#unionise your workplace
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My boss: [the manager of our client/partner] emailed me to tell you they don't want you mentioning unions to their employees.
Me: I'm pretty sure it's illegal to explicitly forbid union members organising, but the national industrial action has been announced publicly anyway.
Boss: Well they just don't want you to mention it.
Me: Remember on my first day, when I had to walk in due to rail strikes, and you said I could work from home for as long as those strikes continued? This is just like that. All I did was ask [our client/partner] if they were aware of the ongoing industrial action in order to address possible delays.
Boss: But if you were a member of the rail union --
Me: Which I am.
Boss: 😐
#unions#trade union#unionise#unionize#solidarity forever!#agitate educate organise!#the union makes us strong!#unionise your workplace!#unionize your workplace!#industrial action#trade unions#original#up the union!
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unironically i'm so glad my brand on this site now is That Union Bitch. went from reading a union email to opening a notification on tumblr about unions. all unions all the time. maybe i'll fuck around and unionise YOUR workplace, how about that.
#( * ooc. )#i'm the girl the union-busting lawyers warn you about#'they'll skulk around your workplace and hand you flyers and try to bully you into unionising' yea i will. what about it.#have you joined a union today. can i interest you in... a pamphlet.
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An overview of workplace organising
So you've started a new job and, unfortunately for you, there's no union. Not even a place where you and your co-workers can winge about work. So how do you resolve that? How do you Organise™?
Organising activities generally fall into the following (and often overlapping) groups:
Mapping and charting
You cannot even start organising without first understanding your workplace. Where do people work? Where are the break rooms? Who is friends with who? What positions and responsibilities do they have? How do you contact them? Etc, etc, etc.
Answering these questions is key - and often required before you can even begin talking to co-workers. Of course, this is a continuous process and, once you've got a few folks on your side, this can be a collaborative process.
One-on-ones
In organiser circles, there is a tendency to want to leaflet everywhere to announce your presence, and then immediately gather all workers together in a big meeting to then discuss unionisation efforts. This is an almost surefire way to get yourself fired and kill any appetite for organising among co-workers. On top of that, it is incredibly impersonal, shyer voices will get pushed to the side for more vocal, and potentially more conflict-driven voices.
In the IWW, the union I organise with, we emphasise the importance of one-on-one conversations, as you can find a lot more about your co-workers that way, and often things that might get lost in a huge meeting.
Of course, there is no harm in these larger meetings once you've got the ball rolling. But starting off, one-on-ones are key.
Identify movers and shakers
Some co-workers will be well-connected in the workplace. Some will be naturally more likeable than others. Some might have held social events or helped out a few other co-workers in the past. These people are your social "leaders" (for lack of a better word).
You usually want these co-workers on side as soon as you can. If you don't get them on your side, the boss or management will get them on theirs, which makes unionising efforts so much harder.
They are also very useful during organising efforts and can help out with one-on-one conversations.
Recruitment
Asking people to get involved in a union, especially in a workplace that is hostile to them, can be very tricky (and terrifying). But this is a crucial step.
Get people involved in the organising committee, create officer roles to carry out particular tasks, fill those roles democratically, and recruit your co-workers to the union.
You will actively have to reach out to people in this step. We cannot rely on the "self-starters" who are already interested and are bold enough to ask "How do I join?". A workplace is made up of everyone in it, even the shyer workers - especially the shyer workers in my experience! The union is for every worker.
Additionally, as time passes, it gets very difficult to ask people to join. Some people will start seeing benefits in their workplace but without actually putting in any of the work and think "Well, why bother?"
Planning
Once you've got a few co-workers together, have an active group of you mapping, charting, reaching out to members, and identifying issues, then you've got to start planning how to address these issues.
Pick something, anything, no matter how small. Sometimes it can be an issue where the workplace hasn't got enough office stock. Sometimes the door to the building jams and needs a couple of people to shove it open. Find the issue you want to organise around and plan how to resolve it, together.
The issue you identify can also be used to recruit more people to your cause.
