Posts tagged Virginia Department of Labor and Industry
Commentary– Union Rules: Welcome to the Hotel California
July 29, 2025 // While public employees may sign up to join online, by mail, or by completing a form in person, cancelling is a different story. For example, the boilerplate for collective bargaining agreements with the Service Employees International Union or the Teamsters typically reads something along the lines of: An employee may withdraw such consent in accordance with the terms of the membership and dues deduction agreement (emphasis mine) between the employee and the Union. The Union will notify the City when it is appropriate to stop dues deduction in accordance with the terms of the membership and dues deduction agreement between the employee and the Union.
Op-ed: Virginia Must Clarify Its Labor Laws
June 9, 2025 // The ideal outcome for Virginia would be to repeal the Democrats’ 2020 law and return Virginia to being one of the few states that outright prohibit collective bargaining in the public sector. North and South Carolina have for decades, and Utah joined them with a new law signed by Governor Spencer Cox (R.) this year. But with Democrats currently in control of the Virginia General Assembly, a repeal effort would go nowhere. In the meantime, the proposed regulations are needed to make sure local government unions are following the law. Virginia is a right-to-work state with many strong protections for employees in unionized workplaces. Public employees deserve those protections just as much as private employees do.
Youngkin administration moves to protect public employees and taxpayers from union excesses
May 27, 2025 // First, the regulations would expressly extend to public employees the right to select a union pursuant to a secret-ballot election. In so doing, the proposed rules would protect public employees from being pressured or coerced into unionization via the infamous “card check” process, by which union organizers approach employees directly about publicly signing union petition cards. In its brief comment on the proposed regulations, the Virginia Education Association (VEA) claimed that, “All collective bargaining resolutions adopted by Virginia school boards, to date, provide for free and fair secret ballot elections…” But, as the Freedom Foundation documented in its comment, this is simply incorrect: