Posts tagged collective bargaining
General Assembly rejects amended bill on collective bargaining for public workers
April 27, 2026 // The General Assembly is holding a reconvened session to consider the governor’s amended and vetoed bills, including SB 378 and HB 1263 from Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell (D-34) and Del. Kathy Tran (D-18). The General Assembly did not take up Spanberger’s substitute to the legislation yesterday or today (Thursday). The General Assembly-passed legislation expands upon a 2020 Virginia law that gave localities the choice to adopt ordinances to collectively bargain with public employees for the first time since 1977. Fairfax County is among the jurisdictions to subsequently authorize collective bargaining, approving contractors for general county government employees as well as police and firefighters.
DUNKIRK NY: Mayor responds to contract clamor
April 26, 2026 // Dunkirk Mayor Kate Wdowiasz defended herself against city unions, stating that they are unwilling to negotiate and that city taxpayers can no longer afford their contracts. Wdowiasz said she wanted to “set the record straight” during the phone interview Thursday with the OBSERVER. Union leaders and workers turned out in force on Tuesday during the Common Council meeting. Jake Stern, representing Local 616 and its 24 uniformed firefighters, said during the meeting the union had unanimously voted no confidence in Wdowiasz and city attorney Elliot Raimondo.
Federal union projects to lose ‘tens of thousands’ of members, court filing shows
April 26, 2026 // The National Treasury Employees Union said in a filing Thursday that President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order on exclusions from federal labor-management relations programs and subsequent Office of Personnel Management rulemaking has resulted in “irreparable harm” to the labor group. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit previously ruled that harm of that kind was merely “speculative because [the harms] would materialize only after an agency terminates a collective-bargaining agreement.” Since the appeals court issued that opinion in May 2025, OPM told agencies to terminate their collective bargaining agreements with the NTEU, and nine agencies have issued letters doing just that, according to the new court filing. Roughly half of the workers that NTEU represented before Trump’s order came from these agencies, the labor group said.
Local orchestra members one step closer to unionizing
April 25, 2026 // The group decided to unionize under the American Federation of Musicians in the spring of 2024. However, their status has not been formally recognized by TCVO’s board of directors.
Unions push back against Spanberger’s collective bargaining changes
April 23, 2026 // Spanberger’s term in office ends in 2030, around the time local government employees would be allowed into the terms of the bill. She defended the correlation between the two, pointing out Virginia’s unique rule limiting governors to one consecutive term. “But that doesn’t mean that just because I only have four years as governor that I need to rush things much, much faster,” Spanberger said. “It is about being methodical.”
Department of Defense ends union agreements at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
April 20, 2026 // The U.S. Department of Defense is terminating collective bargaining agreements for two unions representing workers at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. It's a move union leaders said could have significant impacts on employees. Workers with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and the American Federation of Government Employees said they were notified Friday of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Union presidents said these agreements have long played a critical role in ensuring safe working conditions, fair wages, benefits, and time off for their members. With those protections now ending, many workers are raising concerns about what comes next.
Grad student union to negotiate new contract next month
April 15, 2026 // The union said that in negotiations, it will “fight against dangerous assaults” on members’ academic freedom and ability to protest on campus. In its bargaining goals, GSOC emphasized protecting international and noncitizen student workers in the wake of the Trump administration’s threats to revoke students’ visas and crack down on political speech on college campuses. In bargaining sessions, the committee also plans to urge NYU to expand members’ current health care plan to include “high-quality” dental and vision care. While the current contract does not detail members’ vision care plan, it states that the university must reimburse out-of-pocket medical and dental care expenses. GSOC said earlier this month that NYU reimbursed graduate student workers $60,000 in health care backpay after it “miscalculated” how much they were owed.
Wisconsin Reined in Public Sector Unions. Now Those Reforms Are in Jeopardy.
April 12, 2026 // According to a recent analysis by the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR), Wisconsin has seen the sharpest decline in union membership rates of any state in the country over the past 40 years. While the number of union members has declined nationwide in recent decades as America has transitioned to a more service-based economy, Wisconsin's decrease has been particularly notable, especially since it historically had been one of America's most unionized states. Act 10 played a large role in the drop. Wisconsin's public sector union membership rates saw "by far" the largest decline—at close to 29 percent—of any state, according to CEPR's report. "Wisconsin's steepest losses," the report notes, "coincided with the 2011 passage of Wisconsin Act 10."
Teamsters Secure UPS Buyout Cap; NLRB Calls Amazon to the Bargaining Table
April 9, 2026 // Under the Driver Choice Program (DCP), UPS employees can opt to receive a $150,000 payment to accept early retirement from the company. The severance package would also include retirement benefits earned over their tenure, including pension and healthcare... The NLRB and Amazon have had an ongoing feud as unionization efforts across the company have popped up. In a separate complaint filed in September 2024, the Seattle-based Big Tech firm alleged that the NLRB improperly influenced the 2022 Staten Island election, and said the board’s structure was unconstitutional. That suit is still pending.
Is Union “Dues Skim” Coming to Virginia?
April 8, 2026 // There are many reasons why Governor Abigail Spanberger should veto the collective bargaining bill headed to her desk, a bill requiring local and state governments to bargain with union bosses even if less than a majority of public employees want the union or the bargaining. There is the fact that it will force major spending increases on local governments, just as it added $350 million to Richmond City’s costs when that city voluntarily approved collective bargaining four years ago, and to Fairfax County, which giddily adopted collective bargaining, only to find it’s driven a $300 million shortfall this year.