By Glenn Daigon
Over the summer, Laborers Local 804 won a breakthrough tentative collective bargaining agreement with Richmond Public Schools [RPS]. The Local represents over 200 school bus drivers. The win came after passage of a Virginia law allowing municipal public employees the right to organize and the union reinstating five fired bus drivers, known as the RPS5. Correspondent Glenn Daigon interviewed organizer Chris Hollis on the campaign. Below is an edited transcript of the interview.
Daigon: It was a few years ago that the Virginia Legislature gave public employees the right to organize at the town and municipal levels. In early June 2023, Local 804 won the right to represent over 200 Richmond public school bus drivers. Why did it take two years to get a tentative agreement?
Hollis: There are a lot of factors that play into getting this tentative agreement. One of the most important factors is the fact that Virginia is considered part of the South and you are dealing with Jim Crow laws. A lot of people were hesitant when the law passed. So, there was a lot of, I’ll say, bureaucracy going on, alignment with certain City Council members who want to support it. A lot of issues with the budget. Would they be able to afford it? So the can was kicked down the road until, I think it was Alexandria who initiated and then certain cities started following lock-step with that.
Daigon: Do you think that old habits die hard? These towns are not used to dealing with unions, making it much harder to secure a first contract.
Hollis: Correct. Again it’s just a stark history of anti-collective bargaining laws, Jim Crow laws, and people became accustomed to that. One of the biggest obstacles is that when workers hear the word union, instead of being encouraged, they’re fearful. They think that, due to lack of education, that they don’t have the right to unionize in the workplace. But if they understood the First Amendment rights of the Constitution, they have freedom to petition, the freedom to protest, and concerted activity.
So, they always had the right to unionize, but it’s like sort of having a mouth with no teeth. So without collective bargaining, you really don’t have any teeth to bite down on anything and make it tangible. So, when the law was enacted and municipalities started to adopt it, it started to become real to a lot of workers. Now they have a chance to have a fair grieveable process and also a right for recognition.
So, it’s a cornerstone in which right now we have a collective bargaining task force in Newport News. It is the first Tidewater city to support collective bargaining. And so, based off of the heels of Alexandria, [in] Richmond, we are using those blueprints to establish collective bargaining in Newport News.
Daigon: Alexandria and Richmond were the first dominoes to fall.
Hollis: Exactly.
“It’s just a stark history of anti-collective bargaining laws, Jim Crow laws, and people became accustomed to that. One of the biggest obstacles is that when workers hear the word union, instead of being encouraged, they’re fearful. But if they understood the First Amendment rights of the Constitution, they have freedom to petition, the freedom to protest, and concerted activity.”
Daigon: You mentioned that workers were fearful of the union and I’m sure there were other obstacles as well. How did you overcome that obstacle in your drive and the other ones as well?
Hollis: One of the key elements of building mobility and power is educating workers about their labor rights, about their workplace policies. Really educating them that they do have a right to come together in concerted activity to organize their workplace. So, when they understood that and a lot of the reality came to them when they were getting fired and suspended, and we were coming in and representing them under the 14th amendment, their due process. And winning their jobs back, overturning disciplines, getting them back-pay wages due to the unfair policies. And that’s when they realized, I need a damn union.
Daigon: So, in other words, actions speak louder than words.
Hollis: Exactly.
Daigon: You won a three-year tentative collective bargaining agreement. What specifics in this agreement do you think will boost the workers?
Hollis: I think the fact that they have a contract just speaks volumes. You can have a good contract, a bad contract, a mediocre contract, but the fact that there’s an agreement between the municipality and the workforce is empowering. It’s not business as usual anymore. There are terms of a tentative agreement that both parties agree to in order to have a productive workforce with fairness and equity. And it allows the workers to have dignity and respect with their labor.
Daigon: It looks like over the course of a three-year agreement, the total wage increases are averaging over 20 percent and the average salary is going to be boosted to over $50,000 a year. Do I have the numbers right?
