Congressional Workers Union launches organizing effort as Pelosi and Schumer say they support Capitol Hill staffers' unionization efforts

• Congressional staffers are launching a unionization drive amid revelations of poor work environments on Capitol Hill.
• "It is time for Democrats to lead by example," the group said in a statement on Friday morning.

Congressional staffers on Friday announced an organizing drive to unionize Capitol Hill, just as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said they would back congressional staffers' organizing efforts.

"After more than a year of organizing as a volunteer group of congressional staff, we are proud to publicly announce our efforts to unionize the personal offices and committees of Congress, in solidarity with our fellow workers across the United States and the world," the group wrote in a statement released on Friday.

The effort, known as the Congressional Workers Union, is not technically a union but a group of Democratic staffers that have spent the last year quietly investigating their labor rights on the Hill. A spokesperson for the group, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said that their membership was in the "double digits."

"We call on all congressional staff to join in the effort to unionize, and look forward to meeting management at the table," the group added, citing a recent survey from the Congressional Progressive Staff Association that found 91% of staff wanted more protection to give them a voice at work.

"It is time for Democrats to lead by example," the group said.

"Our effort has been going on for more than a year and it's been pretty serious for that amount of time," the Congressional Workers Union spokesperson told Insider in an interview on Friday. "It's been a very sophisticated apparatus with a lot of smart and experienced people."

"A lot of people were not satisfied with the low pay, and high abuse rate, whether emotional or mental or things like that," the spokesperson said. "There were several staffers who got together who started researching into this."

The staffers began pouring over relevant aspects of the Congressional Accountability Act, of 1995, which extended private sector labor laws to the legislative branch. It created the ability for congressional support agencies like the Capitol Police to unionize, but a separate guideline for staffers in members' offices and committees to organize.

The House and Senate must each pass a resolution to enable staffers in their respective offices and committees to form a union.

A rare opportunity

Pelosi's comments on Thursday, and agitation from an anonymous Instagram account called Dear White Staffers that publishes congressional workplace horror stories, helped create the opportune moment for the Congressional Workers Union to take their efforts public. On Friday, Schumer gave his approval as well.

"Leader Schumer believes that hard-working Senate staff have the right to organize their workplace and if they chose to do so, he would support that effort," a spokesperson told CNN's Manu Raju.

Democratic Rep. Andy Levin of Michigan, a progressive, said on Friday that he backs staffers' unionization efforts and that he would be taking "legislative action" next week to enable a union drive.

Levin spokeswoman Jenny Byer confirmed to Insider that the Michigan Democrat would be introducing a resolution on the matter next week and expects more Democratic members to join him in the effort as well. She also said Levin's office was in contact with both the Speaker and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, though Pelosi's office declined to comment.

At her weekly press conference on Thursday, Pelosi initially dodged a question about whether she supports unionization.

"Well, we just unionized at the DCCC and I supported that," she said at the time, referring to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats' political arm. Pelosi offered no further details then, but her office clarified her position several hours later.

"Like all Americans, our tireless Congressional staff have the right to organize their workplace and join together in a union," Pelosi's spokesperson Drew Hammill said. "If and when staffers choose to exercise that right, they would have Speaker Pelosi's full support."

Pelosi was also briefly asked on Thursday about Dear White Staffers, an Instagram account that has been documenting staffers' experiences with lack of diversity and poor working conditions on Capitol Hill. The California Democrat didn't address that specific question directly.

"If you've got something extraneous, I'm happy to get to it," she said. "But let's talk — we're trying to keep government open, we're trying to be preeminent in the world."

Follow her statement, several House Democrats tweeted in support of unionization efforts. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Capitol Hill "sounds like the perfect place for a union."

"Given the momentum right now, the hope is to continue the momentum," the Congressional Workers Union spokesman said.