Counties encouraged to continue contacting Governor Spanberger’s office as well as passing resolutions stating concerns and opposition to the legislation. Your advocacy is required.
The General Assembly has approved legislation requiring mandatory collective bargaining for local governments in certain cases, and it now heads to the Governor for a decision. Lawmakers advanced identical conference reports on HB 1263 (Tran) / SB 378 (Surovell), combining them into a single final package. VACo continues to oppose the legislation, arguing it limits local decision-making and could create significant costs by requiring collective bargaining if employees petition and vote to form a bargaining unit.
ACTION REQUESTED
- Contact Governor Abigail Spanberger and urge the Governor to preserve meaningful local flexibility rather than impose a one-size-fits-all statewide model.
The House approved the conference report on March 14, 2026, by a 62–34 vote, and the Senate approved it 20–18. The legislation now goes to Governor Abigail Spanberger, who has until April 13 to take action.
VACo remains concerned that, even as revised, the legislation would replace Virginia’s current system, where local governments can choose whether to allow collective bargaining with a single, statewide framework. This new system would be overseen by a state-created Public Employee Relations Board (PERB).
The conference report would also eliminate existing law that currently gives localities and school boards the authority to decide if and how to implement collective bargaining.
The conference report also preserves language recognizing existing bargaining relationships and agreements entered before July 1, 2028, but it does not preserve indefinite local discretion outside that new statewide structure. Existing certifications, active negotiations, and agreements are not superseded before that date, but on and after July 1, 2028, they are folded into the new framework administered by the state.
KEY POINTS
Even after conference, several major VACo concerns remain:
- Local decision-making is still preempted.
The legislation repeals the existing local option framework and replaces it with a statewide model. That means local, democratically elected officials would lose significant authority to tailor labor-relations policy to local fiscal capacity, workforce structure, and administrative realities. - A state PERB would oversee local labor relations.
The conference report establishes the Public Employee Relations Board within the Department, with five members, and no guaranteed local government representation. That board would determine bargaining units, oversee certification and decertification, handle disputes, and administer the new system. - Arbitration remains.
For public employees generally, unresolved impasses proceed from mediation to arbitration, and for firefighters and EMS providers the bill contains separate arbitration procedures whose final determinations are binding, subject to judicial review. This continues to raise serious concern about unpredictable fiscal outcomes and reduced local budget control. The following language has been included, “No provision of this section shall be construed to restrict a governing body’s authority to establish the budget of or appropriate funds to the public employer.” However, in practice, this does not protect localities; instead, it shifts the conflict into disputes over good faith compliance, where refusals to appropriate funds can trigger legal challenges and enforcement actions, exposing counties to litigation rather than preserving real fiscal control. - Existing local agreements are not a permanent shield.
The conference language protects agreements and certifications already in place before July 1, 2028, but only as a transition. It does not preserve a long-term locally controlled alternative system once the statewide framework takes effect. - Implementation work begins before 2028.
Although major provisions take effect on July 1, 2028, the conference report directs the Department of Labor and Industry to promulgate regulations necessary to implement the act by that same date. That means substantive implementation work begins well before the nominal effective date. - The scope remains broad.
The final version provides that public employees may organize, choose representatives, and engage in concerted activity for collective bargaining and mutual aid, while also extending the framework to local governments, school boards, many state employees, home care providers, and certain higher education service employees. - Public employers must provide employee contact information and access.
The bill requires public employers to provide extensive employee contact information to exclusive bargaining representatives and to provide access to represented employees, including in connection with orientations for new hires. These operational requirements would create new administrative obligations for local governments.
With the General Assembly having adopted the conference reports, county attention should continue to focus on the Governor’s office. Your advocacy is required. As previously reported, counties that have concerns about fiscal impact, administrative burden, public safety implications, interaction with existing personnel systems, or disruption of current local arrangements should continue sharing those concerns directly with the Governor’s policy team while the legislation is under executive review.
Governor’s Policy Team Contacts
- Bonnie Krenz-Schnurman
Chief of Staff to Governor Abigail Spanberger
Bonnie.Krenz-Schnurman@governor.virginia.gov - Gerica Goodman
Legislative Director
Gerica.Goodman@governor.virginia.gov - Rebecca Eichmann
Policy Director
Rebecca.Eichmann@governor.virginia.gov
When you reach out to the Governor’s policy team, please include VACo in any correspondence. VACo also encourages county boards of supervisors to pass resolutions expressing their opposition to the legislation in its current form. Additional VACo members continue to voice concerns in statewide media.
While the conference report resolves differences between the House and Senate versions, it does not resolve VACo’s core concern: the bills would still move Virginia away from a local-option approach and toward a mandatory statewide structure with significant local fiscal, legal, and operational consequences. Counties should continue making the case that labor relations policy in Virginia must preserve meaningful local flexibility rather than impose a one-size-fits-all statewide model.
VACo Contact: Jeremy R. Bennett