Collective Bargaining in Virginia: Ban, Local Opt-Ins, and Vetoes

Collective bargaining in Virginia is allowed only for employees of local governments and school boards whose governing body has affirmatively adopted a bargaining ordinance. State employees cannot bargain collectively, strikes by any public employee are prohibited, and two recent attempts to make bargaining mandatory statewide — one in 2025 and one in 2026 — were vetoed by successive governors.

The Rule in Virginia Today

The governing statute is Virginia Code § 40.1-57.2, which took effect May 1, 2021. It repealed Virginia’s decades-old ban on public-sector collective bargaining and replaced it with a permissive framework: counties, cities, towns, and local school boards may adopt an ordinance or resolution authorizing collective bargaining with their employees, but none is required to do so.¹²

Any ordinance a locality does adopt must set procedures for certifying and decertifying exclusive bargaining representatives and must provide for reasonable public notice. It cannot limit the governing body’s authority to set its own budget or appropriate funds.¹

There is one way employees can force the question in a locality that has not opted in. If a majority of public employees in an appropriate bargaining unit submits a certification petition, the governing body must take a vote within 120 days on whether to adopt a collective bargaining ordinance. The body is not required to approve one.¹

Strikes remain flatly off the table. Under Virginia Code § 40.1-55, a public employee who strikes or refuses to perform duties in concert with two or more coworkers is deemed to have terminated their own employment and cannot be rehired by any state or local government entity in Virginia for 12 months.³

Who the Law Does Not Cover

Even where a locality has opted in, some workers are outside the statute entirely.

State employees. Section 40.1-57.2 applies to local governments and school divisions only, so employees of state agencies have no path to bargain.
Constitutional officers and their staffs. Officers elected under Article VII, Section 4 of the Virginia Constitution — sheriffs, commonwealth’s attorneys, clerks of court, and the like — and their employees are expressly barred from collective bargaining regardless of any local ordinance.¹
Contractors, volunteers, and interns.²

Which Virginia Localities Allow Collective Bargaining

Whether a Virginia public employee can bargain comes down to one question: has the employer’s governing body adopted an ordinance? As of late 2024, a Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee document listed the following jurisdictions that had done so.⁴

General government: Alexandria (April 2021), Arlington County (July 2021), Fairfax County (October 2021), Loudoun County (December 2021), Richmond (July 2022), Charlottesville (October 2022), Prince William County (November 2022), and Portsmouth (November 2023).

School boards: Prince William County, Richmond, Charlottesville, Fairfax County, Falls Church, Arlington County, Alexandria, Albemarle County, and Loudoun County, adopted between October 2022 and August 2024.

By 2026, the Economic Policy Institute reported at least 17 major cities, counties, and school boards had adopted ordinances.⁵ The large majority of Virginia’s localities have not opted in, and employees there have no path to a union contract.

Fairfax County

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors adopted its ordinance on October 19, 2021, covering roughly 12,500 general government employees.⁶ Active agreements now cover police, fire and rescue, public safety communications, and general government employees.⁷ The Fairfax County School Board adopted a separate resolution on March 9, 2023, recognizing three bargaining units — licensed instructional staff, operational employees, and administrators and supervisors — and ratified contracts for the instructional and operational units on January 9, 2025, effective July 1, 2025.⁸

Prince William County

Prince William County adopted its ordinance on November 22, 2022, and amended it the following July. On January 20, 2024, the Board of County Supervisors ratified four-year contracts with the Prince William County Police Association and IAFF Local 2598. An amended agreement with the police association was ratified February 3, 2026, effective July 1, 2026.²

Right-to-Work Still Applies

Any bargaining in Virginia happens inside the state’s right-to-work law, which covers both private and public employers.⁹ No employer may require an employee to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment, and any agreement requiring union membership or creating an employment monopoly for a union is declared illegal. Terms a union negotiates apply to everyone in the bargaining unit whether or not they are members or pay dues.⁸

A full repeal of the right-to-work law was filed during the 2026 session by Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy, but no such repeal has taken effect.¹⁰

Two Vetoes of Mandatory Statewide Bargaining

The permissive framework has been in place since 2021, and labor groups and their legislative allies have twice tried to replace it with a mandate. Both attempts failed.

