RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate and House of Delegates passed competing versions of legislation to repeal a ban on collective bargaining for public employees. But the bills each exclude different types of public workers.
The chambers will have to resolve the differences between those bills and others in the coming weeks.
The General Assembly has officially entered its second half of the 2026 session. Post crossover, no new legislation will be considered. From now until lawmakers gavel out next month, they’ll only consider bills that have passed through at least one of the chambers.
But sometimes, over the course of the legislative process, committees will amend bills so that the House and Senate versions are no longer identical. When that happens, they’ll have to duke it out in a conference committee.
The Senate’s version of the collective bargaining bill removed provisions that would extend those rights to home health workers. And while the Senate version includes employees at public colleges and universities, the House version explicitly removes higher education from its definition of state agencies.
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“The paths of these two bills have diverged, with both versions leaving workers behind,” said Athena Jones, the home care chapter president of Service Employees International Union Virginia 512. “We call on both chambers to work together in the coming weeks to make these bills one so that all workers, whether in home care or higher ed, have the freedom to form a union and bargain collectively for a contract.”
Both measures specify that state and local employees cannot strike without being fired and deemed ineligible for public employment for the next year.
The mayors of the seven core Hampton Roads cities are opposed to the legislation. In a letter to the General Assembly, they wrote it should be up to localities to determine how to negotiate with public sector employees.
Angerio Curtis, a United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America member, spoke at a rally of Hampton Roads labor advocates in Richmond this past week.
“UE has been working with local governments in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Newport News and Portsmouth for nearly five years,” said Curtis, a streets and bridges equipment operator in Norfolk. “None of these cities have passed a collective ordinance yet. We are tired of waiting on these local politicians to do the right thing.”
The House and Senate also will have to hash out differences in their approaches to legalizing internet gaming, which includes virtual casino games.
The Senate version of the legislation would set up iGaming to begin in July 2027, while the House would require the legislation to pass again next year for a 2028 rollout. And, the House version of the legislation would disperse most of the tax revenue generated from iGaming to the general fund, while the Senate version denotes the bulk of that revenue to education.
The House and Senate also passed competing versions of legislation that would create a legal retail cannabis market.
The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee removed amendments to the legislation that would have created stiffer penalties for people selling cannabis without a license. That makes the bills as they passed their respective chambers substantially aligned, but the House bill sets the start date for legal sales at Nov. 1 of this year, where the Senate’s legal market would not kick off until January 2027. The Senate and House also would impose different tax structures for cannabis products.
Asked what bills have significant differences between the two chambers last week, House Speaker Don Scott said both were both focused on affordability.
“You’re trying to get us in a fight with the Senate already,” the Portsmouth Democrat joked to reporters. “We know that there are some bills that there are some different approaches around, say, the gambling commission. They have a different bill, we have a different version, and we’re going to come to conference on that.”
Kate Seltzer, 757-713-7881, kate.seltzer@virginiamedia.com
