Newport News Education Association

The Newport News Education Association calls on Gov. Abigail Spanberger to honor her campaign promise to support collective bargaining rights for teachers & school staff, firefighters, police officers, city workers, and other Virginia public employees. These rights are fundamental to ensuring that public servants have a real voice in our working conditions and the resources that we need to serve our community effectively.
Teacher and staff working conditions are student learning conditions. When school workers have a real seat at the table through collective bargaining, we can advocate for things like smaller class sizes, more planning time, safer schools, and fair, consistent discipline—conditions that our students need and deserve.
The United Nations has long affirmed that the ability of workers to organize and bargain collectively is a human right. In the American South, bans on public sector collective bargaining are rooted in the legacy of Jim Crow, when such policies were used to suppress worker power and maintain inequality. Some Virginia mayors are shamefully perpetuating this inequality by attempting to block basic labor rights for their own citizens.
Virginia has an opportunity to move forward. We urge Governor Spanberger to act decisively to ensure that public servants are granted the rights and dignity that we deserve.
Sources:
https://www.ungeneva.org/en/about/topics/labour
https://www.epi.org/publication/public-sector-pay-gap-co-va/ https://pressbooks.library.virginia.edu/…/history-of…/; https://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/…/vol30/iss2/10/