UGH – I mean, if Gov. Spanberger had problems with this legislation, why didn’t she and her team work them out during the 2026 General Assembly session? Because the fact is, both the State Senate and House of Delegates are controlled by *her party*, so what the heck happened with this exactly? Anyway, it’s not making powerful General Assembly Democrats happy; for instance, see here, as VA Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell – a strong backer and patron of this legislation – calls “Spanberger’s decision to block the expansion of collective bargaining ‘disappointing’ and ‘perplexing'”, adding, “The existing ban on collective bargaining for state and local workers—it has its roots in Byrd Machine-era conspiracies about Jews, Marxists and the NAACP…And I think we’ve kind of moved beyond those issues to treating our government workers with dignity.”
In sum, this veto – plus the way it came about – are very, very disappointing. So now, Republicans and anti-labor forces are celebrating their victory, while of course not giving Spanberger any credit (presumably, they still think she’s a far-left Marxist blah blah blah), while Spanberger risks alienating her own party and progressive, labor, etc. allies. Needless to say, that is NOT a winning formula, either substantively or politically, and really doesn’t bode well for Spanberger’s single, four-year term as governor – or for her future political prospects, whether US Senate, Vice President or President – if it continues. So let’s hope it doesn’t continue for many reasons…
P.S.: To paraphrase what one Virginia Democratic politico told me, Spanberger fundamentally doesn’t understand labor, or how the legislative process works, also is incapable of working with others, plus convinces herself she’s right digs in.
P.P.S. I asked one VA Democratic legislator, “Did anything like this ever happen when McAuliffe or Northam were governor?” The answer: NO. Also, I’m told that since 2000, only 8 Democratic bills have been vetoed by a Democratic Governor; Spanberger is at 7 and counting after a few months in office…
Gov. Spanberger Betrays More Than Half a Million Public Service Workers By Vetoing Historic Collective Bargaining Legislation
Governor Vetoes Most Significant Win for Affordability Passed During the Legislative Session After Gutting the Bill and Stripping Workers of their Right to Negotiate a Meaningful Contract
RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition, which collectively represents hundreds of thousands of workers across the Commonwealth, today issued the following joint statement in response to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s betrayal of half a million of Virginia’s public service workers — including teachers, firefighters, home care workers, state workers, county workers, city workers, and some higher ed workers — by expressing her plan to veto historic legislation that would have allowed workers to collectively bargain for fair wages, benefits and working conditions:
“Shame. Governor Abigail Spanberger today betrayed half a million of Virginia’s public service workers by going back on her campaign promise to support collective bargaining rights for the people who keep our Commonwealth and communities running every day. Instead of aligning herself with General Assembly Democrats who unanimously supported this bill, Spanberger instead vetoed the bill just as her predecessor Glenn Youngkin did, sending Virginia workers the crystal clear message that they are no better off than they were under a Republican governor. Many workers were excited by her promise to finally give them a voice on the job, and are now left questioning why she has left them behind.
“It is Orwellian for the governor to suggest that she supports collective bargaining rights while introducing a version of the bill that delayed extending those rights to local workers until the next decade, inserted a killswitch into the bill that would have effectively allowed a future governor to end collective bargaining without a single vote from the General Assembly, and took workers’ rights in Virginia backwards by weakening existing collective bargaining agreements and reducing worker protections across the commonwealth. To then hide behind local politicians who are scared to sit down with their own workers, instead of acknowledging the many local elected officials who called on her to sign the bill and the half a million public service workers whose lives could have been made better by this bill, is cowardly. The Governor thinks she knows what is best for workers, and that is precisely the problem. She is not listening to workers.
“Virginia’s ban on collective bargaining is rooted in the efforts of Black hospital workers to organize the University of Virginia Hospital in the 1940s. Until 2020, Virginia was one of only three states with a blanket ban on collective bargaining, with the other two being North Carolina and South Carolina. It is shameful that the governor turned her back on an opportunity to undo this remaining legacy of Jim Crow in Virginia.
