While most Democrats in Congress strongly support labor unions and their workers, Big Labor has not been able to crack one group of employees — staffers who work for members of Congress. But some on Capitol Hill want that to change.
Earlier this month, a group calling itself the Congressional Workers Union announced plans to try to organize a union just for staffers in House and Senate offices.
It quickly won vocal support from a number of Democrats.
“All workers should have a right to bargain collectively, and that collective voice is sounded by union representation,” said U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia.
Ironically, it was Republicans led by House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia who opened the door to unions in Congress, as part of a 1995 law that was designed to make sure all federal labor laws applied to Capitol Hill.
Unions weren’t the focus for Gingrich. Instead, GOP lawmakers wanted Congress to taste the same federal rules and regulations which many business-oriented Republicans detested.
In August 1996, a special board ruled that all Congressional staff could organize — but Gingrich and House Republicans never approved those regulations to let the process start.
On Wednesday, over 100 House Democrats introduced a resolution to use those exact same 1996 rules to allow for staffers to unionize. Georgia backers included Johnson, U.S. Rep. David Scott, D-Atlanta, and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta.
Unions are not a foreign object on Capitol Hill. The Capitol Police who walk the halls of the Capitol have their own union. So do workers at the Library of Congress across the street.
But it still doesn’t apply to those who work for lawmakers.
Still, even with this surge of interest, Capitol Hill veterans were skeptical that anything would happen since every Congressional office does things differently.
“I don’t know how that fits into any traditional union structure,” said U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Behind much of the discussion of unions among Democrats is a desire to increase pay for Congressional aides, especially for more junior staffers.
Each House member from Georgia has about 16-20 employees, split between Washington, D.C., and district offices back home.
While a few top aides can make $100,000 or more, for most staffers, the opportunity of a job on Capitol Hill is much more attractive than the pay. A 2021 study showed the median salary in a Congressional office last year was $50,000.
And there’s no overtime pay, even though many people routinely work much more than 40 hours per week.
Some of you might remember the pro-union TV ad from the 1970′s with people singing, “Look for the union label.”
We’ll see if Congress really wants to start singing that tune about their own employees.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and the Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
