Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell says Gov. Abigail Spanberger told him Wednesday that she plans to veto legislation to expand collective bargaining rights to hundreds of thousands of public employees.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger plans to veto legislation to expand collective bargaining rights to hundreds of thousands of public employees in Virginia.
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell and a sponsor of the legislation said Spanberger told him Wednesday that she planned to veto the legislation. He said Spanberger said she supported collective bargaining, but not the way it would be implemented in the legislation before her.
Surovell called Spanberger’s decision to block the expansion of collective bargaining “disappointing” and “perplexing.”
“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,” Surovell said. “And I think we’ve kind of moved beyond those issues to treating our government workers with dignity.”
Speaking to reporters after a separate bill signing in Fairfax, Spanberger said she still supports expanding collective bargaining, but wants to get it right.
”Ultimately, it’s going to be about ensuring that I’m signing a bill that is something that I know that my administration can implement, implement well, and put into durable policy,” Spanberger said.
Demonstrators from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) were at the bill signing with signs urging Spanberger to sign the bill. They told Dogwood they were angry and disappointed about Spanberger’s plans to veto the legislation.
“Shame on her,” one said.
Spanberger said it was important to be able to give localities clarity on how the expansion of collective bargaining rights would impact them. Over a dozen already allow their local employees to collectively bargain, but some localities have been vocal about their opposition to the legislation while other local officials supported the bill Spanberger will veto.
She said she was still committed to signing some kind of bill on collective bargaining for public employees in the future.
“I look forward to working with a whole array of folks into the future to ensure that when I sign that bill, it is a durable bill that will change the lives of so many Virginians by giving them that collective voice, but also serving the very important shared priorities of, you know, continuing to strengthen our schools and our public safety, and the function of our local and state governments,” Spanberger said.
The General Assembly rejected substantial changes that Spanberger proposed to the bill that labor unions said weakened the legislation.
Surovell cited concerns from local governments about the bill as likely reasons Spanberger vetoed the legislation. But it’s not uncommon for local governments to raise issues about bills and it’s important to weed out legitimate concerns from the “typical complaining,” he said.
Over a dozen Virginia localities have adopted measures to allow collective bargaining for local public employees.
“It’s not that difficult if you want to do it,” Surovell said of collective bargaining. “But we have 420 local governments in the state and a lot of the small ones don’t want to be bothered with having to talk to their workers about how to treat them.”
This story has been updated to include Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s comments on the collective bargaining legislation.
