Posts tagged Legislative staff
More Democratic legislative staff seek to unionize in Washington
March 30, 2026 // A 2022 law cleared the way for partisan legislative staff to unionize starting in 2024 and to negotiate workplace terms and conditions. Legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff in the House Democratic Caucus, legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus and legislative assistants for Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate did so. Each has since negotiated their first collective bargaining agreements. Washington Public Employees Association represents the Democratic employee bargaining units and the Legislative Professionals Association represents the Republican staff unions. Democratic policy and communications staff are looking to be part of the same bargaining unit as legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus.
Faculty, Grad Workers Left Out of Virginia’s Collective Bargaining Expansion
March 24, 2026 // There’s a big caveat to SB 378, though. The bill exempts several categories of public workers from collective bargaining rights, including judicial branch employees, General Assembly staff and public college and university workers, “except for service employees.” That means faculty and graduate student workers at state institutions will continue to lack the right to form officially recognized unions that colleges and universities must negotiate with.
Raises for one union not funded in WA budget, leading to finger-pointing
May 19, 2025 // Leaders for the WPEA say a failure to fund a new contract could impact thousands of state government employees such as food safety officers, commercial vehicle enforcement officers, and wildfire fighters. Some contracts for WPEA locals were funded, including for employees at the Yakima Valley College and for Senate and House Democratic legislative staff. But WPEA contracts for general government and higher education employees, which represent the bulk of the union, were not. Many state agencies employ a mix of those represented by WPEA or WFSE.
Democratic legislative staff in Washington approve first-ever labor contract
January 13, 2025 // The contracts also outline new ways to resolve conflicts between elected officials and legislative staff. And there are provisions to create a “transition” pool for union members facing the loss of a job because the lawmaker they work for retires, loses re-election or leaves office for another reason. Knapp said the Senate contract lays out how a person facing the loss of work could get a job as a session aide to avoid unemployment. There’s also language ensuring the employer provides workers, who are at-will employees, with two weeks notice before being let go or two weeks pay if fired.
Government Unions are Down — But Not Out
September 10, 2024 // For nearly a decade, the Commonwealth Foundation has tracked state-by-state changes in labor laws. Every two years, the Commonwealth Foundation releases its research on the ever-changing legal landscape for public sector unions, assessing each state’s efforts to promote public employees’ rights or cave to unions’ entrenched influence. This fourth edition examines government unions’ attempts, following Janus, to hold onto and expand special legal privileges under state laws. The research also highlights the states reining in government unions’ power and influence by empowering workers.
Union votes herald a new era for workers in Washington Legislature
July 11, 2024 // One petition covers 82 legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff of the House Democratic Caucus. The other is for 32 legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus. Both seek to be represented by the Washington Public Employees Association. Under Washington’s law, employees of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber must be in separate units unless a majority of each caucus votes to be in the same unit. However, units can negotiate collectively on economic issues, like wages and benefits, with the employers, which are the chief clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate. When bargaining begins, several subjects are off-limits, such as the length of the work day during a legislative session, as well as in the 60 calendar days before a session and the 20 days afterward.
Would-be union of Illinois legislative staffers accuse Welch of undermining organizing effort
May 24, 2024 // In a scathing statement, the Illinois Legislative Staff Association accused Welch of passing the bill “to deflect rising criticism” and feigning solidarity in public while privately colluding with Democratic Senate President Don Harmon to ensure the bill “went no further” once it passed the House. “Speaker Welch took advantage of our sincere desire to work with him and used it to score political points while continuing to undermine our efforts to organize,” the lengthy statement said. “This whole exercise was nothing but a hollow ruse, meant to gaslight us while we drafted his bills, staffed his committees, crafted his talking points and analyzed his budget.” ILSA, which is currently made up of staff for the House Democratic caucus, formed in secret in 2022 and went public with its unionization efforts last year. The association then spent the summer accusing Welch of stonewalling its efforts for recognition.
Vermont Senate unanimously passes amendment ensuring workers’ right to unionize
April 4, 2024 // Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, A Democrat/Progressive from Chittenden, told his colleagues that it's critical to "enshrine" the authority of labor unions in Vermont at a time when they are under siege in several other states. "When I look at this particular amendment, I look on it very much as I did the amendment we made to the constitution in terms of reproductive rights. We are strengthening what we have, and we're protecting it from going away, which can happen in the legislative blink of an eye."
Another union push from legislative staffers
September 22, 2023 // Last July, Senate President Karen Spilka refused to recognize a union push by staffers to affiliate with IBEW Local 2222. State law allows employees in the executive or judicial branch to unionize, but not those who work in the Legislature. Legislation filed by Sen. John Keenan and Rep. Patrick Kearney would change the law and allow legislative staff to unionize.
California lawmakers to let legislative staffers unionize
September 22, 2023 // “Unionizing staffers in legislative offices makes no sense because it creates more problems than it solves,” says Brigette Herbst, senior organizing director for AFFT and a former state legislative staffer. “How does unionization work with the long and unpredictable hours during a legislative session? How will elected officials handle untrustworthy staffers? Union organizers haven’t answered these important questions.” Herbst also raised concerns about unions’ connection to lobbying. Legislative staff often meet with lobbyists (including union lobbyists) on behalf of the lawmakers they work for, and Herbst believes that could result in an unfair allocation of state resources.