NORFOLK — A small group of city employees shouted a call-and-response from the steps of Norfolk City Hall toward the top of the tower, where the City Council was meeting Tuesday.
“What do we want?”
“Fair wages!”
“When do we want them?”
“Now!”
As the council prepared to vote for the new city budget, a dozen city staff and supporters gathered to demand higher raises and for the ability for City of Norfolk employees to form a union.
Virginia barred public sector unions in 1993. But last year, the new Democrat-controlled General Assembly passed a state law undoing much of that 1993 law and letting government employees to unionize for the first time in nearly three decades.
However, the new law also says that employees can’t organize until a local elected body gives them the go-ahead.
Janal Floyd, a seven-year veteran of Norfolk’s streets and bridges division, said the small group of employees that gathered Tuesday represented hundreds more who have signed on to support the unionization effort.
“There are several city employees who would be here if not for working their second jobs,” Floyd said.
The primary concern shouted through a megaphone Tuesday: the 3% raises promised in the city budget set to pass Tuesday night weren’t sufficient.
Priscilla Brown, who drives a trash truck for the city, said supporting herself is difficult on a city salary, with bills and medical debt, but that wasn’t her only concern.
“Like many city employees, I kept the city running during the pandemic,” Brown said. “All employees should have a real say around workplace safety.”
Last fall, city employees publicly and privately complained about how city bosses were handling staff safety and the risk of coronavirus exposure. It came to a head when a utilities employee died of coronavirus after riding in trucks in close proximity with other city staff.
Reached Tuesday ahead of the rally, Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander said the council hasn’t discussed employee unionization other than a short briefing on the new law. Following that briefing, the council instructed City Attorney Bernard Pishko and City Manager Chip Filer to gather further information about the law and its potential impact.
Alexander wouldn’t say whether he was in favor of allowing unionization or not, and needed more information.
“I would like the city administration to let me know what I can afford, what I can afford to do and not do, what would be the financial impact for the city, and would that mean raising fees, revenue, taxes to pay for it,” Alexander said.
Councilman Tommy Smigiel said his decision would ultimately hinge on how expensive it could be for the city.
“It’s all about cost,” he said. “We don’t have any idea what it would cost.”
Efforts to reach other members of the city council Tuesday afternoon were not successful.
In September, Portsmouth’s City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to allow city employees to form a union and collectively bargain, the first and only local government to do so thus far. (Employees there have yet to organize.)
The request to unionize in Norfolk could create some political tension for council members. Council seats in Norfolk are officially non-partisan, but every member of the council is aligned with the local Democratic committee and the city’s voters lean heavily Democratic.
Nationally, the Democratic Party has long courted political support from labor unions.
One other potential political wrinkle: such approval from the council could enable the creation of a strong police union in the city. Law enforcement unions have been under fire in recent years from the political left, accused of being an impediment to police reform in the wake of high-profile shootings of Black Americans.
