Portsmouth became the first city in the region to allow collective bargaining for public employees in 2023. Nearly three years later, city council voted unanimously Tuesday to implement rules to make those negotiations possible.
The new ordinance establishes a framework in the city code that creates a path for city employees — including police, firefighters and paramedics – to negotiate pay, benefits and employment conditions.
It also gives them chance to collaborate directly with decision makers and shape strategies, said Tiffany Stuart, EMS lieutenant and the president of IAFF Local 539, which is Portsmouth’s Professional Firefighters and Paramedic Association.
“It will allow the people who deliver Portsmouth's services to be a part of the conversation about how that gets done, instead of simply being told after the fact,” she said.
People who work on the frontlines of responding to emergencies know what their departments need and what can be cut to improve service, Stuart said, adding the city is still several steps away from having a union contract.
Unions representing public employees in other localities, including Richmond, Roanoke and Augustus County, showed up to the meeting to voice their support — and concerns.
The ordinance applies to uniformed employees of the Police Department below the rank of Lieutenant, uniformed employees of the Fire Department below the rank of Captain and “all other City employees.” Chris Hollis with Laborers International of North America, a national labor union, said the unspecified third group gave him pause.
“I'm looking at only three bargaining units, and what it does to us is sort of pits the third ‘other’ group against each other,” he said, noting that different types of workers, such as laborers and clerics, need their own seat at the table to advocate for different needs.
“Identify other people instead of having a third group called ‘others,’ because these workers deserve more respect than being called ‘other,’” he said.
Portsmouth is the eighth locality in Virginia to allow its public employees to collectively bargain since 2020, when the state eased a decades-old prohibition on public sector bargaining and left the decision of whether local employees could negotiate collective contracts up to local governments.
