Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) handed staffers a huge win when he recognized their labor union despite rules allowing the Senate to be exempt from federal labor laws.
Markey's aides asked the senator to recognize their starting organization voluntarily during a staff meeting on Wednesday. This is a significant move for the labor force, as it is the first Senate labor union to be recognized in the upper chamber, according to the Congressional Workers Union.
UNION MEMBERSHIP FELL TO RECORD LOW IN 2022 DESPITE HIGH-PROFILE LABOR WINS
100% of @SenMarkey staffers have come forward and requested voluntary recognition. Once recognized, this Office will be the first ever unionized United States Senate office!
— Congressional Workers Union (@Congress_Union) March 8, 2023
“I applaud these passionate, dedicated workers who are exercising their right to organize through this fundamental, critical exercise in democracy,” the Democratic senator said, per Roll Call. “I am proud of my staff for embodying the commitment not to agonize, but to organize. I recognize their effort to unionize and look forward to engaging with them and the Congressional Workers Union.”
This is the second time Markey's staff has made history with unionization. In 2020, his team became the first statewide campaign in Massachusetts to unionize, according to the Boston Globe.
In his Senate office, the union would cover all nonmanagement positions, encompassing most of his almost two dozen staffers. Staff unions would allow congressional aides to advocate and negotiate for better working conditions, including time off, workplace protections, and work-from-home policies, which became popular during the coronavirus pandemic.
In May 2022, the House passed a resolution allowing all congressional staffers to unionize in the lower chamber, an effort that gained traction after several anonymous reports about aides' mistreatment and salary ranges came to light. However, the Senate did not pass a similar resolution for their staffers, stalling any efforts of the would-be organizers.
That following July, staffers in eight House offices filed petitions for union representation at the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights: Reps. Cori Bush (D-MS), Chuy Garcia (D-IL), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Andy Levin (D-MI), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Melanie Stansbury (D-NM).
This year, the Congressional Workers Union sent a message to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in February demanding a vote on a resolution authorizing labor unions in the Senate to unionize.
With a slim 51-49 majority in the Senate, the Democrats would need GOP support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster to pass a unionization resolution. This might prove difficult as the resolution would effectively overturn the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995, when a Republican majority passed workplace laws equating the Senate to the same rules as the private sector.
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The CWU's House-wide effort to unionize staffers is at a stalemate since Republicans took over the majority after the 2022 midterm elections. The chamber's rules package for the 118th Congress states that last year's union resolution "shall have no force or effect" for the 2023-2024 legislative session, according to Roll Call.
However, the rules package does not appear to disband existing staff unions but prevents additional offices from forming new ones. So far, the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights has not taken action against offices that petitioned to hold union elections last year.