[Archived] City of Alexandria Proposes Public Employee Collective Bargaining Ordinance

­­For Immediate Release: February 5, 2021

The City of Alexandria invites the public to review and provide input on a proposed Public Employee Collective Bargaining Ordinance, scheduled to be considered by the Alexandria City Council on February 9 and then set for public hearing on February 20 or a later date. 

The proposed ordinance, presented by the City Manager in reply to a request from City Council, responds to Virginia Code §40.1-57.2, adopted by the General Assembly in 2020 and effective May 1, 2021. The law permits counties, cities and towns to adopt local ordinances authorizing them to recognize any labor union or other employee association as a bargaining agent of public officers or employees; and enter into a collective bargaining contract with a union or association representing matters related to the employees and their employment. The ordinance does not apply to constitutional officers and their employees. 

Collective bargaining existed in 19 localities in Virginia, including Alexandria, in the 1970s until a 1977 Virginia Supreme Court ruling barred local governments from collective bargaining with their employees. The new state law now authorizes local governments to undertake collective bargaining with their employees, as do the laws of 47 other states.

The ordinance was drafted to promote orderly and constructive relationships between the City and its employees for an uninterrupted, efficient government. The City’s goal is to provide services that are responsive to the community; focused on improving quality of life; and delivered by well-qualified staff, who promote policies that achieve diversity, equity and inclusion and achieve organizational excellence while elevating principle of cooperation, ethics, honesty, initiative and learning.

Visit alexandriava.gov/CityManager for more information or to provide input.  

For inquiries from the news media only, contact Andrea Blackford, Senior Communications Officer, at andrea.blackford@alexandriava.gov or 703.746.3959.

For reasonable disability accommodation, contact dana.wedeles@alexandriava.gov or call 703.746.5494, Virginia Relay 711.