This story was originally published by Labor Notes.

Education unions just won a massive victory in the fight to bring collective bargaining rights to Virginia’s public sector. Workers at the Fairfax County Public Schools voted this week to unionize, creating a wall-to-wall union of 27,500 teachers, custodians, teaching assistants, bus drivers, and more.

The new bargaining unit is one of the largest K-12 unions on the East Coast, according to the National Education Association.

Fairfax County is in Northern Virginia, near Washington, D.C., and the Fairfax County school district is by far the largest in the state.

But many teachers, especially newer ones, live outside Fairfax County because housing there is too expensive. And “a lot of custodians do two or three jobs just to provide for their families,” said Ernesto Escalante, a building supervisor at Crestwood Elementary and an activist in the union drive.

Outlawed for Decades

Public sector collective bargaining has been outlawed in Virginia for decades. Unions were not illegal, but they had no bargaining rights, and had to rely on persuading school boards and legislators.

But in 2021, a new state law lifted the ban. The law, a compromise measure negotiated among not-very-labor-friendly Democratic legislators, didn’t mandate public sector bargaining rights, but instead established a mechanism for counties and municipalities to choose to enable collective bargaining.

Local governments can reject collective bargaining altogether, or pick and choose which workers they will bargain with. They can also decide what they will bargain over.

So far, the Firefighters (IAFF) have won five contracts, as well as Prince William County teachers and support staff with a National Education Association (NEA) affiliate. Richmond schools workers have also organized, as have others. But in Virginia Beach, where some city workers started organizing with the United Electrical Workers before the law was passed, the city council recently rejected an IAFF petition for collective bargaining.

The union behind this week’s big win, Fairfax Education Unions, is a coalition of the local affiliates of the two national teacher unions, the NEA and the AFT. Rather than compete to represent the workforce, the two unions banded together.

After the school board unanimously passed a collective bargaining ordinance, the union launched a petition to demonstrate support for a union drive. Activists and organizers then spent the spring signing up members on union authorization cards, submitting them on May Day.

The election was held at the beginning of June. Eighty percent of the “operational” workers and 96 percent of the “instructional” unit voted yes.

Reluctant at First

How did they win? “On-the-ground organizing got us there,” says Fran Lewandoski, a school social worker with 20 years in. “Person-to-person organizing, recruiting interested people, getting leaders in buildings, providing them with guidance.”

Escalante said that while many custodians knew that their conditions weren’t great, at first they were reluctant to talk about changing them. He experienced a breakthrough when they dug into an issue specific to their work: air conditioning.

The school district turns off the conditioning during the summers — but the custodial staff is still working to clean, paint, and do bigger maintenance on the buildings. By focusing on an issue that workers really cared about, he could get the message across: “If we work together, we can change our working conditions.”

Many people had little knowledge about what it would mean to have a union, or what it would take to get there. For activists like Escalante and Lewandoski, a big part of their organizing work was sharing information about the process and fielding questions.

The union’s petition was a “vehicle for having conversations,” according to Lewandoski, and an opportunity to talk people through the many questions they had.

What’s Next?

After a short celebration, activists are getting to work to prepare for bargaining. Lewandoski and other social workers and school psychologists are meeting next week to discuss priorities for their titles. The union also plans to distribute a bargaining survey.

Escalante says he is excited to advocate for custodian issues at the bargaining table, while working alongside other workers in the school system: “It feels good to work with the teachers — to know they have our backs.”

Lewandoski believes there’s a chance here for real change in people’s work lives. The union drive “elevates the voice of the rank-and-file employees, and that’s a really exciting opportunity,” she said. “It means a lot when people have a say in how their work is structured and carried out.”

This story was originally published by Labor Notes.

The entirety of the West Virginia 2024 football roster is taking shape.

The Mountaineers have welcomed 21 new scholarship players into the program with 16 new freshmen enrolling along with five transfers in time for the summer.

That’s a lot of incoming talent that the Mountaineers will be able to sort through in the summer and fall camp in order to see how they will potentially fit into the picture this fall.

From a high school perspective the program has added a quarterback, two running backs, four wide receivers, three offensive linemen, one defensive lineman, two linebackers and three defensive backs. Each of those enrolled at the start of the summer session.

The list of high school additions reads as Upper Marlboro (Md.) Wise 2024 quarterback Khalil Wilkins, Gahanna (Oh.) Lincoln 2024 running back Diore Hubbard, Aiken (S.C.) Midland Valley 2024 running back Traevon Dunbar, Melbourne (Fla.) Central Catholic 2024 wide receiver Ric’Darious Farmer, Philadelphia (Pa.) St. Joseph’s 2024 wide receiver Brandon Rehmann, Jefferson (W.Va.) 2024 wide receiver Keyshawn Robinson, Princeton (W.Va.) 2024 wide receiver Dom Collins, Olney (Md.) Good Counsel 2024 offensive lineman Kyle Altuner, Sterling (Il.) 2024 offensive lineman Lucas Austin, Pickerington (Oh.) Pickerington Central 2024 offensive lineman Justin Terry, Midlothian (Va.) Manchester 2024 defensive end Makai Byerson, Akron (Oh.) Hoban 2024 linebacker Rickey Williams, Barboursville (W.Va.) Cabell Midland 2024 linebacker Curtis Jones, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Bishop Canevin 2024 safety Jason Cross, Dunnellon (Fla.) 2024 athlete Chris Henry and Waldorf (Md.) St. Charles 2024 defensive back Keyon Washington.

