LEESBURG, LOUDOUN JOIN TO ALLOW PUBLIC UNIONS The Loudoun County government voted to write an ordinance enabling collective bargaining among some county employees. Collective bargaining for state employees remains forbidden under the 1977 ban; the new law permits localities to… Read More ›
labor and unions
Electrifying America Like the New Deal
Editors’ Note: Reposted from The New York Times, May 1, 2021. Expenditures by the federal government are not necessarily expenses qua expenses but, rather, are often investments in the nation’s future prosperity, particularly those dedicated to children, families, education. Social Security… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
GMU FACULTY SUPPORTS ITS CUSTODIANS Professors at George Mason University in Fairfax are expressing solidarity with the custodial workers, who say that they were exposed to poor working conditions and have faced retribution for trying to organize. More than 220 people… Read More ›
Colloquy: Promote the General Welfare
Editors’ Note: This is the third in a series feature in which VF editors may join along with volunteer contributors to discuss a contemporary topic. This “real time” installment features Jim McCarthy, Frank Blechman, Barbara Levine, and Andrew Scalise. Our… Read More ›
Worker-Owned Businesses Compete
Editors’ Note: Excerpted from The New York Times, December 29, 2020. Worker owned businesses are by definition not socialism. Such cooperative enterprises are genetically democratic and antithetical to the corporatism that characterizes American business. The US boasts hundreds of cooperative-owned… Read More ›
VoxFairfax Colloquy #1
Editors’ Note: We are experimenting with a new feature, in which the VF editors, Jim McCarthy and Michael Fruitman, join with contributors, in this case Frank Blechman and Andrew Scalise, to discuss a topic in “real time.” Let us know… Read More ›
Briefly Noted . . .
SCHOOL SEGREGATION LONG GONE, RIGHT? RIGHT? According to a new report from VCU and Penn State, school segregation is getting worse in Virginia, not better. And one driving factor is segregation within school districts. The report calls on state leaders… Read More ›
Around the Novahood
LOUDOUN INVITES UNIONS In the footsteps of Portsmouth (see last week’s VoxFairfax, Brief Cases), the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has invited unions to speak with county employees as a first step toward unionizing. Prior state law prohibited union organizing… Read More ›
Brief Cases
MURDEROUS GANG WAR IN PWC Four Prince William County men killed by gunfire in 2019 were the random victims of a local “clique” of the criminal street gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), who carried out the fatal shootings “to further their… Read More ›
An Unseen and Overlooked Workforce
Editors’ Note: Reposted from NPR, September 17, 2020. The issue raises serious questions about a government policy created 82 years ago with good intentions versus contemporary knowledge and values. Can we do better? By Alina Selyukh Jerry D’Agostino had a… Read More ›