News and Media

With labor unions under attack from the federal government, yet more popular with Americans than ever, now is clearly not a good time for state legislators to pile on. But that is what happened earlier this month when state senators, following the lead of Governor Spanberger, ignored the call from labor unions and the NAACP to repeal Virginia’s most infamous and effective union-busting embarrassment, its so-called “right-to-work” law. By allowing SB 32 to die in committee, legislators on both sides of the aisle missed a vital opportunity to support workers at a time when they are under attack from all sides.

The only rights this 1947 law gives us are the right to silence our voice in the workplace, the right to be denied a living wage and the right to accept these conditions as unchangeable. The law, as it stands, is designed to deprive unions of the resources needed to help Virginia workers form unions of their own and win better wages, benefits and working conditions.

As a result, Virginia’s union membership rates are half the nationwide rate of 10%.

Last night, President Trump spoke to the nation about a country in a “golden age” for workers, where jobs are bountiful, consumer prices are dropping and Medicaid cuts have somehow enabled Americans to afford private health insurance. But for people who have had to spend 2025 working, driving, buying groceries, caring for children and paying rent, this rosy picture is clearly nothing beyond pure fantasy. 

Over the last year, Trump stripped more than a million workers of their collective bargaining power while defunding the only agencies that protect workers’ rights. Our low-income neighbors have lost access to the government programs that previously helped their families pay for food, housing and healthcare while the minimum wage remains so low that those earning it live in poverty. We have seen the reckless imposition of tariffs on countries around the world for the purported purpose of bringing jobs back to the United States, which has led to nothing more than economic instability, surging prices and the slowest annual job growth outside a recession since 2003. 

But the State of the Union was more than just a two-hour lie meant to obfuscate an agenda that prioritizes tax cuts for the billionaires Trump surrounds himself with from The White House to private Caribbean islands. It was yet another reminder of the relentless bigotry of this administration, which continues to scapegoat our immigrant and transgender neighbors while fomenting illegal wars in countries like Venezuela and Iran, all to enrich his friends and distract from the reality that this is the most destructive era for the rights of American workers in modern history. 

Workers aren’t buying this again and continue to join unions despite the myriad political forces stacked against them. The 90,000 members of OPEIU know the true state of the union because they live it each day. We will continue to organize until the successes Trump claims he has brought Americans become a reality. 

Forming a union — the most reliable pathway to the middle class — is hard enough in this country, but unfortunately it’s harder in Colorado than many states thanks to a one-of-a kind law that places unnecessary, redundant hurdles on workers.

At a time when federal worker protections are under attack, the National Labor Relations Board is being gutted, and Americans live with such financial stress that they are often too intimidated to speak up at their workplaces, it’s time for state leaders to make it easier for working people to win the lifechanging benefits of a union