Labor politics might end up being a flashpoint in the upcoming General Assembly session.
Ever since the 1940s, labor groups in Virginia have been trying to get rid of a law that prohibits union membership as a condition of employment. They say the “Right to Work” law gives non-union members the right to freeload. One of the biggest opponents of the law in recent years was former Delegate Lee Carter of Manassas, who says when he introduced a bill to repeal the law, he was threatened by the caucus chairman.
"He told me in no uncertain terms that if I didn't withdraw the bill myself that they would make sure that every single one of my other bills died that year, and I'm not one to take being threatened like that," Carter says. "So, I actually moved to discharge the bill from the committee and bring it to the full floor."
That discharge petition was unsuccessful, and members of the General Assembly have yet to have so much as a recorded vote on repealing the “Right to Work” law.
"I'm optimistic that some time in the near future that action will be taken to repeal the ‘Right to Work’ law because you’re in a time now where unions are more popular now than they've been in 50 years," says Virginia Diamond is president of the Northern Virginia Labor Federation.
Senator Jennifer Carroll Foy of Prince William County has introduced a bill to overturn the “Right to Work” law in the upcoming session of the General Assembly, but Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger has already said she does not support repealing it.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
