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BOSTON (State House News Service) - After Senate President Karen Spilka quashed legislative aides' efforts to unionize last year, some lawmakers are pushing to legislate Beacon Hill staffers' right to collectively bargain.
A Sen. John Keenan and Rep. Patrick Kearney bill would clarify in state law that Senate and House of Representatives staffers are allowed to unionize.
Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Auditor Diana DiZoglio and the majority of the state's congressional delegation support the unionization efforts, according to IBEW Local 2222, who is backing the staffers' bid.
"Being an aide to an elected official, you are doing the work daily, centering the humanity and dignity of people who feel unseen, helpless, hopeless, you are their lifeline, you are advancing policies to support their families thriving, while at the same time, you can be barely getting by, or experiencing and enduring a great many indignity that people have conflated as a part of the experience of being an aide that is just par for the course," Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley said during a legislative briefing on Tuesday.
The Boston congresswoman spoke about her own experience as an aide for Sen. John Kerry and Congressman Joseph Kennedy II. While working as an aide, Pressley also had a job waiting tables for six years to supplement her salary, she said.
Senate staffers launched their unionization effort last spring, but Spilka announced in July that "the Senate does not at this time see a path forward" for legislative aide unionization.
"With the information [Counsel] have provided to Senators today, the Senate does not at this time see a path forward for a traditional employer-union relationship in the Senate as we are currently structured," Spilka wrote in an email to senators and staff at the time.
Spilka added in her email, "I remain committed to making the Senate a great place to serve the people of the Commonwealth while building a career. We will continue our efforts to improve working conditions, benefits, and salaries, and we will incorporate staff input as we have done throughout my tenure."
A year later, Spilka still has not sat down with IBEW Local 2222, said Kevin Holland, IBEW vice president and assistant business manager.
Meanwhile, the number of Senate staffers who have signed union authorization cards has increased, he said.
The union requires over half of the aides to sign authorization cards to begin to pursue recognition from chamber leadership.
In the House, about two-thirds of the amount of aides they need to sign up in order to take this step have done so, Holland said.
There's a law on the books that allows executive branch staff the right to organize, and it was amended in 1977 to allow judicial branch staff that same right, Holland said. The Keenan and Kearney bill would build on this, to explicitly grant this authorization for the hundreds of legislative staffers who help run Beacon Hill.
"Legislative staff are virtually the only employees in Massachusetts who are excluded from the right to collectively bargain. To be clear, the very staff who are drafting the laws, writing the pro-labor speeches and advocating for workers rights on behalf of legislators are currently denied this opportunity themselves," said Shelly MacNeill, former chief of staff for Sen. Michael Moore.
Mark Martinez, a former aide for Sen. Pat Jehlen who now works at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said lawmakers "rely on union support" to get reelected, but haven't supported it for their own employees.
"The very first issue that I worked on in the Labor Committee was the response to the Janus decision from the Supreme Court. It was the decision that really gutted the ability of public sector unions to be able to organize and advocate for their people," Martinez said. "I think back often to that. How many statements were made by State House leadership -- the Speaker, the Senate President and other people -- about how important, not just unions are, but how important unions for public employees are."
Among the Massachusetts State House Employee Union's demands are a "livable starting annual salary," minimum annual cost of living raises, a clearer reporting process for harassment and discrimination, health insurance coverage in the first month of employment, measures to recruit, support, and retain a diverse workforce and comprehensive professional development opportunities.
"Each of you deserve to have a safe workplace, one that is free of discrimination and sexual harassment," Pressley said. "You deserve a workplace that provides health insurance coverage in the first month of employment. You deserve to have comprehensive professional development opportunities to support you in advancing your career. I've seen it time and time again, when we fight, when we organize, we win. And I do believe that this is a winnable fight."
Written By Sam Drysdale/SHNS
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