Public actions
Finally, it's time to go public. But what does this look like?
I outlined a lot of actions in my previous post here. But a lot of these may be overkill depending on the issue. Sometimes you can get away with less aggressive action.
The typical way this is done is a march on the boss. This is a great way to start the escalation process and sometimes will get you what you want immediately. Of course, no action is perfect, and you'll have to get creative as the boss pushes back more and more.
In conclusion...
This was a general overview of the organising process. Of course, for brevity, a lot was skipped over. Before trying to carry any of this out, I'd recommend you take part in some form of organiser training with your respective union - the IWW Organiser 101 training is fantastic, just as an aside!
Best of luck in all your organising efforts!
Stay safe and solidarity, fellow workers! xox
#union organising#union#how to organising#how to organise#union organizing#organize#how to organize#march on the boss#iww#wobbly#tips and tricks
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It's so fucked up seeing the industry I've worked in for years now simultaneously post astronomical profit and announcements of "cost-saving layoffs"
All that because our grandmas are likely not interested in picking up the next world War simulator or whatever but CEOs and shareholders are convinced that continuous increase of profit is a realistic goal, so if profit are huge but the same as the previous year (or in line with inflation) because understandably your niece's newborn does not want to play "you want me to kill this guy for you, I'll kill this guy for you" simulator, it's considered a failure.
Despite huge profit for the company, many of my colleagues went without a raise last year (or with raises below inflation) because we didn't reach a goal which was set using data from the previous years when many ppl had increased free time due to covid spread prevention measures. (Also because a lot of morally correct ppl do not want to buy games from companies that cover up workplace harassment, some of them had been long time players of said companies' games) By some miracle I got a decent raise. I doubt I'll be so lucky this year.
The studio I work has so far been relatively safe. We lost a lot of administrative staff at the end of last year, but not in 2024 yet as far as I'm aware. And my parents have convinced themselves that we're probably safe, but how am I suppose to feel safe when the industry I poured my life into is refusing to pay us properly due to bad goal setting and indiscriminately getting rid of us also due to mad goal setting, despite making fucking bank.
If you have friends in the game industry, check on them, see if their alright whether or not we've lost our jobs, it's fucking terrifying.
If you are in the game industry
if you are unionised, check with your reps about getting increased protections, increased severance packages for layoffs and better raises in your next negotiation period.
If you aren't unionised, the best time to find if there is a campaign for a union is yesterday, but now will do. If no campaign currently exists, find colleagues who also understands the importance of unions and start one. A union might not be able to stop mass layoffs, but with better pay and conditions negotiated as a unit, weathering the storm can be made so much easier.
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Strike Etiquette:
Please note: This applies to everyone, not just members of a union or a specific union. This applies to you. Yes. You. You, too. Also you. No, you can't use a note from your mom to get out of it.
DO NOT SCAB. EVER. In the case of the WGA, if you scab you will never be allowed to join. Period. No exceptions. Even if that weren't the case, please understand that union protections are not enforced if you're strike-breaking. You will get screwed in perpetuity for a quick buck. Don't fuckin' do it. Don't betray your fellow workers by scabbing. You're placing striking workers in danger and increasing their hardship.
DO NOT CROSS A PICKET LINE UNLESS YOU HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED BY THE STRIKING UNION TO DO OTHERWISE. When nurses or doctors or hospital staff strike they absolutely will instruct the public to cross their picket line. I don't care what your excuse is. It's a shit excuse and you can shove it. Unless you've been told by the striking union it's okay you never, ever, ever, ever cross a picket line in any way.
DO NOT BOYCOTT UNLESS AND UNTIL THE STRIKING UNION CALLS FOR ONE. Unions are backed by smart organisers who know when to start and how to structure a boycott for maximum effectiveness. Trust that unions know what they're on about and FOLLOW THEIR LEAD.
SUPPORT STRIKING WORKERS. Post messages of solidarity on social media. Encourage others to follow strike etiquette. If you can show up and show the striking workers on the picket line your support. Donate to a strike fund. Find out what you can do to help others unionise. Unionise your own workplace if that's feasible.
