Some public employees in Virginia have begun union contract negotiations over wages, benefits and other working conditions for the first time in more than four decades, the result of a 2020 state law that helped ignite the labor movement in what has long been an anti-union state.
On Tuesday, Alexandria’s City Council agreed to fund the first collective bargaining agreement since a 1977 state supreme court ruling banned those union contracts. Among other things, the deal with city police employees increases starting salaries from $54,698 to $61,504 and offers comp time pay for designated holidays.
Firefighters and paramedics in nearby Fairfax County started along the path of contract negotiations last week when they overwhelmingly voted to unionize, while other localities and school boards — mostly in Northern Virginia — have either adopted collective bargaining ordinances that lay the foundation for such talks or are in the process of doing so.
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“It’s an extraordinary moment,” said David E. Broder, president of the Service Employees International Union local that represents Fairfax and Loudoun general employees. “Workers across Virginia are organizing every day to win the right to a union and to win a union election.”
Virginia’s labor movement has long been anemic under the state’s nearly 75-year-old “right to work” law, which allows workers to opt out of paying union dues even if they’re covered by a union contract — making it difficult for those unions to...
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