What is a Union?
Unions happen when employees unite, pooling their strengths to amplify their voice and advocate for better conditions, dignified treatment and due process in the workplace. Working together, employees wield a formidable collective power. Through solidarity and collaboration, unions empower workers to negotiate effectively with employers, ensuring their rights and interests are upheld and respected.
Unions are democratic organizations and its leaders are elected by the membership.
The freedom to form and join a union is core to the U.N. Universal Declaration on Human Rights and is an “enabling” right—a fundamental right that ensures the ability to protect other right
What is Collective Bargaining?
Collective bargaining is the pivotal process wherein employees, empowered by their unions, engage in negotiations with their employers to establish the conditions of their employment. These negotiations encompass a broad spectrum of factors crucial to the well-being of workers, such as compensation, benefits, working hours, leave policies, occupational health and safety standards, as well as initiatives aimed at achieving a harmonious balance between professional commitments and family responsibilities.
This process serves as a cornerstone for addressing multifaceted issues within workplaces, shaping their operational frameworks in a manner that upholds the rights and interests of the workforce. Moreover, collective bargaining stands out as the foremost mechanism for enhancing wage levels across the United States. Undoubtedly, it is through this collaborative bargaining approach that unionized workers experience elevated wage structures, improved benefits packages, and a markedly safer working environment.
Why all the sudden can Fairfax County Public School Employees have Collective Bargaining ?
In May of 2021, the State of Virginia passed a law the allows Counties, Cities and School Boards to bargain collectively with employees if they so choose. Before that llegislation was passed, public employees in Virginia did not have the right to bargain.
FCPS invited certified employee associations to work as a collective bargaining workgroup and draft a Collective Bargaining Resolution.
