Richmond— Virginia is slowly becoming a better place for working families, thanks to several major union victories by both public- and private-sector workers. Last year’s historic union contract win for Richmond City workers gave workers the ability to improve their pay, benefits, and working conditions amidst a growing cost-of-living crisis for low- and middle-income workers. Now, Delegate Kathy Tran has announced plans to re-introduce a bill in the next General Assembly session that would allow state employees to collectively bargain. Delegate Tran introduced the same bill in the 2025 session of the General Assembly, where it was passed by the full body and then vetoed by Governor Glenn Youngkin. 

National studies show that unions offer working people a path to financial well-being and help reduce the racial wealth gap. Comparative studies on public sector workers in different states show a huge reduction in the public sector pay gap in places where public sector workers are allowed to collectively bargain. Richmond city workers, long denied those basic union protections, have now been able to collectively bargain for more than a year and have seen pay raises and benefits come as a result.  Those benefits, however, are still denied to state employees, who lack the protections that come with collective bargaining and as a consequence, can struggle to meet their basic needs. Many state employees work without access to paid time off for illnesses or emergencies, and lack a variety of other basic worker protections that their public-sector colleagues who work directly for the city now enjoy.

“Workers across Virginia have already shown how collective bargaining leads to better pay, benefits, and working conditions,” said LaTwyla Mathias, Executive Director of Progress Virginia. “It’s unacceptable that state workers, many of whom keep our communities running, are still denied these basic protections. Collective bargaining is a powerful tool to close the racial wealth gap and ensure that all workers can support their families and live with dignity. It’s time for Virginia’s leaders to stop playing politics with people’s livelihoods and extend this fundamental right to all public workers. We’re proud to stand with workers across the Commonwealth who are demanding the freedom to organize, negotiate, and thrive.

Background:

• Virginia is one of twelve states where state employees are not permitted to collectively bargain. 
• Collective bargaining is the process of working people coming together through their unions to negotiate contracts for pay, benefits, and safety policies. This process supports workers in closing wage gaps, allows workers to better advocate for work-life balance, and allows for more opportunities for the working class to build wealth. 
• From the Economic Policy Institute, 3/14/2022 (written before Virginia public sector workers had won the right to unionize): “States where teachers and school staff, bus drivers, firefighters, police, and other local government workers have stronger collective bargaining rights have smaller gaps between these workers’ pay and the pay of private-sector workers with similar educational attainment, age, state of residence, and hours worked. States like Colorado and Virginia, where bargaining rights have been weak or nonexistent, have lower union membership and larger public-sector pay gaps than states with strong bargaining rights”
• The Commonwealth Institute recently published a new study suggesting that allowing collective bargaining could help Virginia solve several longstanding problems with its state workforce, including retention and more equitable compensation.