Labor unions threaten legal action over access at W.Va. Capitol Mineral Daily News-Tribune Mountain State Spotlight This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. For more stories from Mountain State Spotlight, visit www.mountainstatespotlight.org. CHARLESTON - The West Virginia AFL-CIO is threatening legal action unless the Legislature takes steps to increase public access to lawmakers that has been curbed in part by pandemic safety precautions. “There are lots of things they can do to allow the public to participate, even during this pandemic, and thus far what they’ve done, it appears, is go above and beyond to keep the public out of the process,” said Josh Sword, president of West Virginia AFL-CIO, a coalition of unions representing about 75,000 members.