Governor Abigail Spanberger has vetoed legislation that would have restored collective bargaining rights to roughly 50,000 public sector workers in Virginia, triggering swift backlash from union leaders who say she abandoned campaign promises made just months earlier.
The Democratic governor's veto on Thursday came despite commanding majorities in both chambers of the state legislature supporting the measure. Last month, Spanberger had introduced an amended version of the bill that the assembly ultimately rejected, according to analysis from the Economic Policy Institute, because it gutted the original protections so severely that collective bargaining would have remained merely optional.
Union officials responded with sharp condemnations. Leaders from the Service Employees International Union stated flatly: "Collective bargaining is not a privilege, it is a right. Governor Spanberger looked workers in the eye, met with our members, affirmed her support, and made a promise. Today, she broke it."
The governor had publicly backed the push just months into her tenure. In February, she attended a rally organized by SEIU members in support of the legislation, signaling solidarity with organized labor. That display now reads as hollow to union activists who question how a governor who campaigned on restoring worker protections could reverse course so decisively.
Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, was particularly pointed in his criticism. Of Virginia's 11,000 firefighters, between 8,000 and 9,000 lack collective bargaining rights because their municipalities have not opted into the system. "Firefighters keep their word every single day on the job. It's a shame the governor can't do the same," Kelly said.
Lee Saunders, who leads the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the nation's largest public sector union with 1.4 million members, invoked Virginia's long history of hostility toward workers. The state earned a reputation as one of the most anti-worker in the nation, a legacy dating back to 1948 when Virginia banned public sector collective bargaining in direct response to Black workers organizing a union at the University of Virginia hospital during the Jim Crow era.
"Governor Spanberger campaigned on the promise to end this historic injustice. But she has broken that promise," Saunders said.
The veto did win praise from conservative groups who argued the bill would have triggered substantial tax increases. Spanberger's office pointed to other labor-friendly measures she signed into law, including expansions to paid family and medical leave, a minimum wage increase, and new protections against wage theft. The governor suggested she remains open to negotiating a different approach, stating she believed "additional amendments are needed."
Virginia's journey on collective bargaining has been uniquely restrictive. Until 2021, the state was one of only three with an outright ban on public sector bargaining. That year's law allowed individual localities to opt in, but state government workers still cannot collectively bargain. The veto marks a stinging defeat for unions hoping Spanberger would finally move the needle, especially after Republican predecessor Glenn Youngkin had rejected similar legislation the previous year.
Author James Rodriguez: "Spanberger just handed labor a clinic in how fast campaign promises evaporate once the winner takes office."
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