Andrew Kerley, Executive Editor
Heciel Nieves Bonilla, News Editor
Campus unions across Virginia are fighting to ensure their inclusion in pending legislation to repeal the state’s ban on public employees’ collective bargaining rights.
Public-sector collective bargaining is the ability of state-employed workers to have a recognized union — giving them the right to strike, lobby for better working conditions and negotiate their contracts.
Public-sector collective bargaining was banned in Virginia after an incident in 1943, when 28 Black women who worked as maids at the University of Virginia’s hospital walked out in protest against unfair pay and negotiated new wages for themselves.
Campus unions have been advocating for a repeal of the ban at the Virginia General Assembly for years. This session the repeal was introduced again, according to a previous report by The CT. It is backed by the United Campus Workers of Virginia — including the VCU chapter — as faculty, staff and student employees fall under the public worker umbrella.
The House of Delegates Appropriations Committee removed higher education employees from their version of the bill earlier this month. The Senate’s version currently still includes higher education employees, but now discounts home health care workers. Lawmakers will have to work out the differences by the end of the legislative session.
The removal of both groups came after legislators received fiscal impact statements from Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, suggested he will fight to have campus workers included in an interview with Dogwood.
In response to their removal, UCWVA kicked off a series of town halls over the weekend to drive up support for everyone’s inclusion.
“Campus workers were removed from the House bill after university presidents used their power and privilege to lobby lawmakers behind closed doors,” the union wrote in a statement.
VCU previously declined to comment on the bill, as it is the school’s policy to not comment on pending legislation.
Roz Carter is a service worker at VCU employed by the third-party food service organization Aramark, and is thus able to have a union contract through UNITE HERE Local 23. She is appreciative of the additional respect and benefits she receives through the union.
“I just made 19 years there a couple of weeks ago, so yeah, it’s finally better now,” Carter said. “It wasn’t ‘bad bad,’ but the money and the health insurance and the respect and being able to fight for each other and not be quiet when higher-ups just feel like they can do anything. That was a big thing that needed to change there and we have that now.”
Carter wants collective bargaining for public employees to include higher education for the sake of the many workers she shares a space on campus with who are not afforded these benefits. She said she has known people who work on VCU’s grounds for years, many of whom have discussed the gains the union has made, and they should receive the same benefits she does.
UCWVA president Harry Szabo previously told The CT securing higher pay for graduate students would be a priority if they had collective bargaining rights. Szabo was a graduate teaching assistant before becoming an assistant professor at VCU.
“In order to make ends meet, I lived in a laundry room, like [a] washer, dryer, twin bed,” Szabo said. My graduate TA’s this year in 2025 told me that they also make $14,000 a year which is 10 years after I started my program. That wage was not a living wage in 2015 and it is not a living wage in 2026.”
Mark Wood, an associate professor of world studies and member of UCWVA at VCU, spoke to why he believes it is important to include campus workers in the bill.
“Our working conditions are our students’ learning conditions,” Wood stated. “We care deeply about students and their success in college and in life. Having the right to collective bargaining will put us in a great position to advocate even more successfully for the resources and support students need to succeed.”