This has been a public service message from me. Thank you for your time.
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do you have any advice on what to do when your workplace is unionized, but the union provides inadequate help to the workers?
an important question. the recent drive for unionising in the US is exciting, but many of the unions involved in these campaigns are about as complacent as it gets. organising for power within a union can be just as difficult as organising against the boss.
for the majority of unions, what they're willing to do for their members begins and ends with the contract they have bargained on your behalf. you have a right to see that contract, so request a copy. be persistent. be annoying if they are too slow. you have a right to see it within a timely manner.
the contract itself will be long and boring, but read the entire thing. it is the totality of what the company and the union have agreed to, and it dictates what you are and are not allowed to do within the limits of the contract.
there is nothing stopping you from taking an OT101 and learning how to speak with your coworkers about what they would like to see improved, and then build power from within to push for that towards the next contract negotiation. some unions are more democratic than others. some encourage membership to attend meetings, others aren't as comfortable with that. transparency differs greatly among the unions. regardless, organising is the same.
gather contact information, map your workplace, listen to your fellow workers and learn what they are frustrated about. agitate, educate, inoculate and continue to push. your union is supposed to represent you and the interests of all the workers performing covered work under the contract. get involved and stay involved. get the personal phone number of your steward and talk to them regularly. remind them again and again about what needs to change. don't suffer excuses, the most common of which will be "the contract is the contract." that contract can and will be renegotiated, so make sure everyone up the ladder knows your name, where you work, your local, and what needs to be changed. be a nuisance, and get as many of your fellow workers as possible to be nuisances until it gets fixed.
because if they don't represent you as you want to be represented, you can decertify from them and sign up with a union that will actually fight.
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realistic coffee shop au where your blorbo tries to unionise their workplace
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Sign to support immigrant workers trying to unionise their workplace.
And don't forget to boycott ginsters!
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After the climactic release of the historically successful Avengers: Endgame – the 22nd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the penultimate release in their “Infinity Saga”, the culmination of 11 years of brand-building, the second-highest-grossing film of all time – Marvel decided what the world really needed was more Marvel.
Armed with classic Hollywood hubris – the misguided conviction that the public would never tire of what they were selling – Marvel Studios rolled television production into their main business model, with “Phase Four” delivering more television shows than movies. The effect was a flooding of the market and a dilution of the brand, not to mention the release of the worst MCU movie, Eternals.
Forcing narrative crossovers between television shows and movies had the adverse effect of turning the former into homework and the latter into ads for the former. This practice was an act of artistic self-sabotage, ruining what could’ve been Marvel’s most sublime film, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, by burdening it with a host of tonally-off, studio-obligated B-stories crowbarred in to promote upcoming television titles.
After a run of disappointing films that weighed down once-fun franchises with po-faced gravity – Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – and a slew of ordinary television shows – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Moon Knight, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Secret Invasion – we’ve officially reached a state of Marvel fatigue, with questions looming around the state of the superhero industrial complex.
It’s in this cultural moment that Loki, the acclaimed solo show for the titular character, arrives for a second season. It doesn’t just have to live up to an inspired first season but also has to push back on all the bad vibes, a difficult task given the heavy presence of Jonathan Majors, the breakout star who was arrested in March on domestic violence charges.The great charm of this season is that it cultivates the feeling that it could head anywhere and be anything. Loki doesn’t just explore free will as a theme, it actually feels as if it artistically possesses it.
The good news is that, whether or not it can be spun as state-of-Marvel narrative correction, season two is a worthy successor. Blessed by the fact its titular character, Tom Hiddleston’s charismatic God of Mischief, remains a slippery figure, Loki is allowed to move forward with no clear lines drawn between good and bad, protagonist and antagonist, hero and villain. Characters hold convictions until they don’t, make choices that will have ramifications, agitate for themselves, then for the greater good, and try to navigate a world whose rules shift beneath their feet.
