On Wednesday morning, I dropped my daughter off at daycare and then hit I-95 South, bound for Richmond.
Traffic was light so I found myself arriving in time to join the crowd of union workers and leaders forming at the corner of North Ninth and East Grace streets at around 10 a.m.
It was the day of this year’s “veto session,” when state lawmakers meet back in Richmond to respond to the governor’s actions on bills that made it out of the General Assembly.
The goal for the union firefighters, municipal workers, teachers, and home care workers that day was twofold: to pressure lawmakers to reject Spanberger’s changes to the collective bargaining legislation and get her to sign the bill passed by the General Assembly.
As the rally got going, three state lawmakers stopped by to convey their support to the rallygoers: collective bargaining bill sponsor Del. Kathy Tran (D-Springfield); state Del. Lily Franklin (D-Blacksburg); and state Sen. Stella Pekarsky (D-Centreville).
Tran thanked the workers for pushing for the “strongest collective bargaining bill we can get in Virginia.”
“I’m with you in this fight,” she told a cheering crowd.
State lawmakers ultimately rejected Spanberger’s changes to the collective bargaining bill that union leaders took issue with for multiple reasons.
They opposed Spanberger’s request to delay implementation of bargaining rights for local government and school board employees.
And they expressed concern about putting too many decisions in the hands of a board filled with gubernatorial appointees, rather than having rules around union organizing set in state code.
That leaves Spanberger with a stark choice: sign the bill into law as the unions and fellow Democrats want her to; don’t sign the bill and let it become law; or veto the bill.