When it comes to transfers, the Mountaineers have all five of the new names on campus in Dodge City C.C. (Kan.) tight end Gregory Genross from the junior college ranks and four other traditional transfers in Charlotte cornerback Dontez Fagan, Jacksonville State safety Kekoura Tarnue, Mississippi State wide receiver Justin Robinson and BYU quarterback Ryder Burton.

Like most spots, some of those are expected to contribute immediately while others will need to develop further in order to make their marks on the field.

Still, another off-season with the Mountaineers getting their entire class on campus.

RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia War Memorial in Richmond is a beautiful and solemn place for silence speaks for itself. But hidden deep inside this landmark fresh, voices are adding new chapters to a defining moment of World War II.

As curators and archivists were preparing the D-Day Plus 80 exhibit, the team made a discovery locked away for a quarter of a century.

“Almost nobody has heard these stories,” Virginia War Memorial Executive Director Clay Mountcastle said. ”This is the actual history to tell you what it was like and what they experienced.”

Mountcastle said interviews with 43 veterans of the Normandy invasion are now playing for the very first time.

“It is incredibly riveting to hear what they went through,” Mountcastle said. “So it was amazing to us. It kind of was this moment where we realized ‘Oh my goodness. Look what we have. We have to share this with everybody.’”

The recordings include U.S. Army nurse 1st Lt. Ruth Puryear.

“Then the commanding officer came in with a radio. We heard Eisenhower’s speech to the troops. The invasion of France had begun,” the Richmond was recorded saying.

U.S. Navy sailor StM1c Jerry Gaiter from Richmond, who was serving on a destroyer off the coast of D-Day, provided another voice from the past.

“Finally about noon they called us in for bombardment and we went in and bombarded the beach,” he said. “It was pretty rough that first day.”

The raw conversations were recorded in the late 1990s and early 2000s as part of the Virginians at War series used in high schools across the Commonwealth.

PFC Arthur “Art” Schintzel with the 1st Infantry from Williamsburg was wounded 11 times on D-Day.

“The ramps went down and the bullets came in,” Schintzel said. “It wasn’t long before I received a bullet wound in my left forearm.”

“They were aiming at your body and legs and all so they could put you out of commission,” PFC Henry Myers from Halifax remembered. “As it went on through the day, I passed out I lost so much blood.”

The unedited portions of the interviews were sitting in storage waiting to be found. Hours of stories from soldiers, sailors, nurses, pilots and paratroopers detailing June 6th, 1944 and the battles beyond have been digitized.

“That is when I saw the carnage on the beach what it looked like. The landing craft. Two tanks on fire. Bodies washing in the surf,” SSgt Bob Slaughter from Roanoke said in one recording.

1st Lt. Evelyn Kowalchuck recalled sleeping in a foxhole on Omaha Beach. The U.S. Army Nurse was haunted by what she witnessed trying to save lives.

“We had at times what we call sucking wounds. Chest wounds. Or head wound. When we came home to say England for the night very little was said,” said Kowalchuck. “We just laid there and cried. Something that most of us did.”

It is estimated only 5% of the Memorial’s D-Day interviews were ever viewed.

Glider Pilot Guy DeGenaro, from Richmond, survived delivering infantry into the heart of German-held territory. Fellow pilots weren’t so lucky.

“For a minute or so you don’t know if you’re going to be alive or dead,” Degenaro said. “That was something that stayed with me for the rest of my life.”

Memorial archivist Sylvia Marshall called these rare recordings audio and video a treasure.

“The fact that oral histories are so rarely linear you’re getting a more personal perspective of that day,” Marshall said. “And they were able to really speak to their experiences and speak to this powerful moment of history.”

T/Sgt. Raymond Mays remembers losing a good friend in the hedgerows.

“Bless his heart. A week or ten days later he lost his life,” the Richmond man said. “That was the end of our friendship at that time. He was a great man. A great man.”

Director of Exhibits and Collections Jesse Smith said preserving the stories was priority one.

“Some of these interviews give accounts like none other,” Smith said. “When we converted them to digital some of them were choppy. They would skip. So you could tell the tape was starting to break down.”

Had the recordings been damaged beyond repair, these tales could not be retold.

“Unfortunately when our veterans pass away they take their stories with them,” Smith said.

“Sadly, none of these veterans are still with us today,” Mountcastle added. “That underscores just how important it is to capture those stories when you can.”

By safeguarding and sharing these memories the legacy of these eyewitnesses endures.

“What a sight. Everybody shooting around you. Shells landing around you. Other small boats blowing up,” U.S. Navy Sailor Gerald Thomspson, from Staunton, said.

“This is invaluable to understanding our history. Not just as Virginians but as Americans. When you hear somebody tell their story it’s like they’re still with us,” Mountcastle said. ”There is no substitute.”

They are new voices from Normandy and stories from D-Day that echo across the decades.

The “D+80” exhibit is open to the public at the Virginia War Memorial. Admission is free.