Key Points

• Statewide collective bargaining legislation is poised to become law. A pending bill on Governor Abigail Spanberger’s desk would establish a comprehensive framework extending mandatory collective bargaining rights to public sector employees across the Commonwealth. Under current law, localities may “opt in” and adopt ordinances permitting collective bargaining in a given county, city or town.
• The legislation mirrors the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) in certain respects. Like its federal counterpart, the proposed Virginia law would require public employers to bargain in good faith with unions over wages, hours and other working conditions.
• A recent arbitration decision signals how the legislation, if passed, may be interpreted. In a first-of-its-kind ruling under a local-option ordinance, an arbitrator found that a school district unlawfully refused to rehire a teachers’ union president because she engaged in union activities — applying NLRA principles to Virginia’s local framework.

Virginia is poised to adopt a new, comprehensive framework that would extend mandatory collective bargaining rights to public sector employees across the Commonwealth.

Governor Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign recently passed legislation that would, in effect, require statewide collective bargaining — a major expansion from the current local-option framework.

The legislation’s new framework would take effect July 1, 2028.

Background

Virginia has historically...

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