Update — Members of SEIU Local 512’s Fairfax County chapter officially ratified their collective bargaining agreement on Friday, Oct. 24 by a 99.9% vote, the union announced.
If approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, the three-year contract will take effect on July 1, 2026.
Earlier: Librarians, social workers and other Fairfax County government employees could approve their first union contract in decades later this week.
The Fairfax County Government Employees Union reached a tentative agreement with the county in early September on a three-year contract that will govern employee pay, benefits and working conditions.
The contract must still be ratified by union members, a process that has been underway since Oct. 6 and is set to wrap up at 5 p.m. this Friday (Oct. 24). If a majority of voters support the contract, it will then go to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors for its approval.
“We realized our vision of securing a strong union contract for Fairfax County employees, and it feels great,” union chapter president Tammie Wondong said when the agreement was announced. “This was a long time coming, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished for current and future employees. This will bring stability to our workplaces and help improve services for county residents.”
Started in 2006 in response to the death of a public works employee, the Fairfax County chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local Virginia 512 has over 2,000 members, per its website. It was elected in May to exclusively represent over 11,000 general county workers after the Board of Supervisors authorized collective bargaining in 2021.
After winning the election, the union sent surveys to all county workers in the bargaining unit — which covers all departments except for the police and fire and rescue, which unionized separately — to gauge their priorities for the contract, SEIU Virginia 512 President LaNoral Thomas says.
Among other concerns, workers sought guaranteed and regular pay raises, an increase in the ceiling for salaries to address wage compression, permanent telework policies and a freeze on the cost of health insurance premiums.
“Over the last several years of organizing, we’ve heard employees say, ‘I get a raise, but my health insurance premiums go up, so I really don’t see the raise,'” Thomas said in an interview with FFXnow.
That issue is addressed in the proposed collective bargaining agreement, which will ensure that employees will pay the same rate for health insurance throughout its three-year term.
In addition, the contract shifts up the salary scale so the maximum possible pay is 75% higher than the minimum, up from the previous cap of 67%. That allows more veteran employees who’ve currently reached the top of their pay grade to receive raises, an SEIU Virginia 512 spokesperson explained.
On top of that, all employees will be guaranteed annual raises from 3.25% to 5.5%, depending on where they fall on the scale, and a 2% annual cost-of-living adjustment. According to Thomas, that will amount to raises of 9% to 16% over the full three years.
The agreement also protects the county’s existing telework policy, which Thomas says has been “really good,” and increases the differential, or additional compensation, workers can qualify for if they work unusual shifts and communicate in multiple languages as part of their job.
Given the size and diversity of the workforce covered by the pending contract, from nurses, engineers and parks and recreation staff to maintenance and sanitation workers, the union also negotiated the establishment of labor management committees that will oversee the agreement’s implementation and serve as liaisons for different workplaces.
“It is very, very important that we have frontline union members that are at every step of the process to not only represent themselves, but represent their coworkers,” Thomas said. “And so, it’s all about recruiting and building our worksite leadership teams to make sure that employees have someone that they can reach out to.”
When going into negotiations, Thomas says the bargaining team wanted to take a “solution-driven” approach, presenting possible resolutions for every issue they raised with the county. They were also adamant that the agreement must be feasible enough that it’ll be fully funded and approved by the Board of Supervisors.
“We were clear that we did not want to bargain an agreement that we would end up having to fight over at budget season, and so, we feel confident that we’ve landed in a place where both sides can agree,” Thomas said.
Fairfax County Public Schools workers learned the hard way this year that funding for a labor contract isn’t a given after the county’s allocation for schools fell well short of what Superintendent Michelle Reid requested, forcing FCPS leaders to offer lower-than-anticipated salary increases.
Budget challenges are expected to persist over the coming year, as the county tightens its purse strings in preparation for more economic disruptions from the ongoing federal government shutdown, tariffs and the Trump administration’s workforce and funding cuts.
