending increases from $600-$700 dollars per person per year).
Greer, Stan, Taxpayers Pay High Price for Union Bosses’ Monopoly Control of Public Sector Employees, Inst. for Lab. Relations Research, Inc., May 11, 2021, https://nilrr.org/taxpayers-pay-high-price-for-union-bosses-monopoly-control-of-public-sector-employees/.
It’s a Bargain, Ark. Democrat Gazette (Mar. 28, 2021), https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/mar/28/its-a-bargain/ (criticizing public employees’ ability to bargain over their salary and benefits when those employees work to elect the individuals who make those decisions, likening this to bargaining with yourself).
Just Say No, Nat’l Right to Work Comm. (explaining why public-sector union bargaining in Virginia will have a negative impact on taxpayers and employees) https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/8c3d2476-b057-49e2-88d6-574ca33fc954/downloads/John%20Kalb%2C%20Just%20Say%20No.pdf?ver=1620765622918
UNIONS AND POLICING
Farah Stockman, The County Where Cops Call the Shots, N.Y. Times (Mar. 26, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/26/opinion/police-suffolk-county-unions.html (highlighting how the Suffolk County police union has used its monetary power to influence local elections, year after year).
Laura Barrón-López, Democrats’ Coming Civil War Over Police Unions, Politico (Oct. 12, 2020), https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/14/police-reform-police-unions-qualified-immunity-democratic-party-420122 (examining House Democrats’ contentious relationship with police unions, beginning with their support of a pro-labor bill in early 2020, but ending with their opposition to police union’s ability to negotiate its own disciplinary standards in the wake of demands to end police brutality).
Lea Skene, Baton Rouge Billboard Wars: NAACP Wants to End BRPD Union Contract to ‘Make Officers Behave Better,’ Advocate (Mar. 24, 2021), https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/crime_police/article_e948b8c6-8c39-11eb-9701-db0bae242abc.html (scrutinizing how police union leadership has proven to be more motivated by politics than by employee issues).
UNIONS AND EDUCATION/COVID
Bradley D. Marianno et al., Power in a Pandemic: Teachers’ Unions and Their Responses to School Reopening (showing a national trend that school districts with teachers’ unions which negotiate collective bargaining agreements were less likely to move to in-person class instruction in fall 2020, than those districts without collective bargaining agreements).
Bradley D. Marianno, Teachers’ Unions: Scapegoats or Bad-Faith Actors in COVID-19 School Reopening Decisions, Brookings (Mar. 25, 2021), https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2021/03/25/teachers-unions-scapegoats-or-bad-faith-actors-in-covid-19-school-reopening-decisions/ (explaining how powerful teachers’ unions slowed school reopening decisions during the pandemic).
Howard Blume, LAUSD’s Slow, Cautious Reopening Shows the Influence of the Teachers Union but has Critics, L.A. Times (Apr. 3, 2021), https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-04-13/la-teachers-union-influences-reopenings-online-school (considering the negative effects of slow school reopening, motivated and influenced by union concerns, on the quantity and quality of student instruction).
Lawrence W. Kenny & Johnathan Lott, State Teacher Union Strength and Student Achievement, 35 Econ. of Educ. Rev. 93 (2013) (exploring evidence that students have lower test scores in school districts in which the teachers’ unions have negotiated collective bargaining agreements).
Matthew L. Kelly & Stan Liebowitz, Fixing the Bias in Current State K-12 Education Rankings, Cato Inst. (Nov. 13, 2018), https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/fixing-bias-current-state-k-12-education-rankings (explaining how racial diversity among students affects state’s school rankings).
Parents, Children Flee from Monopolistic Unionism, Nat’l Right to Work Comm. (Nov. 23, 2020), https://nrtwc.org/parents-children-flee-from-monopolistic-unionism/ (exploring the correlation between high academic performance and public educators’ Right to Work).
Sawsan Morrar, Natomas Teachers Union Files Unfair Labor Charge After District Announces 5-Day Schedule, Sacramento Bee (Apr. 6, 2021), https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/education/article250442031.html (explaining the teachers’ unions opposition to a reintroduction of a regular school week despite the negative mental and social impact distance learning has had on students).
