WASHINGTON — Amid a surge in labor organizing across the country, the U.S. House late Tuesday approved a resolution by Michigan Rep. Andy Levin that would recognize congressional staffers' right to organize and bargain collectively.
The measure, passed 217-202 along party lines by the Democratic-led chamber, creates legal protections for more than 9,000 "covered employees" in House offices or committees who want to raise workplace complaints or issues with their bosses without fear of retribution.
Members of the Congressional Workers Union organizing committee told The Detroit News that they see their effort as an extension of a broader groundswell of union organizing that gained steam amid the added stressors of a deadly pandemic and, on Capitol Hill, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
The staff-led push has followed years of complaints about low pay, long hours, hostile working conditions and lack of diversity among staff on Capitol Hill, with workers' individual stories highlighted in recent months by the anonymous Instagram account "Dear White Staffers." A 2020 Congressional Research Service report found the lowest pay level for some staffers to be about $22,600 a year.
"It should be no surprise that that movement finally came knocking on Congress' door," said one staffer involved in the CWU.
The nascent group is already seeing some results from the pressure it has put on leadership since going public in February. At the same time that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the impending vote, she also set a $45,000 minimum for House salaries for the first time, saying it would "open the doors to public service for those who may not have been able to afford to do so in the past."
"It's good that leadership is paying attention," said an organizing committee member who spoke on condition of anonymity over concerns of retaliation. "But what we want here is the ability to have a voice in this decision — not to just have that handed down to us."
GOP opposed
Levin's resolution would implement a section of the 1995 Congressional Accountability Act that's never been triggered for congressional staffers.
Lawmakers in 1996 greenlighted other groups on Capitol Hill to unionize such as the Capitol police, Library of Congress and Architect of the Capitol, but they didn't do so for staff employed by members' personal offices, committees and various other House administration and support offices. Levin said it was "hypocritical" to leave out the people who work for members directly.
"We have to right that wrong regardless of any particular working conditions in any given office or committee," said Levin, a Bloomfield Township Democrat and a former union organizer. "I don't think you can really be a democracy without affording your employees the freedom for unions to bargain collectively."
Levin's resolution has garnered no Republican support. GOP lawmakers said unions aren't feasible or practical with lawmakers' unpredictable schedules and "unavoidable" staff turnover due to member elections every two years.
"This is a unique employment. This is not generally a career path for people who work here," Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Georgia, said during a hearing on the resolution. "There are bad employers, and that's something that has to be dealt with individually."
Some GOP members also worried about how a strike or walkout could potentially affect the legislative process, but both actions are prohibited under the Congressional Accountability Act.
“America is facing crisis after crisis, and instead of focusing on the real problems our country is experiencing, the Democrats are trying to waste taxpayer dollars on unionizing right after Speaker Pelosi instituted a mandatory pay raise for all House staff," said Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Township.
"I wish my friends on the other side of the aisle cared as much about the average American as they do the political elite.”
The resolution had 165 co-sponsors including Michigan's six other House Democrats and was deemed passed when approved as part of a procedural vote Tuesday night. A separate resolution would have to pass the Senate for staffers there to gain the same right to organize.
Boom in organizing
Tuesday's vote came amid a boom in interest in unionization. The National Labor Relations Board received 57% more petitions for union representation — formal requests by workers for a vote to form a union — this year compared with last year, and polling favorability ratings of unions are the highest they've been since the 1960s.
That's in part because the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how vulnerable workers are and exposed how much power employers wield over their welfare, wages and benefits, said Mark Gaston Pearce, executive director of the Workers' Rights Institute at Georgetown University Law Center and former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
Workers have shown a willingness to change jobs as they reevaluate what they want from work, giving employees leverage in a tight labor market, and have secured protections through collective bargaining.
"Consequently, the view of organized labor by the American public has been enhanced substantially," Pearce said.
Workers have historically been represented by unions in federal agencies, which are under the executive branch. But "Congress has been a different matter. Each congressperson and senator has been essentially their own fiefdom," Pearce said.
Workplace safety on Capitol Hill has been even more in focus following the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and as the number of security threats to lawmakers and staff has risen dramatically.
"It's clear that the Congress has to respond and workers who are congressional staffers have found that this is a time where this would be the most appropriate," Pearce said. "You have public sentiment on their side and the environment that calls for such (changes) to take place."
Limits on bargaining
Each lawmaker's office and each committee are expected to qualify as bargaining units, with the opportunity for multiple House offices to collectively bargain jointly, according to testimony by John Uelmen, general counsel for the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. His role is to investigate and prosecute cases of unfair labor practices.
The staffers behind the Congressional Workers Union said they are looking to negotiate on wages, vacation time and paid leave policies, which are left up to the discretion of each individual office and are the source of many complaints. Staff said they also aim to bargain on management procedures for issues like grievances and promotions.
House staffers would not be able to negotiate on health or life insurance or retirement benefits because those are set by federal statute, experts said.
But other issues that are not a matter of law can be bargained about, said attorney Kevin Mulshine, who served as senior adviser and counsel for the predecessor to the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights when it began.
The government funding package signed into law in March included a 21% boost in funding for House members' offices, which Pelosi said she's encouraging members to use to "honor the committed work of your staff members."
Mulshine, who spent 15 years at the NLRB, predicted the most organizing activity will occur in the House committees — where staff often have longer tenures — and among non-political staffers in administrative and support offices, such as information technology.
"I think it's gonna be people who both have sort of a economic value to their skills that is not quite the same value that a political appointee or former campaign worker would have," said Mulshine, who retired as inspector general for the Architect of the Capitol.
"They can can sort of join together with other similar employees and really start to raise a ruckus about not being treated fairly."
Mulshine foresees fewer unions organizing in members' offices, which are smaller at 15-18 people and where staffers are often there because of a political relationship they might have an interest in maintaining for career purposes.
"Every two years, the question of whether you're going to be without a job comes up (at election time), and you want to make sure all the advantages are falling in your favor," Mulshine said.
The staffers behind the union effort say part of their end goal is to ensure livable wages and dignity for workers to slow the "brain drain" of talent that departs the Hill every year for better-paying gigs in the private sector or working for special interests to influence their old bosses on policy.
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