House staffers confront reality of unionization: ‘No one knows how it would work’ – By Katherine Tully-McManus and Sarah Ferris (Politico) / February 8, 2022
Dozens of senior House aides are searching for the next steps for their union drive. They’re realizing fundamental problems will plague the process.
While congressional staffers’ talk of unionizing its long-overlooked workforce has suddenly accelerated, they’re already crashing headfirst into the more complicated reality.
Buoyed by an endorsement from Speaker Nancy Pelosi herself, dozens of senior House staff, mostly on the Democratic side, are searching for the next steps for their union drive. But it turns out that many of the problems with the Capitol as a workplace — notably, that there are more than 535 offices, each of which sets their own policies — are some of the same reasons it would be so tricky to collectively organize.
While lawmakers approving a resolution to officially grant staff the right to organize is the clear next step, most employees agree where to go from there remains incredibly murky. Senior House aides confirmed that institutional lawyers are looking into the matter, acknowledging there are huge questions about what comes next. For staff, that includes how to keep union momentum in an environment subject to high employee turnover and whether senior staff could be in the same union as junior staff.
Meanwhile, the idea remains effectively a nonstarter in the Senate, where it would require GOP support.
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