Abstract
As overall union membership stagnates nationwide due to the contraction
of traditionally unionized industries, labor organizations have made historic
inroads into new, highly volatile employment sectors, including digital media,
tech, political campaigns, and the gig economy. One such sector that
has seen new life is state and local legislative employees. Excluded from coverage
by the National Labor Relations Act, legislative employees have been
subject to disparate labor rights, job protections, and terms and conditions
of employment across and within states. While efforts to secure collective
bargaining rights for this sector have occurred over the past twenty-five
years, the simultaneous yet uncoordinated unionization efforts since August
2019 of staff in six seven states and Congress have brought new national
attention to the issue. As member-organizers seek to build a nationwide
movement of legislative employee bargaining, this essay considers the lessons
of existing and past legislative, judicial, and organizing efforts. Each
organizing attempt offers a unique response to a distinct set of laws, actors,
and geography; while some of those choices may be replicable elsewhere,
more likely any future campaigns will need to be bespoke. As we enter the
third year of a pandemic that continues to destabilize traditional workplaces,
additional efforts, drawing inspiration and lessons from existing units, will
continue to appear and contribute in yet another unique manner to this still
emergent area of public sector organizing.
Recommended Citation
Louis Cholden-Brown,
Unionizing in the Chambers of Government,
25
Rich. Pub. Int. L. Rev.
101
(2022).
Available at:
https://scholarship.richmond.edu/pilr/vol25/iss2/6