Public-sector workers are essential to society, and collective bargaining is a powerful tool for attracting and retaining these workers. The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute has shown that states without public-sector collective bargaining pay workers 5-8% less and that collective bargaining closes wage gaps for women and workers of color. However, a series of statewide legal actions that began in 1946, right here in Charlottesville, stripped the right to collectively bargain from most public-sector workers in Virginia.

This exhibition amplifies 22 years of advocacy by public-sector labor unions at UVA and in Charlottesville—the Graduate Labor Union, the Staff Union at UVA, United Campus Workers of Virginia, and the Amalgamated Transit Union—as they have fought to improve working conditions and restore Virginians’ right to collective bargaining. Despite the 1946 ban, Virginia’s unionized workers have developed creative strategies to build worker power and advance the labor movement at both the local and state level.