Hollis: You are exactly correct. I say I’ve looked at other contracts like the Teamsters, REA [Richmond Education Association], those other unions that are actually in Richmond, and I will say that hands down, RPS has the best contract out there. For a three-year period, they received a 22 percent raise increase. Yesterday, when we had the press conference, we agreed upon 23 percent. So 10 percent last year, 6 percent this year, and the last year will be 7 percent. So that’s the biggest wage increase that I’ve seen in any collective bargaining agreement.
Daigon: And when will the rank and file be voting on this for ratification?
Hollis: Within the next two weeks. I’m scheduling that for the end of the month. All of the members will be coming down to one location, the MLK school. [Ed.: The union members subsequently approved the deal.]
A lot of them were pretty much anti-union. We received calls from those individuals that stated, you know what, reinstating the Five showed me I need to join this union. And unions fight for workers. And those were some of the sentiments that were given to me early this morning. Just personal phone calls from workers giving me my flowers. And I’m just humbled. So, I see how it’s really affected the masses because their termination struck fear in a lot of drivers.
“I think that the sense of unity speaks volumes. Workers are organized, they can get things done. I have a metaphor I always use: An attack against one is an attack against all. When workers come together in solidarity over a struggle, it challenges everyone.”
Daigon: And for our readers, these five workers were fired for what reason?
Hollis: They were allegedly fired for a violation of state code 55, which is basically a strike code that states that two or three workers are gathered together in concerted activity for the purpose of work stoppage, they will be penalized to the degree, just paraphrasing, of loss of all benefits or immediate termination. They cannot work for municipal government for a 12-month minimum period of time.
Daigon: Obviously, getting them rehired was a major shot in the arm for you guys and the workers as well.
Hollis: Yes.
Daigon: What lessons do you think that these public employee unions who are trying to organize in purple and red states, can get from your drive?
Hollis: I think that the sense of unity speaks volumes. Workers are organized, they can get things done. I have a metaphor I always use: an attack against one is an attack against all. So we cannot allow our brothers and sisters in our union to fall prey or be victimized by the system that really doesn’t respect them outside of the laws that are created to keep workers held back. So when workers come together in solidarity over a struggle, it challenges everyone.
But when they have a strategic plan of action and they are well organized militantly, then they’re going to get some things done. They’re going to challenge the system without fear because they believe in their leadership.
Daigon: You touched on this already, but does MAROC plan to use this successful campaign, not only to organize other public employees in Virginia, but as part of the broader drive for LIUNA’s drive for 1 million members?
Hollis: I wholeheartedly agree with that. Right now, based on the RPS5 being reinstated, the success of contract negotiations, a lot of work that Keon and myself and the team has really done behind the scenes and on the front lines has been really galvanizing. I think that it shows a lot—the system will be fearful when workers challenge it.
And these five workers challenged the system. They are the first ones out of all RPS in the history of RPS to ever lose a job on termination and be reinstated. It has never been done. Unprecedented.
So, I think that the takeaway from this is you have to fight for justice.
At the end of the day, workers have a right to unionize. Municipal, private sector, it doesn’t matter. When you’re coming together to make changes on your job, it’s going to affect not only you, but your co-workers, your family, the community, and that’s when everybody pulls together. I think that there were a lot of elements that came together to make this very successful and it was a hell of a PR [public relations] campaign. Dubbing those five workers as the RPS5 was my first thought because it made me think about the Central Park 5. How those gentlemen were wrongfully accused of a crime they didn’t commit. And it just made me deja vu with these five.
They were charged with a crime they didn’t commit, but they fought for the justice they were seeking and it all came together in the end. So I think when you get the community and social organizations involved, when you get all your family members involved, even the children came out to speak at the school board meeting, how bad they missed their bus drivers. It’s when you do some galvanizing of the base, then you’re going to yield some results.
So, power always yields to pressure. And it was a hell of a pressure campaign to yield that RPS administrative school board power to come to the bargaining table in the end.
