Posts tagged nancy Pelosi
Why longtime labor ally Dina Titus quietly helped kill efforts to unionize her office, ex-staff say
June 24, 2025 // In a statement to The Nevada Independent, Titus said that she “actually welcomed a union because I thought it would help standardize operations and bring more accountability to the office.” She referred to ex-staffers’ stories as “unsubstantiated claims by former, anonymous, disgruntled employees.” “Jobs in my office are hard jobs and I have high standards,” Titus said. “I demand a lot of my staff but no more than I demand of myself because I believe that’s what the people of District 1 deserve. I’m not apologizing for this. People don’t send us back here and pay our salaries to drink lattes and view Tik-Tok from 9-5, Mon.-Fri. That’s not how my constituents’ lives work.” But the behaviors Titus, who turned 75 in May, displayed during and after the unionization effort demonstrate why, the ex-staffers said, they felt the need to collectively organize and push for more formal office policies in the first place. “It felt like everybody else should be unionizing [and] can unionize,” one staffer said. “But when it came to our office, and it came to actually impacting her — that's when labor did not matter anymore.”
Déjà Vu All Over Again
April 14, 2025 // Reclassification attempts began with a media narrative, then blue-state legislation. The same thing is happening now with sectoral organizing.
After a year of organizing, staff union leaders look ahead to collective bargaining
May 11, 2023 // While it’s been months since OCWR certified the first staff union elections, waiting times are normal in collective bargaining. According to a Bloomberg Law analysis, the average CBA takes 465 days to sign after a union election, although a good chunk (47 percent) take less than a year. “What's really interesting about this process is we are inventing the wheel of how negotiating works in Congress,” said Laudick. “Members of Congress are having to learn about what this relationship looks like. And those members, as much as they tout that they're very pro-union and that they are for unions, they've never sat at the negotiating table. They have no clue how this works.” That extends to some of the top-level congressional aides in supervisory positions, who are considered management under federal labor law. “We heard a lot of chiefs of staff asking if they could join [the union] last year,” said Laudick.
As IRS Swells, So Will Democrat Campaign Coffers
April 17, 2023 // The IRS union PAC gave 100% of its PAC-to-PAC funding to Democrats in the 2022 cycle The IRS union PAC prioritized political donations to Democrats who happened to be in 2022 battleground races In fact, 95.83% of the IRS union PAC’s donations to federal candidates were steered to Democrats, including progressives
They work for Congress. They also have second jobs
January 31, 2023 // The group behind the new project, the Congressional Progressive Staff Association, hopes those posts will be the first of many that will illustrate the financial hardships of poorly paid Hill staffers. The series, which you can also follow on Twitter, was inspired by Humans of New York, the popular photoblog that pairs on-the-street portrait photography with short and often poignant stories from the subjects, according to CPSA spokeswoman Zoe Bluffstone. Her group partnered with Dear White Staffers, an Instagram account that allows Hill aides to share their gripes and gossip anonymously. Bluffstone hopes Humans of the Hill will similarly show staffers that they’re not alone in their financial struggles and should band together to demand better working conditions.
Dems’ rail-strike challenge: Save the economy and your ties to unions
December 2, 2022 // Progressives pushed for paid sick leave in any agreement, and party leaders glided a two-step solution through the House. It may not survive the Senate buzzsaw.
‘Joe Biden blew it’: Rail workers union lashes out at the White House
November 30, 2022 // “Joe Biden blew it," Railroad Workers United said in a press release. "He had the opportunity to prove his labor-friendly pedigree to millions of workers by simply asking Congress for legislation to end the threat of a national strike on terms more favorable to workers. Sadly, he could not bring himself to advocate for a lousy handful of sick days. The Democrats and Republicans are both pawns of big business and the corporations.” Biden frequently calls himself the most pro-union president in history, yet he's now urging Congress to use the power granted it under the Railway Labor Act of 1926 to avert a strike that would cause severe economic disruption. After meeting with Biden at the White House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) vowed Congress would take up a bill this week to avert a strike. Biden has called on railway workers to accept the labor contract brokered by the White House in September, warning that a strike threatens “crippling” disruption.
Biden to Congress: Intervene in labor dispute, avert rail strike that would ‘devastate’ US
November 29, 2022 // With a Dec. 9 strike deadline fast approaching, Biden urged Congress to adopt "without any modifications or delay" an agreement brokered by the White House in September between labor unions and rail operators. Four of the 12 unions have voted to reject the five-year agreement, which was intended to avoid a shutdown of the nation's freight rail system. "A rail shutdown would devastate our economy," Biden said in a statement. "Without freight rail, many U.S. industries would shut down. My economic advisors report that as many as 765,000 Americans – many union workers themselves – could be put out of work in the first two weeks alone. Communities could lose access to chemicals necessary to ensure clean drinking water. Farms and ranches across the country could be unable to feed their livestock."
Biden backs California farmworkers union bill as pressure on Newsom grows
September 6, 2022 // Biden in his statement did not name Newsom, who vetoed a similar bill last year, but Biden’s support comes as many advocates stage protests and vigils in Sacramento calling on the California Democrat to sign the bill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro have both urged Newsom to sign the bill. United Farm Workers president Teresa Romero,
‘She’s an arsonist pretending to be a firefighter.’ Critics say newly re-elected AFT head’s agenda is destroying education as she steers $12m to Dems and encourages beliefs like white teachers ‘spirit murder’ minority kids
August 1, 2022 // A glance at the AFT's spending under Weingarten's leadership is enough to eradicate any notion of political or ideological neutrality. Since she assumed leadership in 2008 the power of the union coffers has been harnessed and used almost entirely in the interests of the Democrats. In 2008 the union spent $2.6million on campaign contributions with 10 percent of that going to Republicans. Tiffany Justice, parental rights activist, Weingarten earns $534,240, eight times the average teacher's salary, Moms for Liberty, Daniel Buck, Chalkboard Review, Social and Emotional Learning, Stanford University professor Terry Moe,