To the editor:

I am writing in response to the article titled “City Council to vote on revised collective bargaining ordinance in April,” published in the March 19 Alexandria Times. After I read this, I wanted to say how appreciative I am that changes are happening.

It is important to make the employees feel as if they have more of a support system. As Virginia is turning into a more employee friendly state, the smaller changes that are being made will turn into something bigger and create an impact. There were a couple of quotes in the article that I wanted to emphasize.

One of the quotes stated that, “The amended ordinance now proposes five bargaining units that encompass: police, fire and emergency medical services; labor and trades; professional and technical; administrative; and clerical. Previously, the ordinance covered four bargaining units.”

This is important because many of the workers all fit into those bargaining units, those people make up a huge part of our community. Now that they have safer conditions, it will make the community an even more tight-knit place.

The second quote that I believe needed to be emphasized is, “It can’t just be about wages and benefits. It has to be about having a meaningful chance to present issues of safety, to present issues of discipline to make sure everyone’s getting their fair shake.”

This is exactly the way I felt about the article, it has much more meaning than wage and benefits, this is ensuring safety and creating better work environments and a better quality of life. Overall, I wanted to respond to this article because I thought that it was very well done and valuable.

-Kennedy Bacak, Alexandria