Of course, the General Assembly kicks off next week, Wednesday, January 10, 2024 and to bring everyone up to speed, Virginia AFL-CIO is holding a General Assembly Preview  over Zoom this Thursday Jan. 4th at 6pm and Monday Jan. 8th at 3pm . Virginia AFL-CIO will do an overview of what to expect this session, labor’s priority bills and how to get involved including the morning meetings, tracking legislation, attending and following session, lobbying and testifying for bills

*featured image is sourced from Virginia General Assembly Publications document, titled "GAB Overview" linked here . Just a few blocks from the old Pocahontas Building, the 2024 Virginia General Assembly session will open in style as the new General Assembly Building project has finally been completed. As of October 2023, the new General Assembly Building (GAB) has been open to the public​ and is fully operational, meaning it will hold all legislator offices and committee mee

This was the last week of the General Assembly, which is set to officially adjourn (“ known as Sine Die ”) on tomorrow, Saturday, March 12th. This week, legislators took final action on bills that needed to be negotiated between each chamber as well as the state’s 2022-2024 biennium budget. More information on the next steps are listed below, but for now, we must say that we are very proud of the bills that we were able to defeat in both the House and Senate this session, and

Since cross-over and thanks to the amazing labor lobbying team, a lot of bad worker and voter bills were killed on party line votes in the Senate. Again we can't thank union activists enough for all of their hard work week in and week out. While most of our bills have made it through the process this session, the Budget remains. Last week, the House and Senate debated and voted to adopt their respective budgets as we mentioned in our Week 6 blog post. Our friends at the Com

In the midst of crossover, we have a lot happening with bills we need to defeat, and we could go on and on about that, but this week, it is important to talk about the budget and give an update on that. In the meantime, for some fun labor lobbying relief, check out some special lobbying guests below! A word on the budget: This past week, the House of Delegates and Virginia Senate each approved its own version of the Commonwealth's next biennial operating budget. On Sunday, th

It's half time at the General Assembly! Yes -- Crossover. What is crossover you might ask... well... Crossover is the day during the General Assembly session where all the bills that passed the House of Delegates get sent to the Senate, and all the bills that passed the Senate get sent to the House of Delegates. The legislation will "crossover" from one chamber to the other for consideration, debate, and more voting. This is especially important because some of the most dange

So much is happening and we are steady making progress at the General Assembly. Meetings with Delegates and Senators, morning meetings with labor activists, phone calls, emails, and long committee meetings are becoming the norm for sure! Our labor activists are testifying on legislation and it is making a HUGE difference in ensuring our progress from over the years is not stripped away from us. Also, The House Appropriations Committee is currently considering the nearly 900 b

This week things were picking up and labor saw some HUGE wins that set us on the path to maintaining the progress made in the past two General assembly sessions. We defeated lots of bad bills meant to set us back and forged ahead on some great legislation that would give thousands of working families across the Commonwealth new and much needed and deserved worker protections. Check out this week's highlights: Highlights Defeated Bad Bills/Bad Bills That Went Away for Year : A

The second full week of session and things are relatively the same when it comes to the House. Things are slow moving at a snail's pace both on the floor and in the committees; meanwhile, in the Senate, legislation is moving from committee to the floor rather quickly as there wasn't one docket not full on their side of the chamber this week. With that being said, it was a powerful week for labor, check out this week's highlights below This Week's Legislation Highlights Defeat

During the first full week of Session 2022 we recognized Martin Luther King, Jr. Day while the House and Senate began to vote on legislation. Bills have started to be referred to the committees and subcommittees where they will receive their first votes. We were getting into the full swing of things with morning meetings full of enthusiastic labor activists looking to lobby General Assembly members to urge them to protect the progress we have made over the last 2 years. This

Today the 2022 General Assembly Session gaveled in at noon. Opening ceremonies were followed by the swearing in of the new House of Delegates class, and the transition or changing of the guard from the Democratic majority to the Republican one. The House is now split 52 (R) - 48 (D). The new Speaker of the House is Todd Gilbert (R) , who previously served as Speaker from 2018 - 2020, and the new House Clerk is G. Paul Nardo who served as House Clerk for 8 years until in 201

The General Assembly starts tomorrow, and it is important to update everyone on a few important things when it comes to this session and maneuvering during COVID and the new administration. We have been working diligently to gather as much intel as possible when it comes to protocols for lobbying during this session, and thus far, this is what we know: The majority of legislators are solely taking virtual meetings or have a strong preference for them. There are a handful tha

This week, we came steps closer to the end of session. Many of the conference committees took place on several key pieces of legislation, many heated debates, and lots and lots of votes. There's still so much more to be accomplished before this session officially ends, but take a look below to see what has taken place this week! LEGISLATION THAT PASSED THE HOUSE/SENATE AND ARE HEADED TO THE GOVERNOR SB 1157 - Moving all Local Elections to November (Spruill) SB 1245 - Absente

Crossover has begun and both chambers of the General Assembly are taking care of business. This past week was slow, yet moving rapidly with many bills flowing through subcommittees and both chambers tackling many budget items, and swinging into the groove of special session. From this week's session, here's just a few bills to highlight that passed the House/Senate and are heading onto the Governor or into a Conference Committee***: SB 1157 - Moving all Local Elections to Nov

Crossover has begun and both chambers of the General Assembly are taking care of business. This past week was slow, yet moving rapidly with many bills flowing through subcommittees and both chambers tackling many budget items, and swinging into the groove of special session. Labor legislation is still in play, and we need more labor activists to join us in the fight at the GA to ensure that the good pro-worker pieces of legislation gets passed and sent to Governor Northam to

This week's end crashed right into crossover. That's the deadline where the House must complete all its legislation that needs to be sent over to the Senate for their action on it, and vice versa. The days leading up to Friday's deadline were long, but very successful! This week we saw a lot of progress on legislation that would strengthen and protect workers and the voices of working families in the Commonwealth prevail in each chamber and we are looking forward to their co

The legislative train is running full speed ahead, and keeping labor activists busy! Legislator meetings, sub and full committees and floor sessions are picking up speed and still adding time to the clock as the meetings this week dragged on late into the night. Long nights and early mornings are required when we are working towards ensuring that working families of Virginia are being kept at the forefront of policies. Of course, still -- hundreds of bills are in play at the

This was the first full week of the General Assembly session, and boy, things are moving FAST! Even with both chambers having bill limits, still. thousands of bills are pouring in daily and lots of pieces of legislation that will effect labor are in the mix! With that being said, we lobbied on over 10 bills this week, but here are just 3 pieces of legislation from the week: HB 1786 - Minimum Wage; Include Farmworkers - Delegate Jeion Ward : Eliminates the exemption from V

The 2021 General Assembly has begun! On Wednesday, January 13th, the House, who is operating virtually during this year's session, and the Senate who is conducting session at the Virginia Science Museum, gaveled into session. This year's session will be 30 days long. Normally, legislators would vote to extend the session an extra 15 days, but this action requires a two-thirds vote from the body. Both Senate and House Republicans rejected this motion. However, it is anticipat

RICHMOND -- Doris Crouse-Mays, president of the Virginia AFL-CIO, today released the following statement in response to Governor Northam’s decision to delay the effective date of legislation that would allow localities to opt-in to collective bargaining agreements with their employees: “Virginia’s public service workers, many of whom are on the front lines of this pandemic, today realized the sting of empty campaign jargon from 2017. Virginia is ranked last in the nation fo