It’s largely set, once again, in the Time Variance Authority, a comic bureaucratic labyrinth charged with policing multiversal time lines. Offering obvious symbolism at a time when Marvel is struggling to retain coherence in the midst of its “Multiverse Saga”, the TVA prizes the one true “Sacred Timeline”, pruning infinite possibilities back for the sake of cosmic narrative purity.
The TVA is an inspired retrofuturist space steeped in Eastern Bloc mid-century design and early Terry Gilliam films, satirising the pernickety dictums of workplaces and government offices – “limit your lunch break to 17 minutes!” proclaims one poster. From its dated tech – ’70s-style computer monitors, reel-to-reel tape machines, chrome hi-fis – to its curved surfaces, coloured floor tiles and lurid-emerald key lime pie, it’s a rare work of inspired production design by a studio otherwise synonymous with green-screening its way to rush-job eyesores built by an army of non-unionised offshore digital effects artists.
Everything in the TVA looks shabby and neglected, evoking its place as an office lost to time. The plot machinations of season one found an Avengers-adjacent Loki commandeered by the authority – Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson), upper-management Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and others – to pursue a variant of himself, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino), through time and space.
It ended with an explosion of multiversal time lines and revelations about the true history of the TVA: its top-down system of authority a matrix of illusion, its mind-wiped employees existing in a state of suspended limbo, its time line-culling operation seeming a lot like a morally questionable act of mass slaughter.
In the fallout from that climax, season two finds characters questioning whether the TVA is an entity worth preserving or destroying, not to mention the meaning of their own existence and the ramifications of choice. It’s a study of free will and moral responsibility, housed in 45-minute episodes of action-oriented television. Its chief writer, Eric Martin, both lionises liberty and weighs up its gravity, while happily dealing in the all-American fear of governmental oversight.
The collapse of the TVA’s artificial reality – “everything you’ve been doing is wrong and all your gods are dead”, Mobius deadpans in classic Wilson fashion – leads characters to their own convictions. Mobius seeks peaceful resolution. Renslayer seeks to preserve her power and the authority’s agency (“all that matters is order versus chaos”). The once-bellicose B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) has a moral reawakening. The dogged Dox (Kate Dickie) is more committed than ever to the cause. The weaselly X-5 (Rafael Casal) wants to explore his new-found independence and maybe become a movie star. The oddball tech guy with the on-the-nose name, Ouroboros (Ke Huy Quan), is there to both provide comic relief and to save the day from a temporal calamity that may destroy all worlds, or something to that effect.
Loki’s playful riffing on time means every benign use of the word pops – “it’ll take some time”, “remember that time”, “take your time”, “time to go” – and its first four episodes dance along the Earth’s time line at various points of history – 1868, 1893, 1977, 1982 – with plentiful hijinks, dabbling in genre tropes, meta use of Loki’s skills of illusion and misdirection, and creepy fast-food-franchise sponsored content.
Looming over all is the presence of the big bad of Marvel’s Phase Five, Kang the Conqueror, played still, to this point, by Majors. He’s seen here in two variants: a squirrelly 19th-century nutty professor named Victor Timely and the all-powerful end-of-time figure met at the end of last season, He Who Remains. These twin characters are connected but separate enough that they symbolise the series’ focus on free will. One may be fated to become the other, but does that mean that he – and the future – can’t change?
The great charm of this season is that it cultivates the feeling that it could head anywhere and be anything. Loki doesn’t just explore free will as a theme, it actually feels as if it artistically possesses it. While it may not be enough to combat the waning influence of comic-book screen output, this season does feel like a disarming counterpoint to recent Marvel Studios product. Rather than feeling conscripted or forced, a puzzle piece that exists solely to build a bridge between branded content, Loki remains its own thing: a nimble exploration of big themes in a colourful, comic, oddball package.
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on October 21, 2023 as "Changing times".
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Have you asked your employer to try a 25hr work week?
I my workplace is unionised and the union is pushing for a 4 day workweek but it obviously hasn't happened yet.
