For the staffers on Capitol Hill who have been organizing for over a year now, launching the Congressional Workers Union last week was the first public step toward better working conditions.
But for some lawmakers, the union push is yet another politically sensitive issue threatening to trip them up — particularly Democrats facing uphill election fights this fall.
Congress set the stage for unionizing staffers back in 1995 with the enactment of the Congressional Accountability Act, which removed congressional exemptions from 11 labor and civil rights laws. But lawmakers never took the final step of adopting the authorizing resolutions that would have finally given organizers the green light. Michigan Democrat Andy Levin introduced a resolution this week to let House member offices and committees unionize, along with 136 co-sponsors, all of whom are Democrats.
