Spanberger Vetoes Bills Allowing Public Employees to Collectively Bargain Working Conditions, Wages

Gov. Abigail Spanberger vetoed collective bargaining legislation Thursday, drawing major criticism from some of the state’s largest unions and labor advocate groups.

Members of Virginia Professional Firefighters association hold signs during their biannual convention to protest Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s veto of collective bargaining legislation. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)

The governor previously expressed support for the bills that would allow more Virginia public workers to organize in unions and negotiate their working conditions and pay rates.

Spanberger first sought amendments to Senate Bill 378 and House Bill 1263, which one of the bill’s carriers, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surrovell, D-Fairfax, characterized as “a total rewrite.” On Thursday, Surovell confirmed the governor told him in a private call that she planned to veto the measure.

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The proposal, backed by the Virginia Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and various labor groups, would expand on a 2020 law that permits local government employees in Virginia to opt-in to collective bargaining if their localities allow it.

“I put forth amendments which would have required the state to set up a system allowing state employees, home care workers, and higher education service employees to enter into collective bargaining agreements first, in order to demonstrate the efficacy of this new system, with public employees in localities following closely after,” Spanberger said in a statement explaining her veto.

The governor’s action came just over three weeks after legislators rejected her recommendations in their special session in Richmond on April 22.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (center) poses with members of a Virginia Service Employees International Union in Capitol Square on Feb. 25, 2026. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods / Virginia Mercury)

Some Virginia counties and cities have allowed public school teachers, city hall janitorial staff, firefighters, and other workers to do this, and the proposed measure would have made it possible statewide.

Spanberger seemed on board with the bills, lawmakers said, and had attended a SEIU rally in Richmond in February in support of them.

Surovell said that he and fellow Democratic Fairfax County lawmaker Del. Kathy Tran, who carried the House version, compromised aspects of their bills during the legislative session as part of the process to get it to Spanberger’s desk.

But “when the session was over, (Spanberger) came up with an entirely new bill,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to negotiate when the goal post gets put on a different field.”

Spanberger’s proposed changes sought to delay provisions of the bill until 2030 and shift authority over how the system operates to a state board.

Thursday afternoon,  Spanberger defended the changes she’d suggested for the bill.

“While preserving the enrolled bill’s focus on allowing public employees to achieve collective bargaining, my amendments would have also provided additional flexibility for public employers to take into account existing local budget timelines and processes,” she wrote.  “However, the General Assembly rejected these amendments.”

Workers call veto ‘a betrayal,’ Hashmi reaffirms support of bills

With a May 23 deadline to take final actions on remaining legislation, SEIU members crashed a healthcare policy bill signing Spanberger attended earlier this week to urge her to sign the collective bargaining bills.

On Thursday, ahead of the formal veto, Virginia Professional Firefighters, who’d been at their association’s biannual convention in Henrico County, stepped away to protest Spanberger’s planned veto.

Kurt Detrick, the new incoming president of the union association, called the governor’s actions “an absolute betrayal” after the conversations and advocacy the association has been part of with other unions throughout the legislative session.

He noted that Virginia’s firefighters and other groups had also lent their input and support when Surovell and Tran advanced their proposal to former Gov. Glenn Youngkin. That too, faced a veto.

Of Virginia’s roughly 11,000 firefighters, Detrick said about 8,000 to 9,000 of them still don’t have seats at the table because their localities have not opted in.

Many of these public safety workers want to push for safe staffing levels, which they hoped the bills’ success could enable them to do, Detrick said.

This would ensure that more staff are on duty at the same time to respond to emergencies. It would also require localities to pay more, a key concern for opponents of the bargaining bills.

House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore, R-Scott County, said that his caucus has “made repeatedly clear, this bill would have driven up local taxes unsustainably.”

Tran’s and Surrovell’s new law would have mandated localities to allow for collective bargaining, although there was also language to allow localities to reject the mandate if they lacked the local funding to handle it.

The Virginia Public Sector Labor Coalition, which includes SEIU and Virginia’s firefighters, also issued a press release calling Spanberger’s expected veto “Orwellian,” because she had previously expressed support for the bills.

The labor coalition also chalked up the governor’s rejection of the bills to pressure from local leaders. Local officials from all regions of the state sent the governor a letter in support of collective bargaining on Monday.

Democratic Virginia Lieutenant Governor-elect Ghazala Hashmi gives a victory speech in Richmond on Nov. 4, 2025, where she reflects on public service and becoming Virginia’s first Muslim elected to statewide office. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/ Virginia Mercury)

Thursday evening, Virginia Lt. Gov. Ghazala Hashmi, who was elected alongside Spanberger on the Democratic statewide ticket last fall, restated her support for the collective bargaining bills, a stance at odds with the governor’s position.

“Virginia’s workers deserve the right to organize for fair wages, worker protections, and a seat at decision-making tables,” Hashmi wrote. “I am determined and optimistic that Virginia will make collective bargaining available to public sector unions.”

The first-term lieutenant governor, a career educator and former state delegate, said she would “continue to fight for legislation that lifts up public servants.”

Spanberger’s office has not responded to requests for comment on her veto.

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