Where can public sector employees collectively bargain in Virginia?

Local public sector collective bargaining is slowly gathering steam across Virginia, with a majority of the most populous localities looking into developing agreements and in many cases signing off on proposals.

Richmond City Council voted Monday for an ordinance to allow collective bargaining with most city employees in what is only the latest success for labor advocates in a wave of local organizing and resolutions allowing for such agreements.

The ordinance — which creates bargaining units for police, fire, and emergency personnel, as well as municipal labor and trade workers, professional workers, and administrative and technical staff — was finalized last week after months of negotiations between the council, Mayor Levar Stoney and pro-union municipal employees.

Collective bargaining agreements, or CBAs, allow workers to negotiate as a group on wage contracts, hours, and benefits.

Similar resolutions and movements have been taking place all over the commonwealth over the past year in the wake of a 2020 law granting local governments and school boards authority to allow collective bargaining.

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