By Chris Braunlich,
Governor Abigail Spanberger has many reasons to veto the bill that is headed her way. The bill requires local and state governments bargain with union bosses, even if fewer than a third public employees are in favor of the union.
It will increase local government spending, as it increased Richmond City’s costs four years ago when the city approved collective bargaining. And Fairfax County has a $300-million shortfall after adopting collective bargaining.
Also, according to state estimates this bill would create new bureaucracies and add 333 state employees to payroll. It could also require an additional expenditure of up to 92 million dollars over the next 5 years even before salary increases. These costs will continue to rise.
Most local government leaders are against it. This includes dozens of Democratic officials who claim that it would impose a “one size fits all” approach to collective bargaining on local governments. Democrats are in favor of collective bargaining remaining voluntary.
Democrats like Babur Lateef, the chair of the Prince William School Board (who ran for Democratic Lieutenant Governor). Governor nomination), as well as seven Democratic urban mayors.
The local government is also responsible for making it work. This is in contrast to the General Assembly, which has no problem imposing its idea of government on others while avoiding their own responsibility. This is why General Assembly Democrats exempted themselves from the law, a clear example of the “Mandates are for you, but not me” mentality.
Governor Spanberger is caught between a rock ad a hard place. Does she support local Democrats, who are the backbone of the state, and legislative Democrats, whose votes she needs to pass future legislation? Or does she satisfy national unions, since her staff, as with most Virginia Governors’, has likely already measured the curtains for the Oval Office.
Observers who are cynical, such as the Freedom Virginia left-wing group, claim that “lobbyists” and “special interests” buy off politicians. If this is true, then those special interest groups will have gotten their money’s value in 2025.
The SEIU (Service Employees International Union ) donated more than $400 000 to Democratic candidates running for the General Assembly in 2025. Ninety-six percent won. With a total of over $13 million in union donations, it is clear that organized labor entered this year’s session with a wish-list aimed at increasing their revenue and consolidating their power.
The SEIU’s most outrageous wish is to allow the union collect dues from a new category of workers , even though it cannot negotiate better wages or working conditions for these workers .
This is how it works. Thirty five years ago, Medicaid allowed states to offer “consumer directed services” for the elderly and disabled. They could hire individuals to provide personal care services to assist with daily activities such as grooming or toileting. This coverage was seen as a cheaper alternative to institutionalization or expensive agency-directed care.
According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, 40 percent of caregivers come from family. The National Academy for State Health Policy estimates that 40 percent of caregivers are family members. This ensures the caregivers have a deep understanding of their patient’s needs and a relationship with them.
The SEIU legislation SB378 not only expands collective bargaining to include public employees and the abuses that accompany it, but also puts the union in between the patient and their caregiver. Its sole goal is to bring home care workers into the SEIU umbrella without making them public employees so the union can collect union dues.
They are the direct employees of the participants they wash, feed and toilet. Making them “public workers” would subject them to state pensions, and health care plans that are too expensive for even the most profligate legislators.
The bill makes it clear: “An individual provider does not mean ‘public employee’ in any case other than for purposes of collective bargaining….Nothing in this article shall be construed to classify individual providers as employees of the Commonwealth. Individual providers are not eligible for health insurance or state retirement benefits.
To ensure that a new collection is made of union dues-paying members, an exemption was created: it would allow the new Virginia Home Care Council “to serve as the public employer of individuals exclusively for purposes of collective negotiation.”
The legislation creates a facade of private workers classified as public to serve one purpose – to place the union among family members and allow the SEIU claim their dues.
What can the SEIU offer you?
Salary negotiation is not allowed. These workers’ stipends, whether they have family members or not, are determined by the General Assembly. This is controlled by those who passed the law. SEIU may lobby, but that is not negotiation. The Authority does not have the power to set stipends, and it doesn’t hire providers.
Virginia taxpayers are expected to believe that a union will stand in the way of family members when it comes to negotiating work conditions? Will union rules dictate now when and where relatives can help the relatives they’re trying to assist?
The deal offers absolutely nothing for the patients and their families.
It does, however, offer SEIU dues payment that would otherwise have gone to the family members workers. Even if they receive nothing in return. The union takes its cut first and often skims off a percentage, before the caregivers receive any stipends.
It is a new scheme in Virginia signs the bill, but old news in <a href=”https://www.freedomfoundation.com/press-release/freedom-foundation-report-exposes-scope-of-unions-medicaid-dues-skim/#:~:text=The%20Freedom%20Foundation’s%20report%2C%20*Getting%20Organized%20at,and%20fees%20from%20caregivers’%20wages%20from%202000-17. The Freedom Foundation’s report, “Getting Organized at, and Fees from Caregivers’ Wages, 2000-17” is a new scheme in Virginia, but old news in a href=”https://www.freedomfoundation.com/press-release/freedom-foundation-report exposes the scope of unions, medicaid dues, and fees.
In states that have imposed it, desperate caregivers are taking the matter to court in an attempt to stop the skim.
Will Virginia allow unions of public employees to take money from families receiving a small allowance to help them get through tough times? For doing nothing?
Virginia has the benefit of a line-item vote. The Virginia Health Care Council and any references to unionization for family members must be removed before the Commonwealth takes this path.
Chris Braunlich, Senior Advisor and Former President of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy published this first. He was a former member of the Civil Service Employees Association, based in New York.
