On Thursday, May 15, Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger vetoed a bill that would have given collective bargaining rights to over 500,000 workers in Virginia. The state’s ban on collective bargaining traces its roots to the 1940s Jim Crow era, when Black Workers at the University of Virginia Hospital formed a union and went on strike against segregation practices. Virginia is only one of nine states where public sector employees are completely barred from collective bargaining with the government. It also has one of the worst public sector pay gaps in the country, with employees making 26 percent less than their private sector counterparts on average.

Despite promising to support legislation to overturn this ban at an SEIU rally back in February, Spanberger’s proposed amendments to the now-dead bill would have made public sector unions’ right to negotiate contracts with the government virtually unprotected, replacing clear and precise details outlining the process for collective bargaining with language that would make collective bargaining “optional.” These amendments also left every enforcement decision up to a “future labor board” that would have been appointed by a “state labor board”; in other words, taking labor decisions out of the hands of workers and into “independent” structures which serve only the interests of the bosses.

When even the State Assembly rejected these amendments, Spanberger chose to veto the bill — a betrayal of the working class that is steeped into the identity of Democratic Party politicians. Labor officials from various unions, coalesced around the Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition, denounced the veto and called it a “slap in the face” after they supported Spanberger in her election campaign. The Teamsters, for their part, called for “bipartisan coalitions” to fight for labor rights.

But why should union members’ dues be used to elect capitalist politicians who face no accountability for their attacks on workers rights? Every year major unions in the United States spend millions of dollars lobbying and campaigning for Democrats with nothing to show for it. The American Federation of Teachers and SEIU spent a combined $1 million on Spanberger’s campaign, money which could have been used to start new union drives and expand strike funds. Workers across the South have demonstrated an appetite for labor organizing, but union bureaucrats are choosing class collaboration over a real fighting strategy.

Hailed as evidence of a “blue wave” in the 2025 special elections, Spanberger won as a centrist Democrat promising to “choose pragmatism over partisanship.” This “pragmatism” showed itself already on the campaign trail, when she refused to support a repeal of Virginia’s anti-worker “Right to Work” law, while clinching the support of police unions for her campaign. The truth is that Spanberger and her party are no friends to workers – they will side with the bosses at any chance they get. Whether governed by Democrats or Republicans, Virginia public workers must organize independently from below, and defy anti-labor laws to fight for their demands.

The post Democratic Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Collective Bargaining in Virginia appeared first on Left Voice.

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