Jace White, federal affairs director for the National Right to Work Committee, said that Right-to-Work laws have emerged as a defining issue in the Virginia gubernatorial race and may heavily influence the election’s outcome.
On Wednesday’s edition of The John Fredericks Show, White and host Fredericks acknowledged that polling shows preserving Right-to-Work protections, which allow employees to choose whether to join or financially support a union, has overwhelming support across the nation and in Virginia.
White argued that while Right-to-Work is often under the national radar, it carries enormous weight among Virginia voters.
“It has a lot to do with the power that these union officials unfortunately wield,” White explained.
“Many politicians, including Abigail Spanberger here in Virginia, have been siding with the union officials over the majority of their constituents that don’t think that somebody should be forced to pay dues to a labor union that they just don’t want to be a part of,” he added.
White criticized Spanberger’s voting record in Congress, pointing to her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would effectively repeal Right-to-Work laws in all 27 states that have them, including Virginia.
He also noted Spanberger’s failure to support the National Right to Work Act, which would enshrine worker choice into federal law.
These actions, White said, put Spanberger at odds with a strong majority of Virginia voters, as she prioritizes the interests of national labor unions over the freedoms of individual workers.
“When you take a position like Spanberger has taken…that’s a very unpopular position, and I think that’s causing her to really drop in the polls as Virginia voters start to realize exactly what they’re going to be getting,” White said.
“She’s doing everything possible that she can to lose this race to Winsome Earle-Sears, who has been a vocal supporter of Right to Work from the beginning,” he added.
White praised Earle-Sears for standing on the side of worker freedom and economic opportunity, framing her position as more in line with Virginia voters.
He argued that Earle-Sears offers voters a clear alternative to Spanberger’s “radical” labor agenda, which he claims would undermine both worker rights and the state’s economic competitiveness.
“Spanberger comes out and says that she wants to get rid of Virginia’s Right to Work law. This is just a pattern for her, supporting the 20 side of these 80/20 issues. It doesn’t seem, to me, like a recipe for political success,” White said.
“What Abigail Spanberger is promising to deliver is a worse economy and worse rights for people in Virginia,” he added.
White concluded that the Right-to-Work is not an anti-union stance, but a pro-freedom position, emphasizing that when union membership is voluntary, unions become more accountable to their members, and workers are free to support only those organizations that truly represent their interests.
“It’s all about freedom. It’s all about voluntary choice for individual workers. There are unions that people feel deserve their money and they’re more than happy, more than able to give that money to those unions. But there are also a lot of them that are very corrupt, that are ineffective, that are overtly political, that people want to be able to voluntarily choose not to support a union like that. It doesn’t make a lot of sense in America to be forcing people to support causes and organizations that they don’t feel are providing them any benefit,” White said.
“That’s the simple thing that Right to Work does in Virginia, and it’s important that it be kept around,” he added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Virginia Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Editor’s Note: John Fredericks is the Publisher of The Virginia Star.
