A new group of local government workers is gearing up for contract negotiations as Virginia nears a historic expansion of public-sector collective bargaining rights.
A group of Alexandria city workers voted to unionize this month in Virginia as a bill to lift the ban on public-sector collective bargaining awaits the signature of Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
On March 3, Alexandria professional employees voted 155-1 in favor of unionizing with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 20.
The Alexandria professional employees union includes urban planners, therapists in the city’s Department of Community & Human Services, and accountants like Tia Littlejohn-Adams.
Littlejohn-Adams’ years of working in Maryland local government while part of a union made her want to help with the organizing that was happening in Alexandria. Littlejohn-Adams said she loves her job, but believes the union will give her and her co-workers a way to advocate for fairness in the workplace.
“It’’s a good thing to have just to be able to have a voice,” Littlejohn-Adams said in an interview. “And then listening to some people that worked there, they’ve always felt like they didn’t have a voice.”
Alexandria professional employees’ unionization marks the fifth group of workers with the city who have done so since 2021, according to AFSCME. Three of the groups have organized with AFSCME: they are the professional employees, labor and trade workers, and administrative and technical workers. Alexandria city police and firefighters have also organized to win union contracts.
Alexandria’s labor and trade employees’ first union contract with the city in 2023 guaranteed raises and established a step-and-grade pay schedule, AFSCME said in a release. The administrative and technical employees ratified their contract in 2025 with 100% of employees voting in support of it.
Now that Alexandria professional employees have formed their union, the next step is to negotiate their first union contract.
Littlejohn-Adams said one issue they hope to address is winning better pay rates for when professional employees work more than 40 hours in a week, given that sometimes they are at the office until 10 p.m. or have to work on Saturdays. They also want better cost of living adjustments.
“ We talk a lot about time and a half because we don’t get paid time and a half,” Littlejohn-Adams said.
She said there is also frustration about workers having to train managers to do their jobs, especially in cases where the workers had applied for the manager’s position.
As new negotiations gear up in Alexandria, public workers and unions around the state are waiting to see what Spanberger does with the public-sector collective bargaining bill that the General Assembly passed.
The bill would remove the collective bargaining ban on local government, school board, and state employees. Currently, local government and school board employees only have the right to collective bargaining if their employers pass resolutions allowing them to do so.
The bill would also extend collective bargaining rights to home care providers and service workers at public universities. The bill excludes university full-time professors, adjuncts, and librarians. These workers are waiting to see if Spanberger adds them back to the bill or makes other changes.
According to the bill, existing union contracts agreed to prior to the bill’s July 1, 2028 enactment date would be grandfathered in and would not have to be re-negotiated until they expire.
Littlejohn-Adams said Alexandria is an “amazing city to work for” and she hopes having a union will help address ways it can improve. She noted having a union doesn’t give workers carte blanche in the office to do whatever they want. Rather, it acts as a way for workers to raise concerns to management.
“ It’’s kind of like having your own little attorney when you need them,” Littlejohn-Adams said of unions.
