After Governor Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears vetoed commonsense legislation—including proposals to raise the minimum wage and provide paid family and medical leave—Virginians voiced their frustration in Dogwood, making it clear: this administration doesn’t care about working families.

Dogwood: The Youngkin-Sears Administration Doesn’t Care About Us

• “My name is Joyce Barnes. I’ve been a home care worker for over 30 years in Richmond, and I live paycheck to paycheck. Despite working hard, I often have no money left over at the end of the month for groceries, but I keep fighting.” 

• “I’m a proud member of SEIU Virginia 512, and for years now, I’ve been fighting with my union family for better pay and benefits for care workers, and better care for the aging adults and people with disabilities we serve.”  

• “We have won meaningful improvements over the years, and yet Virginia families still struggle to find the care workers their loved ones need because of the low pay and lack of benefits.” 

• “Collective bargaining would give us a seat at the table to negotiate and is the only way to win the quality home care system that would help care workers and the people we care for live with dignity and respect.” 

• “However, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed the bills that would have given first responders, educators, and home care workers like me the freedom to bargain collectively. Virginia families deserve better.” 

• “My name is Carlos Duran, and like my union sister Joyce, I work hard but still struggle with the high cost of living in Woodbridge. My life has been turned upside down after I was laid off last year after 35 years on the job.” 

• “My previous employer only gave me one week’s notice that a new cleaning company was coming in. When that happens, the new company can keep the previous employees or hire new people at lower wages without benefits to pocket more profits.” 

• “The new company hired me, but fired me after only a few days of work. My life, and the lives of other service workers, could be entirely different if Gov. Youngkin had not vetoed the Worker Retention bill, which would’ve allowed local governments to give low-wage service workers a transition period to find a new job.”

• “These greedy corporations don’t care that, for my family, this job was the backbone of our income, and losing it has been incredibly hard. I now struggle to put food on the table and pay the mortgage.” 

• “There have been many times since I’ve lost my job that I’ve skipped meals and gone hungry because there isn’t enough money. At 63 years old, I face the added burden of age discrimination, and finding work that pays enough to cover my bills feels nearly impossible.”

• “Worker retention protections, paid leave, and a higher minimum wage would help us have good union jobs that we could live on. However, Youngkin vetoed all of these bills, as well. His administration sent a clear message: they don’t value people who work every day to care for our communities.”

• “The Youngkin-Sears administration chose corporate profits over people with their vetoes this year. Virginians deserve a governor who will sign these bills into law and build a stronger economy for all people.” 

• “We trust that Abigail Spanberger will be the leader for the working people of Virginia, and that is why our SEIU brothers and sisters have endorsed her to become the next governor of Virginia.”