Email and call your Virginia Delegates and State Senators today and ask them to co-patron Delegate Nadarius Clark's HB1220 "Right to Unionize" bill, which will repeal Virginia's so-called "right to work" law. You can fill out our form, or find additional contact information for your state legislator here.

"Right to work" makes it harder for workers to join together to improve their pay and working conditions. After two years of living  through a pandemic, we've seen how important it is for all of us that workers have power to negotiate fair and livable compensation and paid leave, as well as to demand safety protections in the workplace.

Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and increase total compensation including benefits, such as paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave, by about 28%, while significantly reducing gender and racial pay gaps. The "right to work" law does not give anyone the right to a job but instead reduces wages, health care, retirement security, and on-the-job safety for all workers.

"Right to work" has its roots in racial and economic inequality. Literature to support early "right to work" measures in the 1940s stated that if "right to work laws were not passed, white women and white men would be forced into organizations with black African apes ... whom they will have to call 'brother' or lose their jobs." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. famously said "we must guard against being fooled by false slogans such as 'right to work.'"

Repealing the "right to work" law would allow Virginia workers to organize for better working conditions and family-sustaining wages. Allowing our workers to unionize and have a seat at the table not only benefits workers, but strengthens our communities and our democracy. If legislators claim to support working people, then they should co-patron HB 1220!