Congressional staffers working in eight House offices have filed petitions to form Congress’s first-ever unions after being granted the right to do so in the spring.
House representatives voted to allow their staffers to unionize in a party line vote of 217 to 202 in May. The resolution, introduced by Rep. Andy Levin (D-Michigan), activated decades-old legislation that allowed workers to unionize but that required a separate vote explicitly endorsing the practice. After the legislation was published in the Congressional Record, there was a 60-day probationary period, which the Congressional Workers Union said ended on Monday, meaning that the workers are now free to unionize office-by-office.
“July 18 will go down as a historic day for congressional staff and our democracy — marking the day our protected rights to organize and bargain collectively go into full effect,” the union wrote in a statement. “After several months of organizing to establish these protections for House staff, we join 85 congressional workers in taking the next step in our organizing drive by filing for a union election in 8 offices in the U.S. House of Representatives.”
All eight of the offices that are now petitioning to unionize belong to Democrats. The offices that are unionizing are those of Representatives Cori Bush (Missouri), Chuy García (Illinois), Ro Khanna (California), Levin, Ted Lieu (California), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (New York), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota) and Melanie Stansbury (New Mexico). These offices will have to hold elections to decide whether or not to unionize.
“From Amazon and Starbucks to the halls of Congress to state legislatures across our country, every worker deserves the protected right of freedom of association, joining together with their colleagues in solidarity to organize and bargain collectively for a better workplace,” the union said on Monday. “We look forward to voting enthusiastically UNION YES in the coming weeks and sitting down at the bargaining table with our bosses.”
Lawmakers, including Bush, García, Khanna, Levin, Lieu and Omar, celebrated the filings. “I am so proud of the staffers who made a historic move today,” Levin said in a statement. “It is the workers who ensure that this institution — the bedrock of our fragile and precious democracy — operates efficiently and serves the American people here in the Capitol and in every corner of our nation.”
“My staff and staffers from seven other House offices made history today as they became the first Congressional offices ever to seek union recognition,” Bush said on Twitter. “Workers are stronger together, and I’m proud to stand in solidarity as they strive in making Congress a better workplace.”
Though there are Senate workers involved in the union, the Senate has not passed the corresponding resolution for its chamber, meaning that Senate staffers are currently barred from unionizing. Up until now, staffers have remained anonymous for fear of retaliation, which congressional workers in the Senate don’t have protection against, since the chamber hasn’t passed the resolution.
It’s likely that the legislation wouldn’t have the votes to pass in the Senate, with Republicans likely uniformly opposed and conservative Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) having voiced his opposition shortly after the union drive was announced in February.
When workers announced their campaign, they had been organizing to unionize for over a year. They say that, while all congressional offices are different, congressional workers face widespread issues with low pay, long hours and otherwise exploitative conditions. In May, before the resolution was passed, they wrote in an op-ed that their jobs are filled with “cruel ironies”; while they advocate for higher pay, inclusive policies and recourse for sexual harassment for the public, many of them survive on food stamps and face abuse in the halls of Congress.
Poor working conditions not only affect the workers themselves, but also the entire country, for whom these staffers are working to write legislation and research bills that are coming to a vote. Workers say that there is a constant cycle of “brain drain” in Congress, as workers often move to lucrative jobs in the private sector that pay far more for their level of expertise.
Lawmakers have acknowledged this phenomenon. Stansbury told Bloomberg Law earlier this year that she has heard senior staffers and fellow lawmakers imply that staffers are “expendable,” or “a dime a dozen.”
Help us Prepare for Trump’s Day One
Trump is busy getting ready for Day One of his presidency – but so is Truthout.
Trump has made it no secret that he is planning a demolition-style attack on both specific communities and democracy as a whole, beginning on his first day in office. With over 25 executive orders and directives queued up for January 20, he’s promised to “launch the largest deportation program in American history,” roll back anti-discrimination protections for transgender students, and implement a “drill, drill, drill” approach to ramp up oil and gas extraction.
Organizations like Truthout are also being threatened by legislation like HR 9495, the “nonprofit killer bill” that would allow the Treasury Secretary to declare any nonprofit a “terrorist-supporting organization” and strip its tax-exempt status without due process. Progressive media like Truthout that has courageously focused on reporting on Israel’s genocide in Gaza are in the bill’s crosshairs.
As journalists, we have a responsibility to look at hard realities and communicate them to you. We hope that you, like us, can use this information to prepare for what’s to come.
And if you feel uncertain about what to do in the face of a second Trump administration, we invite you to be an indispensable part of Truthout’s preparations.
In addition to covering the widespread onslaught of draconian policy, we’re shoring up our resources for what might come next for progressive media: bad-faith lawsuits from far-right ghouls, legislation that seeks to strip us of our ability to receive tax-deductible donations, and further throttling of our reach on social media platforms owned by Trump’s sycophants.
We’re preparing right now for Trump’s Day One: building a brave coalition of movement media; reaching out to the activists, academics, and thinkers we trust to shine a light on the inner workings of authoritarianism; and planning to use journalism as a tool to equip movements to protect the people, lands, and principles most vulnerable to Trump’s destruction.
We urgently need your help to prepare. As you know, our December fundraiser is our most important of the year and will determine the scale of work we’ll be able to do in 2025. We’ve set two goals: to raise $104,000 in one-time donations and to add 1340 new monthly donors by midnight on December 31.
Today, we’re asking all of our readers to start a monthly donation or make a one-time donation – as a commitment to stand with us on day one of Trump’s presidency, and every day after that, as we produce journalism that combats authoritarianism, censorship, injustice, and misinformation. You’re an essential part of our future – please join the movement by making a tax-deductible donation today.
If you have the means to make a substantial gift, please dig deep during this critical time!
With gratitude and resolve,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy