Posts tagged Congressional Accountability Act
House Republicans’ attempt to block staffer unions may have missed mark
March 13, 2023 // The House began allowing members’ staff to form unions last year by adopting a resolution that authorized regulations from the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Republicans opposed the measure at the time, and after taking control of the House, they adopted a rule that said the “regulations adopted pursuant to [last year’s resolution] shall have no force or effect” during the current Congress. While that might seem to nullify aides’ ability to form new unions, the language is actually ineffective, said Kevin Mulshine, author of the Demand Progress Education Fund report and a former senior adviser and counsel at OCWR.
Unionize the Senate, staffers urge
February 9, 2023 // Labor advocates are pushing the Senate to recognize staff unions, in the hopes of kickstarting progress in the chamber now that their House organizing efforts have stalled under Republican control. The Congressional Workers Union sent a letter Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, Rules and Administration Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Bernie Sanders, demanding a vote by the end of the month on a resolution authorizing Senate offices to unionize.
Congressional Workers Union pushes back against GOP plan to eliminate collective bargaining rights
January 5, 2023 // In the months since the resolution's passage, the Congressional Workers Union has successfully unionized the offices of Democratic Reps. Andy Levin (Michigan), Ro Khanna (California), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), Melanie Stansbury (New Mexico), Cori Bush (Missouri), Chuy Garcia (Illinois), and Ted Lieu (California). They have also won a $45,000 base salary, overtime pay, and paid parental leave and negotiated the first contract for congressional workers in US history. Staffers don't plan to stop there, no matter what Republicans have to say about it: "We organized and unionized offices in the 117th Congress, and we’re going not to stop in the 118th Congress," the Congressional Workers Union tweeted.
What’s next for staffer unions on the Hill?
November 1, 2022 // Staff for another five members — all Democrats — have filed petitions with the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights to hold elections. Since the initial eight offices filed petitions when they were first allowed to in July, only two more have done so — staff for Reps. Dina Titus of Nevada and Sean Casten of Illinois. If all form unions, around 100 House staffers out of 9,100 will be represented by the Congressional Workers Union.
Staffers at eight House offices become first to unionize
July 20, 2022 // Congressional workers at eight United States House offices have started unionizing, two months after the House approved a resolution giving them legal protection to organize. A total of 85 House staff workers filed petitions Monday for representation at the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights, according to the Congressional Workers Union which called it a "historic day for congressional staff and our democracy." Rep. Cori Bush of Montana, Rep. Jesus "Chuy" Garcia of Illinois, Reps. Ro Khanna and Ted Lieu of California, Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico.
Authorizing congressional unions won’t end Democrats’ labor troubles
May 17, 2022 // Earlier this year, after the Democrat-controlled Washington state Legislature quietly killed a pair of bills extending collective bargaining privileges to legislative aides, about 100 Democrat staffers staged an unprecedented sickout. Facing a PR nightmare, panicked Democrat leadership quickly reintroduced and passed legislation allowing staff to unionize and bargain, but not until 2024, after a new “Office of State Legislative Labor Relations” spends millions of taxpayer dollars trying to figure out how to make it work in practice.
House tees up vote on union protections for staffers
May 9, 2022 // The resolution introduced by Rep. Andy Levin would address that by finishing a process the House began more than a quarter-century ago. When lawmakers passed the Congressional Accountability Act in 1995, they essentially removed a legislative branch exception to numerous federal statutes, including labor laws. But the House never took the final step of approving regulations issued by the Office of Compliance, now the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights.
Does Democrats’ support for unions extend to their own employees?
April 22, 2022 // The CWU, a group of staffers that launched a union drive earlier this year, wants the House to vote on a resolution guaranteeing staffers protections as soon as next week. Currently, the Congressional Accountability Act allows staffers to organize, but doesn’t offer them any shield from retaliation, meaning staffers could be fired and blacklisted if they do so. Thus far, Pelosi’s office has not commented on when a floor vote could be scheduled on the resolution.
Hill staffers are organizing. What could their unions look like?
February 9, 2022 // Amid ‘overwhelming’ response, staffers run up against convoluted structure of Congress