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Leverage Redemption Log: The Card Game Job
Ok, time for the show to try and justify its use of playing-cards in the leader i guess? (still waiting for the timebomb)
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Ah, a beautiful establishing shot of a riverside, then a shot of a toppled tree. Nice to see a place get shown rather then hidden behind infinity-point font.
Kids dad is running out of money for their medication, its gotten to the point they need to sell their truck. (Fuck)
kid dies within 1 minute of taking the medicine.
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Look I know this guy is scum, but lets not use the "he's pleading the fifth and listening to his lawyer and therefore must be evil" propaganda bullshit, allright? He's evil because he's holding sick childrens lives hostage, not because he's pleading the fifth.
hedge fund primarily made up of his own money? That sounds like a lie.
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Poor Lucy, Not only did she get fucking kidnapped, not only does she have to watch workplace harassment seminar videos but also IT looked into her browsing history?
Poor Lucy.
Coffee and Beignets delivered (place your bets for poison?), button-cam in place.
Suck-up is gonna be the achiles heel. (Suck up is also the true mastermind behind the price-gauging)
Breanna is placing office bugs.
Guy got second in a TCG once years ago and is still pissed about it. Initial prediction: Sell him a Black Lotus?
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Back from commercials, Breanna is loredumping. Apparently there is a rare and unique card in the castle somewhere. (no one knows what the finder gets outside the card. Im betting its Willy Wonka rules and the finder gets the company)
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They've taken the bait and now legitimately think the company might be for sale.
redirected his e-mail server. Honestly a lot more we could be doing with that. (you know what happens when a hedgefund CEO type doesnt have access to his own e-mail for a day? What can happen if you can send e-mails from his server in his name? I sure as heck dont know but am afraid of the answer)
Ok, either he is actually selling or we're getting counter-conned. (yeah, number 2 is definitly the real power here. We're scamming the wrong mark)
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and we're doing a national-treasure cluehunt. (its gonna suck, cause all the riddles are gonna be clueless riddles about a fictional cardgame we as an audience cant solve.)
Why the slo-mo on the walkout of the theatre? This scene does not ask for that.
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Sad Breanna is sad that Parker wont accept their help. (Parker is acting a bit OOC here, she knows better then to refuse a booklet of passwords)
Harry is here to unionise the securityguards.
Breanna has bought Parker time by attacking his pride and re-focussing him into "proving himself" by playing the actual game (he knows he cant lie about the riddles)
Big Thug is off to find Sophie (dont worry, Elliot is with her)
Elliot is not happy that he's being volunteered for a Joust. (weird, i know he likes horses)
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Cordozar is wearing secret Clark Kent glasses to cheat. (When is team leverage gonna catch on that they're conning the wrong mark)
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And "Rage" has killed Elliot's dragon.
Ah the classic "its all part of the show" fightscene. Love myself one of those.
Ok its the lake-pond. Nice little thing with harry signing to take the earbuds out for a private talk.
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"you have to be a killer" breanna says one thing he doesnt like and he imediatly calls for a time-out.
Look for anyone who wasnt paying attention, obviously this all ends with Mr. Poet not selling his company because his passion has been re-ignited, and may even end with him getting his castle back. But I just want to note how charming it is to see Sophie con a man, not because she is after anything he owns but because she just needs him to be happy and distracted for a bit.
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What do you mean it took Breanna this long to realise she could hack his glasses/earbud thingy or his assistants cardgame-supercomputer... I guess she is new at this like Harry is so it sort of makes sense for her to miss that...
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Climatic "place to belong" community-speech is a bit on the nose and overdone but its a cliche that is overdone for a reason. (guess what, most cliche's are cliche because they work. saying something is cliche is a statement of fact not an insult)
"guess im not that good", nice line. 8.9/10
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"lets just say the new owners are happy, and even happier to avoid a class action lawsuit".
Game night at the theatre.
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Unfortunately this episode did not assist in justifying the sequel series bond-based trailer.
