WASHINGTON — Assistants to eight of the House’s most forward-thinking members on Monday filed petitions to form unions in their offices, the first substantial move by congressional officials to organize collectively to negotiate better working conditions.
The move, which has been more than a year in the making, paves the way for home workers to begin negotiating benefits, promotion policies, and paid time off and sick leave without the threat of retaliation — a right other federal workers already enjoy. It follows a resolution passed in May granting congressional workers such labor protections for the first time and took effect Monday.
Petitions were filed by staffers to Representative Andy Levin of Michigan, who supported the resolution, as well as seven other Liberal Democrats: Representatives Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu, both of California; Cori Bush from Missouri; Jesus “Chuy” García from Illinois; Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York; Ilhan Omar from Minnesota; and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.
Organizers said they hoped the petitions were just the first wave of a much wider union effort in Capitol Hill, where Mr. Levin said 9,000 aides are now protected in collective bargaining.
“For far too long, Congressional workers have faced unsafe working conditions, unlivable wages and massive inequality in our workplaces that have prevented Congress from properly representing the communities and needs of the American people,” the Congressional Workers Union said in a statement. “By sitting at the negotiating table through a union, we have a say in decisions that affect our workplace.”
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Union representatives said the petitions would affect 85 congressional workers in the eight offices that petitioned, although staffers are not required to join their office’s union.
The aides who filed the petitions will be the first test of how Congress, which is exempt from many workplace laws, will answer important questions about work organization, such as who is eligible to join a union.
Unionization efforts on Capitol Hill have exposed the hard work hours and low pay of congressional workers, a widely known phenomenon that is rarely discussed. Working conditions have contributed to a lack of racial and socioeconomic diversity and to a revolving door of top staff seeking higher pay and better treatment.
It has intensified amid a wider union movement that took root as Americans reevaluated their relationship with work after the pandemic began.
“The workers of the US House of Representatives keep our democracy going, and it’s been a long time since they had these rights,” Levin said in a statement.
“Every worker deserves a living wage and a union, including in the halls of Congress,” Ms Omar said in a statement. “None of the work we do in Congress would be possible without our tireless staff.”
The Office of Congressional Workplace Rights will determine whether each office has an appropriate bargaining unit and then hold elections to officially form a union. If a majority of workers vote for unionization, members can begin the negotiation process.
The movement gained traction earlier this year as staffers reassessed their workplace safety in the wake of the Capitol riots and workplace culture. Several stories emerged on a popular Instagram account, Dear White Staffers, which started out as a place to criticize the lack of diversity on the hill, but quickly became a medium for staff members to voice serious grievances and share their toxic experiences with it. work on Capitol Hill.
In February, a congressional union was formed and a majority of House Democrats signed the resolution extending labor protections. Under the resolution, negotiating units would be segregated by representatives or committees, meaning no unit would represent the entire chamber.
Congress first voted more than 25 years ago to give its workers the right to unionize, but took no additional measures to extend worker protections to those who wanted to bargain collectively, so the right was essentially meaningless.
Daniel Schuman, the policy director of the progressive Demand Progress organization and a congress union specialist, said those protections could be fleeting, especially if Republicans — who typically oppose union efforts — take control of the House during the midterm congressional elections.
Mr Schuman said unionization efforts are particularly important in Congress as it operates on a political cycle, with the majority party dictating who gets the top jobs.
“The ability to unionize is a 140-year-old mechanism by which officials dealt with what used to be the booty system that still lives in Congress,” said Mr Schuman. “Having a stabilizing mechanism is essential for Congress going forward.”