“The right to collectively bargain is foundational to all other workers’ rights. To be clear: in the middle of an affordability crisis, the governor has denied half a million public service workers the freedom to bargain for a living wage, affordable health care, and safe workplaces.
“Working families thank General Assembly Democrats, especially the legislation’s patrons Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and House Democratic Caucus Chair Kathy Tran, who have stood with and fought alongside Virginia’s workers.”
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Authorized by the Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition, which comprises Virginia AFL-CIO; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American Federation of Teachers; American Federation of Teachers-American Association of University Professors; Communications Workers of America (CWA); SEIU Virginia 512; Virginia Education Association (VEA); Virginia Professional Fire Fighters (VPFF); UNITE HERE; and United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 400. The coalition collectively represents hundreds of thousands of Virginia workers.
From Progress Virginia:
Photos of SEIU Workers outside Spanberger’s bill signing today
This is a typical VA GOP response to Gov. Spanberger vetoing the collective bargaining bill – they give her absolutely ZERO credit for doing so. In short, Spanberger got the worst of all worlds politically – labor & the Dem base angry, while not winning over any Rs.
Virginia AFL-CIO Statement on Governor Spanberger’s Veto of Collective Bargaining Legislation
RICHMOND, VA – Today, Governor Abigail Spanberger turned her back on working people across the Commonwealth by vetoing legislation that would have finally guaranteed public sector workers the right to collectively bargain.
This veto is a devastating betrayal to the hundreds of thousands of public employees who have spent years, and in many cases decades, fighting for a seat at the table. Teachers. Firefighters. Home care workers. State employees. Public servants who are the pillars of our communities and who keep Virginia running through crisis after crisis, only to be told yet again that their voices do not matter.
Virginia’s labor movement will not forget this moment.
Governor Spanberger campaigned publicly and privately on promises to affordability, to support working families and respect workers’ rights. We all took those promises seriously. Because of that, we believed we finally had a Governor who understood the dignity of work and the importance of collective bargaining rights.
Instead, when presented with the opportunity to make history and deliver on those promises, she chose to side with fear, political calculation, business, and the same anti-worker arguments that have been used for generations to deny workers power in Virginia.
What makes this veto even more shameful is that the Virginia General Assembly stood firm with us, while she fought against.
Even after Governor Spanberger attempted to weaken and gut the legislation through a substitute, Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate unanimously rejected those changes and sent the bill back to her desk in its original form. They did the right thing. They listened to workers. They honored their commitments. And they showed courage in the face of immense political pressure.
The Virginia AFL-CIO thanks Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, Delegate Kathy Tran, and every member of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses who stood shoulder to shoulder with working people in this fight. However, despite all the good work they did, the Governor’s veto of this bill will truly create an existential crisis for the party’s brand both nationally and in Virginia.
This legislation was not radical. It was not unreasonable. It simply would have guaranteed public employees the basic freedom to negotiate over wages, benefits, and working conditions — rights already enjoyed by workers in much of the country.
For generations, Virginia’s ban on public sector collective bargaining has been a stain on our Commonwealth and deeply rooted in a history of denying workers, particularly Black workers, power and dignity on the job. Workers have waited 78 years for Virginia to move forward. Today, Governor Spanberger chose to drag Virginia backward. Every public worker in Virginia will remember who stood with them and who abandoned them when it mattered most.
Let us be absolutely clear: this fight is not over. Working people built this movement long before this Governor took office, and this veto will not end it.
The Virginia AFL-CIO remains unwavering in our commitment to winning full collective bargaining rights for every worker in the Commonwealth. We will continue organizing. We will continue mobilizing. We will continue holding elected officials accountable regardless of party or title.
Workers deserved courage from this Governor. Instead, they got a veto.
And Virginia workers will not forget it.
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