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Unison got back to me they said 'hey so you need 10% membership and a committee and then we'll help you get recognition' and I'm like yeah. I know. take it several steps back, I am asking whether you can help us get 10% buyin and also why we should affiliate with you, specifically. what does YOUR union have to offer?
every fuckin leftwing organisation in this country has forgotten how to make a case for itself I swear to christ. I'm not signing my entire workplace up to pay extortionate membership dues out of the goodness of my heart, WHAT 👏 CAN 👏 YOU 👏 DO 👏 FOR 👏 US??????
every time I say something like this to union reps they look at me like I've gone insane. I do not think that I am being unreasonable. We need national union backing bc we work in a high-risk setting with vulnerable clients and staff and the legal backup is important. but we're not unionising because we just Love Unison (or GMB, or Unite, or whatever else). We're unionising to support each other in the workplace. We aren't here to serve national unions, they're here to serve us.
and yet they treat you like you're being unreasonable and naive if you say hey. make a case for what you can do to support us.
if you care about the actual function of unions, which is to give a voice and recourse to workers, then put in the fucking effort to explain why people should work with you and how they should do it. this does not seem hard to me.
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I can’t get these thoughts out of my head after finishing Andor. God it’s an wonderful show. I don’t even know SW beyond The Mandalorian. My thoughts are barely coherent and I don’t have the words for it and somebody out there probably put it better than me but I can’t help thinking about how this show portrays work under the system.
Syril’s new job features people sitting in cog-shaped pods working through the most mundane jobs and it is so strikingly similar to an office job we see anywhere today. Your task at hand may not be directly harming anyone—or so you think—but when you let yourself become a compliant cog in the larger system of oppression, just doing your job and doing your job and doing your job, you are mundanely complacent.
The prison scenes are a horrifying look into the prison-industrial complex but also. But also. If we forget about the fact that it is a prison. Isn’t it also like any other modern workplace? Hyper competitively trying to outperform one another, thoroughly disposable and no one gives a shit about it, the ‘rewards’ you get in the form of slightly better tasting food, working and working and working in unending cycles until you get burnt out, and what is the meaning of all this? There is no escape. (Unless you all do something about it. I don’t know. It just very much felt like unionising to me, that moment led by Kino and Cassian.)
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Today, November 10, is my birthday and the start of the final year of my twenties. Wow! Something that’s been a little tradition for me for quite a while now is requesting that anyone who wants to celebrate please use this as an opportunity to do something nice in the world.
Whatever that means is entirely up to you! It could be helping someone who needs help, or making a point of being kind to the people you encounter. For anyone in a position to make a donation, you might choose to donate what’s comfortable for you to a local organisation or not-for-profit in a space that matters to you.
(I can personally strongly recommend LandBack activism, conservation and ecological protection and restoration efforts, existing and in-progress unionising workplaces, housing for the unhoused, or another important cause in your local area).
You might not be in a position to make a donation, or physically or emotionally offer support to others at the moment. That’s totally okay too. Any small act of kindness, generosity, or positivity is a good thing and very welcome -- whether that’s complimenting an artist or writer you think is great, giving a boost to an indie creator to help them along, or even just making a conscious decision to be kind and compassionate to yourself. It all helps make the world a better place.
Thank you for being here, and I hope you have a great day.
#personal#there's no expectation for you to do anything and absolutely no need to tell me what you've done/will do#that's your personal choice and not mine or anyone else's to know.#but if you do decide to make tomorrow a good day in the ways that you can -- please know that i appreciate it very much.
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I really like your post on collectivism it is so true. I'm very involved in trade union work in my western country (ireland) and the amount of people who are like: "workers are paid so bad conditions are so bad" and I'm like you should get involved with your local trade union and fight on that you sound real passionate!!! And they're like I dont want to pay union subs?? Which is like... so you want change, you wont personally do anything, you wont pay 5 euro a week to support a trade union to actually fight for all those things but it's okay cos you INDENTIFY as someone who cares about worker's rights and tell people that? So what if you do zero about it?
