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Union organizers hope being the first legislative staff to unionize will motivate other legislative workers around the country.
For what appears to be the first time ever, the legislative staff of a state is announcing its intent to unionize.
On Tuesday, state legislative workers in Delaware announced a union drive on the first day of the new session, requesting voluntary recognition from state legislative leaders. Organizers from the Delaware General Assembly Union said on Monday night that a majority of legislative workers have already signed union cards, although Republican legislative staffers—as well as legislative leaders—only found out about the union drive on Tuesday morning. The proposed unit would be affiliated with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 81, and would include 44 staffers, including two nonpartisan staffers who work for the Delaware House and Senate clerks.
In a release, the workers say their effort “aims to create the first fully-inclusive state legislative union that cuts across partisan lines in the history of the United States—a historic step forward for public service workers across the country.”
Council 81 lead organizer Katherine Caudle, whose union currently represents roughly 7,500 public-sector workers in Delaware, tells the Prospect that through their conversations with the national union, they could find no other examples of state legislative staff unionizing. “As far as we could tell this is the first time partisan aides have organized for better working conditions,” Caudle says.
The workers say their effort “aims to create the first fully-inclusive state legislative union that cuts across partisan lines in the history of the United States—a historic step forward for public service workers across the country.”
Caudle added that a review by Council 81’s legal counsel found no legal barriers to the workers forming a union, and organizers said that the legal basis for forming a union was bolstered both by an executive order by former Governor Jack Markell as well as a law signed last year by Governor John Carney expanding the right to collectively bargain for higher wages to all state employees.
“A lot of people, if not the majority of people on staff, are working in the legislature because they believe in a workers’ right to organize,” organizing committee member and House Democratic Digital Media Director Sam Barry tells the Prospect. “A lot of us have worked on legislation expanding that right. So it feels like a natural place to go with the work we’re already doing.”
Organizing committee member and Delaware Senate Democratic Deputy Communications Director Dylan McDowell fully expected at least 60 percent of proposed unit members to sign cards by the end of the week, and he’s hoping legislative leaders will swiftly recognize the union voluntarily. “Luckily in Delaware we have legislative leaders who’ve stood by labor for a decade,” he says.
ALTHOUGH PUBLIC-EMPLOYEE and more recently campaign staff unions have become relatively common, the only state that has even some legislative employees unionized is Maine. In 2002, two groups of nonpartisan staffers at the Maine state legislature began a union drive; according to the Maine legislature’s Executive Office, one group of 62 staffers is currently represented by the Maine Service Employees Association-SEIU Local 1989, while another of about 28 staffers—mostly attorneys, analysts, paralegals, and researchers—is represented by the unaffiliated Independent Association of Nonpartisan Legislative Professionals. The MSEA-SEIU’s first CBA was signed in 2004.
Aside from that, legislative staff unions appear to be nonexistent. In 1995, the Republican Congress passed the Congressional Accountability Act allowing staff to form unions, although the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights says that “not all Congressional staff” are permitted to join a union. In 2018, California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher introduced a bill that would have allowed the state’s legislative staff to form a union; it died in committee. Earlier this year, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed a bill into law expanding collective-bargaining rights to state employees, although according to the Legislative Counsel Bureau, the new law exempts legislative staffers from that right.
Legislative staff at the local level have had a bit more luck. The three-person staff of Denver city Councilmember Chris Hinds unionized last year, and in December, 17 Berkeley, California, city council staffers unionized with SEIU. In November, New York City Council staffers announced their intent to organize as the Association for Legislative Employees. At the time, City College of New York professor Daniel DiSalvo told City and State that he couldn’t name another major city or state government whose legislative workers were unionized.
McDowell says that the move to unionize now was a proactive attempt to enshrine their rights as state employees, rather than a reaction.
“There’s a perception that unions are primarily formed under duress. I think what’s different about this effort is that things are pretty good, which is a product of what legislative leaders and chiefs of staff have done,” McDowell says. “But we want to make sure that remains the case, and we want to codify the way things are now and for the people who come after [us].”
According to Caudle, the union drive shows that public-sector unions are very much alive and well following the Janus Supreme Court decision in 2018. “I think that it shows that we have strength, and that in a post-Janus world where there’s anti-union sentiment trying to tear us down, it shows we’re stronger than ever,” she says.
McDowell says that he hopes being the first legislative staff to unionize will motivate other legislative workers around the country, as well as Delawareans in the private sector, to organize their workplaces.
“It’s an important chance for the First State to make the first move here,” he says. “Not just the state legislative staff, but hoping that workers in Delaware unionize no matter where they work and it’s a chance to lead by example.”
