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Great video from VPFF

Wanted to share a quick video the VPFF put together about House Bill 1129 and the fight to preserve retirement security for fire fighters, teachers, police and correctional officers:

Please take a moment to send a message to your Senator urging them to oppose House Bill 1129.

Crossover

It’s here: the official midway point of the 2012 General Assembly session.

Here is a quick update on the session up to this point and what we can expect in the final 25 days.

First things first, the bills we need to focus on:

Protect Retirement Security for Fire Fighters, Teachers, Correctional Officers

The Virginia Retirement System offers our teachers, fire fighters, and correctional officers a fair and affordable pension that allows the Commonwealth to recruit and retain the best and brightest to public service.

Take Action- Contact your Senator

Maintain workers’ compensation benefits for shipyard, dock workers, and construction workers

Those who work on the docks and shipyards in Hampton Roads do extremely dangerous and important work that promotes our economy and national security. They deserve access to the same workers’ compensation benefits as other Virginia workers. 

Take Action- Contact your Senator

Protect Job Security for Teachers

Attracting and retaining skilled teachers has an enormous impact on students and the quality of their education. Essential to recruiting and keeping good teachers is offering them fair pay and a secure job. This means protecting educators from arbitrary dismissals fueled by nepotism, cronyism, or personal conflicts.

Take Action- Contact your Senator

Bills that passed both Chambers:

HB33/SB242- Open Contracting Act

Attacks fair wages, quality training, and safety standards in public construction contracts. Prohibits the use of project labor agreements which are a valuable tool that creates accountability on megaprojects where millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.

How did my representatives vote?

HB9/SB1- Voter ID Bill

Makes the fundamental right of voting more difficult and effectively disenfranchises over 600,000 Virginians who do not have proper identification required by the new law. 

How did my representatives vote?

Legislative Update

Lt. Governor Bill Bolling cast the tie-breaking vote to prohibit the use of project labor agreements on construction projects where state money is used.

This bill is modeled from Koch Brother-sponsored ALEC legislation. This vote had nothing to do with the merits of project labor agreements and everything to do with paying back corporate donors. When asked on the House floor, the chief patron of the bill was unable to clearly explain a PLA, only that she wanted them prohibited.

We’d like to thank those House Delegates and Senators who stood up for workers and communities by defending the safety, training and wage standards that project labor agreements guarantee. As we have seen, PLAs are a valuable tool that creates accountability on megaprojects where millions of taxpayer dollars are at stake.

Please take this opportunity to inform your members who stood with them by downloading and distributing this report card on HB33/SB242.

There is little doubt we are seeing the results of not having a firewall in the Senate to prevent anti-worker legislation from making it through the General Assembly.  We need to make sure our members know who stands up for working families in Richmond this session.

Virginia AFL-CIO Endorses Tim Kaine for U.S. Senate

On Sunday, the Virginia AFL-CIO COPE voted to unanimously endorse Tim Kaine for United States Senator.

“Particularly during a time of economic distress, working men and women need a Senator who understands the very real challenges they face in their daily lives,” Virginia AFL-CIO President Doris Crouse-Mays. “On issues that matter: creating jobs, making quality health care affordable and accessible, and investing in infrastructure and public education, Tim Kaine is committed to strengthening our economy so it works for working families.”

Tim Kaine respects the freedom to form unions and bargain for middle-class living standards and understands the struggles of working people. He believes in finding common ground to solve our nation’s problems and is a fine candidate for the United States Senate.

He will likely face former Governor and ex-Senator George Allen in one of the most important Senate races of 2012.

Curious where George Allen stands on our issues? Please take a moment to read this Alexandria Connection article, “Allen Declares War on Unions.”

2012 Legislative Conference

Sunday’s program featured remarks from Delegate and Hampton Federation of Teachers President Jeion Ward, House Minority Leader Delegate David Toscano, Senate Democratic Leader Dick Saslaw and our General Counsel Gary Kendall.  Our guests’ speeches were followed by updates from President Doris Crouse-Mays and Secretary-Treasurer C. Ray Davenport on the General Assembly session.

On Monday, nearly 200 delegates visited the state capitol and lobbied their state representatives on issues ranging from retirement security for our public employees, workers’ compensation, public education, project labor agreements and protecting the right to vote.

Delegates to the conference bounced from floor to floor, hitting one lobbying appointment after another to reach out to their local legislators.  At noon when both chambers went into session, we were recognized on the House floor by our union sister Delegate Jeion Ward and in the Senate by Senator Donald McEachin.

Photo credit: Helen Pryor, NFT 4261

The conference was a great chance to come together to advocate on important issues that impact our members. Thank you again for making it a success.

Protect the Vote Rally

We joined our coalition partners for a massive morning rally to protect voting rights. We were proud to stand side by side with our community allies with the message, voting is a right, not a privilege and it must be protected.

This session there are a lot of bills that would make it harder to vote and would disproportionately impact people of color, students, low income people, our seniors and disabled citizens. These laws are a solution in the search for a problem.  Patrons of these bills have been unable to point to a single instance of documented voter fraud, yet continue to pursue legislation that would disenfranchise over 600,000 Virginians.

We strongly oppose these misguided efforts. Our democracy is healthier when more people participate in the process. We ask legislators to remember that people died for the right to vote and fight to protect it.

Resources:

Great, short video explaining Voter ID Laws:

Virginia Fact Sheet