Members of the General Assembly are considering an effort to overturn Virginia's ban on allowing government workers to engage in collective bargaining.
The history of why Virginia banned public sector workers from engaging in collective bargaining is a painful one, says Delegate Kathy Tran, a Democrat from Fairfax County.
"In 1946, the General Assembly banned the state from recognizing public employee unions after Black nurses organized at the UVA hospital," Tran explains. "So, make no mistake, Virginia's longtime ban on public sector collective bargaining is a legacy of Jim Crow."
Now, she has a bill to repeal the prohibition. The Senate version of the bill was introduced by Majority Leader Scott Surovell.
"I think a lot of people appreciate the sacrifice that people make when they choose to work for the government as opposed to being in the private sector," he says. "So, what we are talking about here is the firefighters who save our homes, educators who teach our kids. We're talking about the police who keep us safe. We're talking about the people who helped us negotiate the pandemic just recently and didn't really have a choice about whether or not they went to work or not."
Back in 2020, Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill that would allow for some local government employees to engage in collective bargaining, but that’s only if the local Board of Supervisors or City Council approves. This bill would eliminate that requirement and give workers the right to make that decision for themselves.
Governor Glenn Youngkin's office said he won't support the effort, arguing it would "threaten the funding and delivery of critical local services and will collectively cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year."
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
