Category: Labor and Workforce
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BBB Demise Is Also Labor-Rules Reprieve
by F. Vincent Vernuccio Yesterday, Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV, gave an early Christmas present to Senators Mark Warner, D-VA, and Tim Kaine, D-VA, by declaring he would not support the $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act (BBB). Virginia small businesses, job creators, and workers were wary of what the U.S. House passed in BBB, specifically…
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Now EMT Workers Are in Short Supply
by James A. Bacon Bedford County, an 800-square-mile county in Central Virginia, is theoretically staffed to operate six medic units. Based on call volume, the county could justify maintaining eight units, reports the News & Advance. But on most days one or two of the six are out of service because of insufficient staff to…
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A Sociological Mystery: Why Are Black Women Dropping Out of the Workforce?
by James A. Bacon Ever-alert to unexplained sociological phenomena, Bacon’s Rebellion has taken note of a just-published Brookings Institution article based on the November 2021 jobs report. Unemployment is declining for most major demographic groups — Whites, Asians and Hispanics, both men and women, and even for Black men. But the unemployment rate increased in November…
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Workplace Heat Rule Given Cold Shoulder
by Steve Haner First published this morning by Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Virginia’s Safety and Health Codes Board on Friday voted down a proposed workplace heat protection standard, strongly opposed by the state’s business community but ardently sought by organized labor and farmworker advocates. The Department of Labor and Industry (DOLI) was seeking…
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Will Election Fallout Extend to Local Union Push?
By F. Vincent Vernuccio Virginia’s new collective bargaining law is forcing local government officials to deal with a controversial issue fraught with potential errors and legal risks. If the 2021 election showed anything, it was that Virginia voters felt the Commonwealth was going in the wrong direction. The sweep of Republicans for governor, lieutenant governor,…
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How Team Northam Botched the Unemployment Insurance Crisis
by James A. Bacon By way of preface, let us acknowledge that managerial problems at the Virginia Employment Commission preceded the Northam administration. And let us acknowledge that the magnitude of the challenge in responding to the unemployment spike during the COVID-19 epidemic was unprecedented. It would not be fair to blame the entirety of…
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Is Virginia Exporting Its Human Capital?
by James A. Bacon Researchers at the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) are asking a question with profound implications for Virginia’s higher-education policy. Is Virginia exporting more college graduates than it is importing? The answer, conclude Tom Allison & Susan Hankins in the latest Insights post, is, “Maybe. Enough to get our…
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Local Collective Bargaining Off to Slow Start
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Although the alarm bells have sounded repeatedly on this blog, there has not been a rush to establish public employee bargaining in Virginia. Today, about a year and a half after the General Assembly enacted the authorizing law, and six months after it went into effect, only three jurisdictions have enacted ordinances…
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Stronger Teacher Unions = Weaker Parents
Allowing collective bargaining will put yet another special interest ahead of the parents who simply want a say in what is best for their children. by F. Vincent Vernuccio First published by Virginia Works and reprinted with the author’s permission. Virginia parents soon could lose even more control over their children’s education. Parents frustrated with school…
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Why Virginia Job Growth Lags Region, Nation
by Steve Haner “Virginia’s economic recovery continues to outpace the nation… Our unemployment rate remains well below the national average and has fallen consistently every month for the past fifteen months… I’m proud of our roaring economic growth…” So claimed Governor Ralph Northam (D) in a September 17 news release. It came just after Virginia’s…
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Virginia Job Growth Trails U.S. Averages
by A. Fletcher Mangum Virginia’s employment growth has been underperforming the national economy for quite some time. As shown in Figure 1, soon after the recovery from the Great Recession began in earnest in 2011 Virginia’s year-over-year growth in total employment uncharacteristically fell behind the national economy and even briefly went negative in 2014. Then…
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Behind the Labor-Shortage Headlines
by James A. Bacon The news is full of stories about labor shortages. The latest case in point, which prompted this column, is Virginia Mercury article focusing on the paucity of nurses. The author lists several plausible reasons to explain the deficit, from COVID-related burnout to a shortage of nursing school faculty. Similarly, Bacon’s Rebellion…
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VEC Made $930 Million in “Incorrect” Payments Last Year
by James A. Bacon Inundated by unemployment claims during the COVID-19-induced recession last year, the Virginia Employment Commission made an estimated $930 million in “incorrect” payments last year, according to an update by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. The magnitude of wasted dollars has gone largely unnoticed as the media and the Northam…
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Schools Desperately Short of Bus Drivers; Carpooling App Needed
by James C. Sherlock A Fairfax County Public Schools Twitter message August 19: “If you can walk with or drive your child (and perhaps a neighbor’s), please do. Also, we ask that you update your transportation status through your school, if you choose to not have your child take the bus.” WTOP reported that as…
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Local Unions Are Recognized Before Workers Vote?
by F. Vincent Vernuccio Local government leaders are negotiating with union executives who have not been officially recognized by public employees they claim to represent. Counties in northern Virginia are taking steps to allow public sector collective bargaining. But they are doing it with the support of union executives – not a groundswell of voter…