In a move that could impact the timing of the August primaries ahead of the November midterm elections, Brandon Jarvis at Virginia Scope reports that the Supreme Court of Virginia opted not to block a ruling by a Tazewell Circuit Court judge that prevents certification of last week’s redistricting referendum results.

The Supreme Court of Virginia has yet to rule on a separate case regarding the referendum it heard on Monday.

Below, I take a look at the growing unionization of Virginia campus dining workers employed by private companies.

And I share a real example of how collective bargaining worked out for Prince William County firefighters.

Want to get in touch, or have stories you want me to cover? Reply to this email or reach out to me directly at michaeloconnor@couriernewsroom.com.

Michael O’Connor

Reporter, Dogwood

Virginia State University workers, student allies, and organizers on campus. (Photo courtesy UNITE HERE Local 23)

I’ve spent the last several months reporting on public-sector unions and workers, but today, I have a look at the growing unionization of campus dining workers.

While these workers operate at public universities, they are employed by private companies the schools contract with.

Last month, campus dining workers at Virginia State University (VSU) and Norfolk State University went public about joining UNITE HERE Local 23, a union representing hospitality workers in Virginia and other states, including North Carolina, as well as Washington DC.

Since 2022, UNITE HERE Local 23 has organized about 1,500 campus dining workers at Virginia schools, including Virginia Commonwealth University, the College of William and Mary, and James Madison University, the union says.

“The union came into Virginia beginning with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in 2022, those workers negotiated a union contract with significant raises and benefits like good, affordable health insurance and a pension plan,” a union spokesperson told me in a statement. “They showed what was possible for workers in Virginia, and since then thousands more workers have joined them in unionizing.”

For some perspective on this growing movement, UNITE HERE Local 23 connected me with D’Ante “Deejay” Pulliam, who works at VCU and recently took a leave of absence to help with the union’s organizing efforts at Virginia State University.

I wanted to know what inspired Pulliam to get more involved with the union and how he goes about getting others to join him. He emphasized how life-changing having decent health insurance can be.

“I actually have been able to set doctor appointments to go get that checked out because I know that my insurance is going to be able to cover it,” Pulliam said of the benefits he gets with a union contract. “And I’m not going to have to give them my whole wallet just to make sure that I am physically and mentally okay.”

Richmond City Council Member Kenya Gibson penned an op-ed calling on Gov. Abigail Spanberger to sign the public-sector collective bargaining legislation.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week instructed department leaders to terminate most of the department’s collective-bargaining agreements, Erich Wagner at Defense One reports.

The libertarian think tank The Cato Institute details in a new study how immigrants in the US pay more in taxes than the average person. Here’s a thread breaking down the study’s findings.

Union firefighters rallying in Richmond last week. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood)

Too often, the conversation around collective bargaining deals with hypotheticals.

So it’s worth checking out this speech by Mitch Nason, the president of the Prince William Professional Firefighters, that he gave in Richmond last week.

Nason shares how his union was able to win its members’ improved hours, but still had to make compromises.

Before they won a union contract, Prince William firefighters saw their weekly hours bumped up from 48 hours to 56 hours. But once their new contract begins in July 2027, their weekly hours will go down not to the original 48 hours as the union would have liked, but to 50 hours.

Nason’s point was that despite what union opponents would have you believe, collective bargaining does not strip local governments of their power and doesn’t mean unions get whatever they want.

“We get to negotiate,” Nason said. “We get to sit at the table and ask for basic things.”

Author Barbara Kingsolver being honored by the Virginia Senate last week. (Michael O’Connor/Dogwood)

In 2024, the Virginia Senate passed a resolution honoring author and Washington County resident Barbara Kingsolver.

But it wasn’t until last week that Kingsolver was able to accept her honors in person.

Kingsolver won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023 for her novel Demon Copperhead.

“Barbara Kingsolver’s efforts as an author, as an active and engaged member of her Washington County community, and as a voice for Appalachia, have made an impact on countless lives and continue to bring great pride to the Commonwealth,” reads the resolution honoring her.