The worst who are like the unions are left wing enough so I wont join one... even the least radical trade unions can win workplace battles... I'm out there in a highly unionised working environment and I still have to fight all the time. It's like collectivism involves actually doing something. Arghhh!!! The cure is to actually see people who have dedicated their time fighting for change.
thank you!!
the thing you said about identifying as someone who cares is so real. before uni i had several meetings with my high school’s administration to talk about things that the student body wanted (and got in trouble for the walk-outs i organized when the meetings fell through lol) and people were always asking me why i cared so much and how i got the courage to do these things—but it comes so naturally to me. i don’t understand people who want things to happen but never do anything other than think about it—it would drive me insane to just sit and think. i grew up around family that had the most wild, interesting life stories because they are proactive, and seeing my western-raised peers wait for things to simply happen is just incredibly unappealing
and yes the politics are so infuriating! my friend’s dad was in a union for his construction work but he left AND quit his job because he didn’t like how left-wing it was. i remember him telling me once that if he wasn’t poor, he’d always vote republican. the cognitive dissonance…insane
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This morning there are two stories about staffing in the House. The one below about Nancy setting a minimum wage for staffers and teeing up a vote on unionisation, and the other about Republican Victoria Spartz. being the worst person to work for. Talk about a study in contrasts.
From the newsletter than it’s Politico but is full of ex-Politico:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi will announce this morning that she’s setting a minimum salary for House staffers, a gigantic boon for a workforce that historically has been underpaid and overworked.
The new minimum annual salary for staffers is $45,000. It goes into effect on Sept. 1.
Here’s the letter to lawmakers, obtained exclusively by Punchbowl News. And here’s the key excerpt:
With a competitive minimum salary, the House will better be able to retain and recruit excellent, diverse talent. Doing so will open the doors to public service for those who may not have been able to afford to do so in the past. This is also an issue of fairness, as many of the youngest staffers working the longest hours often earn the lowest salaries.
The government funding legislation enacted in March included a 21 percent increase in the MRA for each office, which will more than cover this pay adjustment. It is highly encouraged that Members use this MRA increase to honor the committed work of your staff members.
This is just the latest step taken by Pelosi in recent months to try to make the House a better place to work and keep congressional aides from decamping to higher-paying jobs off the Hill. Last August, Pelosi decoupled House staffer pay and member pay, increasing the maximum House staffer salary to $199,300. Members’ pay is capped at $174,000.
That maximum annual rate for House staffers will now increase to $203,700 to match the Senate’s increase, Pelosi said in her letter this morning.
Pelosi was integral in getting the 21% boost in lawmakers’ office budgets – known as the Members’ Representational Allowance – included in the annual government funding bill this year.
Pelosi, along with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries, pushed for the MRA increase during the government funding negotiations. Democratic leaders said they hoped the additional money for House offices would be used to bump up staff salaries.
“The government funding legislation enacted in March included a 21 percent increase in the MRA for each office, which will more than cover this pay adjustment,” Pelosi wrote this morning of the new salary floor. “It is highly encouraged that Members use this MRA increase to honor the committed work of your staff members.”
More big news: The House will also hold a vote next week on a resolution that allows House staffers to unionize. If enacted, the resolution would let House aides bargain over working conditions. But unionized staffers would be limited on the issues for which they may collectively bargain over. For example, they couldn’t negotiate for wages and benefits.
Benefits are determined by the House of Representatives as an institution. Allowing aides to bargain over specific benefits would require a new law. With Republicans opposed to the effort, it’s difficult to see anything passing the Senate.
Still, the boost in staffer pay, plus the ability to negotiate workplace conditions, is an enormous change for the House and those who work there. Unionization was permitted under the 1995 Congressional Accountability Act, but it hasn’t happened until now. Here’s more from Pelosi’s letter:
First: the House will vote next week on Congressman Andy Levin’s resolution recognizing Congressional workers’ right to organize. When the House passes this resolution, we will pave the way for staffers to join in union, if they so choose. Congressional staffers deserve the same fundamental rights and protections as workers all across the country, including the right to bargain collectively.
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