University of Virginia campus workers gathered in Charlottesville Saturday, calling on lawmakers to include them in Virginia’s collective bargaining legislation. WMRA’s Anjoleigh Schindler reports.
[Ambient sound: crowd energy]
GABRIEL COSTELLO: The bosses want to divide us up by category, by race, by sex, by where we work and what we do. Is it going to work?
CROWD: No!
Dozens of workers and community members gathered at Charlottesville Middle School Saturday, kicking off what organizers say will be a statewide push for collective bargaining rights for higher education employees.
Graduate Instructor Gabriel Costello says without bargaining protections, many campus workers struggle to make ends meet.
COSTELLO: I remember first of all being like, ‘Wow, $30,000 as a graduate stipend—that's so impressive.’ And then immediately coming here and realizing that I could barely pay my bills, living paycheck to paycheck, constantly having $20 in my checking account. It really bummed me out.
The legislation would expand collective bargaining rights to state employees across Virginia. But campus workers were removed from the House version of the bill, while home care workers were excluded from the Senate proposal.
Organizers say university leaders lobbied lawmakers behind closed doors to carve higher education employees out.
United Campus Workers of Virginia member Ida Hoequist says now that both House and Senate bills have crossed over, potential changes could come soon.
IDA HOEQUIST: Currently both bills have done crossover. … We are anticipating that the movement, if there is any, will be in the appropriations committees … it’ll be happening pretty quickly.
Speakers also tied the issue to housing affordability in Charlottesville. Union member and UVA alum Daniel Carmelo said many university employees can’t afford to live in the city.
DANIEL CARMELO: They can’t afford to live inside Charlottesville. They have to live out in the country and commute, and that’s a huge burden on them.
Additional town halls are planned at other Virginia universities next week.
Full disclosure, Schindler is employed by AdviseVA, a program partially funded by UVa.
