U.S. House of Representatives staff took the step toward union membership Tuesday night after a vote by their superiors.
Members of Congress passed a resolution providing legal protection to employees trying to fix up their Capitol Hill offices. Workers involved in union efforts say it represents an important change in Congressional labor law that would allow them to form unions without fear of retaliation.
The House approved the resolution by party vote. But instead of voting on the resolution, Democrats held it in a procedural measure, so they voted on several other pieces of legislation, including aid to Ukraine.
The House staff reunification proposal could be implemented without a resolution accompanied by the Senate. The event is only suitable for employees in home offices.
Employees of the House of Democratic Representatives have spent more than a year creating a union campaign, they hope it will improve working conditions in Capitol offices. Kakagawa lang Congress of Trade Unions It shares stories of employees working during happy hours, resisting abusive employers and discrimination, and unable to live on low wages in Washington.
Congressman Raul Grizhalva (D-Ariz.), Who supported the measures, said the unification of United House staff could lead Congress to pass better legislation.
“The employees I’ve talked to, inside and outside my office, who are interested in the union are probably the most committed to public policy,” Grijalwa told HuffPost.
Separately this month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-calif.) Announced the minimum wage for House staff. Floor installation $ 45,000.
Hill workers did not enjoy the same right to unite and trade together as most other American workers. Congress would allow Hill’s staff to meet in 1995 Congressional Liability ActBut lawmakers have never taken a decisive step to formally pass regulations outlined by the Congressional Internal Service Agency for this to happen.
The event, adopted Tuesday by the House, will protect workers who organize and process transactions through the Congressional Workplace Rights Office. Congressman Andy Levine (D-Mich.), A former union organizer and strong ally of organized labor, sponsored the House resolution and garnered the support of fellow Democrats.
Two members of the Congress Workers ’Union organizing committee told HuffPost before the vote that lawmakers have essentially freed themselves from collective bargaining in recent years and the House is now setting double standards. The two committee members spoke on condition of anonymity because they felt they were still vulnerable to retaliation.
“There’s a culture of secrecy and you have to pay taxes to climb the ladder.” This allows for workplace abuse, ”said one.“ Otherwise it gives employees the legal protection that the other workers in the United States, we are in an area where we cannot fully address this concern. “
If members of the House block collective bargaining in their workplaces, it means they think “they are above the laws they make,” the staff added.
The unions have recently achieved significant results. The Labor Union won More than 60 elections In Starbucks stores across the country a few months after Starbucks there was no merger in the U.S. for decades. The novice Amazon Labor Union was shocked at the union movement when it did He won a historic election In early April, at the Staten Island warehouse in New York.
Progressive Democrats were pleased for these developments and criticized companies like Starbucks and Amazon for their anti-union campaigns. When the Democratic Party has moved in a more pro-labor direction in recent years, Democratic lawmakers will have a hard time thwarting their union workers ’efforts so they don’t look completely hypocritical.
One employee said that even some progressives don’t like the idea of union negotiation, but they should do it if they want to follow their own principles.
“If you look at who signed the resolution, there are many, many progressive leaders who were not the first to sign it,” he said. “I think there’s a lot of public pressure on these progressives.”
“There’s a culture of secrecy and you have to pay taxes to climb the ladder. It allows for workplace abuse.”
– Member of the Organizing Committee of the Congress Workers’ Union
It remains to be seen what collective bargaining will look like in Congress. John Wellman, Director of the Office of Workplace Rights, He testified at trial In March, according to Roll Call, workers could come together from office to office instead of together in one transaction unit. In committees, each party will have their own staff negotiation unit, as unit members will respond to different leaders.
Most likely, the organization is primarily – and perhaps exclusively – on the democratic side of the corridor. Republican lawmakers are opposed to merging their offices, and many of their conservative employees may not be interested in striking a union agreement.
Nor is it clear exactly what employees can exchange. Trade union committee members told HuffPost that what they mean is everything unions typically do: wages, promotions, discipline and grievances, layoffs, health and safety issues and more. (Federal workers outside the legislature have the right to bargain collectively, but by law they cannot negotiate wages.)
Congressional officials said they would view any attempts to limit their business opportunities as a form of union disruption.
“At a time when workers across the country are standing up and fighting for their rights, we expect members of Congress, especially the Democratic leadership, to support them,” a staff member said. “When a union is broken, it will be a sad and bad event for our party.”
Source: Huffpost