2025: Youngkin Vetoes HB 2764 and SB 917

In the 2025 session, the General Assembly passed HB 2764 (Delegate Kathy Tran) and SB 917 (Senator Scott Surovell). The bills would have eliminated the prohibition on bargaining by state employees, made bargaining mandatory for local governments and school divisions, and extended coverage to independent health providers accepting Medicaid.¹¹

Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed both, calling the legislation a “fundamental shift in employment policy” that would “threaten the funding and delivery of critical state and local services” and cost taxpayers “hundreds of millions of dollars a year.” He also pointed to the absence of a funding mechanism.¹¹

2026: Spanberger Vetoes HB 1263 and SB 378

Legislators returned in 2026 with HB 1263 (Delegate Tran) and SB 378 (Senator Surovell). The bills would have required a public employer to negotiate when employees petitioned and voted to form a bargaining unit, created a five-member Public Employee Relations Board with two management seats, two labor seats, and a public chair, mandated final and binding arbitration for grievances and impasse procedures, and set most provisions to take effect July 1, 2028. Legislative-branch workers were carved out of both bills.¹²

The House passed HB 1263 on February 17, 2026, 61 to 35, and the Senate passed SB 378 the same day, 21 to 19. A conference report passed the House 61 to 36 and the Senate 20 to 18 on March 14, 2026.¹²¹³

Governor Abigail Spanberger returned the bills on April 13, 2026, with proposed substitute amendments. Her version would have:

Delayed coverage of local governments and their employees until January 1, 2030.
Replaced binding arbitration with a procedure resulting in an “advisory decision.”
Reshaped the PERB to give two seats to public-employer representatives, one to an organization representing state or local government workers, one to an organization representing school board employees, and the public chair.
Phased in the system — state employees, home care workers, and higher education service employees first, local government employees later.¹⁴¹⁵

The General Assembly rejected the amendments on April 22, 2026, and a labor coalition that included the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, IAFF, and SEIU described them as containing “poison-pill terms.”¹⁶¹⁷ On May 14, 2026, Spanberger vetoed both HB 1263 and SB 378.¹⁸¹³ The Virginia Association of Counties had urged the veto, citing one jurisdiction’s estimate of a fiscal impact exceeding $400 million and Chesterfield County officials’ warning that costs could add more than 25 cents to the real estate tax rate.¹⁹

Where That Leaves Virginia Workers

As of mid-2026, the 2020 permissive statute is still the law. State employees have no bargaining rights. Local-government and school-board employees in jurisdictions that have adopted ordinances — Fairfax, Prince William, Arlington, Alexandria, Richmond, Charlottesville, and others — bargain under those local rules. Employees in jurisdictions that have not opted in can trigger a required 120-day vote by majority petition, but the governing body is free to say no.¹⁵

The AFL-CIO resolution adopted after the 2026 veto pledged to keep pushing for statewide rights until state and local government employees have them.¹⁷ For now, whether a Virginia public employee can sit across the table from their employer depends on who signs their paycheck and what their governing body has chosen to do.

1
Virginia Code Commission. Va. Code § 40.1-57.2
2
Prince William County. Collective Bargaining
3
Virginia Code Commission. Title 40.1, Chapter 4
4
Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee. Collective Bargaining Legislation
5
Economic Policy Institute. Stronger Collective Bargaining Laws Will Benefit All Virginians
6
The Washington Post. Fairfax County Approves Collective Bargaining Ordinance
7
Fairfax County. Collective Bargaining
8
Fairfax County Public Schools. Collective Bargaining
9
Virginia Code Commission. Title 40.1, Chapter 4, Article 3
10
VPM. Right to Work in Virginia
11
Virginia Legislative Information System. HB 2764 Veto Text
12
Virginia Association of Counties. VACo Continues to Oppose Mandatory Collective Bargaining
13
Virginia Legislative Information System. SB 378 Bill Details
14
LegiScan. HB 1263 Governor’s Substitute Amendment
15
Virginia Mercury. Spanberger Vetoes Collective Bargaining Bills
16
Virginia Association of Counties. General Assembly Rejects Governor’s Amendments
17
AFL-CIO. Resolution 41: Justice for Virginia’s Public Service Workers
18
Virginia Public Access Project. HB 1263
19
WTVR. Virginia Collective Bargaining