By Nick McNamara/WHRO
In a show of regional unity, mayors from the seven core cities of Hampton Roads united to oppose a bill that would allow public workers to collectively bargain over wages, benefits, and working conditions without local governments’ approval.
Laquetta Mackey, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, called it disappointing.
“We definitely need a seat at the table,” she said. “It should be a fundamental right.”
Virginia lawmakers in 2020 ended the decades-old prohibition on collective bargaining by state and local government workers, including school and public safety employees. That law gave local councils and school boards the final say on bargaining with unions.
Bills moving through committees in the General Assembly, however, would remove that power from localities. If signed into law, Virginia would create a state-level public employee relations board to oversee the process and arbitrate disputes.
The bills could shrink Virginia’s public-sector pay gap, which is among the largest in the U.S., according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute; public employees in Virginia make more than 25% less than private-sector workers with similar schooling and backgrounds. The EPI’s report, published in January, found closing the pay gap could also lead to better public services, less turnover and improved racial and gender pay gaps.
Hampton Roads mayors, though, wrote in a letter that local governments know their localities’ finances, service needs and workforce priorities best.
“While our individual governing bodies hold varying perspectives on collective bargaining, we are united in one fundamental principle: local decision-making is essential,” read the letter penned by the mayors of Norfolk, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News.
In 2023, Portsmouth voted to authorize collective bargaining but hasn’t implemented the practice. Newport News’ collective bargaining task force in 2025 recommended five bargaining units, but council hasn’t voted to establish them. Norfolk and Virginia Beach rejected collective bargaining efforts in recent years.
Union leaders such as Mackey see that as a testament to why state action is necessary. She believes workers should be able to decide whether they want to collectively bargain, not local officials.
“It shouldn’t matter what zip code you live in,” Mackey said. “Working conditions are important, we should be able to bargain for that; we should be able to bargain for safety policies, benefits.”
