“Fairfax County, the Virginia suburbs of DC, is the 5th richest county in America. However, most public employees say that they can no longer afford to live in the communities where they teach. This has helped motivate many public employees, particularly after the pandemic, to get involved…
“The union election is the result of decades of organizing. For decades, collective bargaining has been outlawed for public employees in Virginia. However, as the state of Virginia began shifting more Democratic, unions began to heavily push the Democratic Party in Virginia to allow collective bargaining rights. In 2020, former Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill allowing municipalities to grant collective bargaining rights to public employees in Virginia. Since then, tens of thousands of public employees across Virginia have joined the labor movement, making it the fastest growing state for unions in the country.”
More than one in five workers in the South are paid less than $15/hour: Share of workers paid less than $15 by region, 2021
Sources: EPI/CPS