The mayors of South Hampton Rhodes form a regional coalition against collective negotiation – the Virgin Pilot

South Hampton Mayors can unite to oppose collective negotiation in the public and private sectors, as state legislators are advanceing the legislation that will require Virginia’s cities to allow public service employees to bargain.

Virginia Mayor Beach Bobby Dyer said he was recruiting mayors on the roads in South Hampton and plans to contact the mayors of the peninsula to form a group and hold meetings “to repel collective negotiation for the incredible expenses.”

“They (state legislators) are trying to enforce collective negotiation of every city and to make sure that the city has no choice,” Dyer said in an interview.

The plans for the coalition are in the early stages, but several local mayors have acknowledged concerns about the municipal expenses for collective negotiation.

Virginia was one of the few states with a ban on a collective negotiation blanket for public sector employees until 2020, when the Democrats General Assembly adopted a new law in force since 2021, adjusting the final opinion of the localities.

Workers can be collectively bargaining if they get permission from the city. Employee groups have sought collective negotiation rights in Hampton Road in recent years, but have made little progress. Norfolk and Virginia Beach voted against it. Portsmouth approved the ability of employees to market collectively in 2023, but did not determine the scope of IT or how it would be applied.

The bills under consideration of the General Assembly would force cities to recognize collective negotiation.

“This is only mayors who look at their cities,” Dyer told his colleagues at the Municipal Council meeting last Tuesday. He expects the group to “provoke a discussion about the pros and cons of collective negotiation so that we can make better decisions.”

The coordination of the local mayors comes when the Virginian Police Association, the largest police association in the country, asked the Republican governor Glen Youngkin to sign the bill on the collective negotiation in the law. The governor’s service did not respond to a request on Monday, but before that said Youngkin did not support the legislation.