Rep. Ro Khanna’s staff has secured the first long-term union contract in Congress after a yearslong negotiation process.
The California Democrat thanked his chief of staff Marie Baladassare and other employees, as well as the Congressional Workers Union, for making the union contract possible.
“I’m proud of our office for signing the first long-term contract in the history of the U.S. Congress. I hope this can serve as a model for other offices in Congress,” Mr. Khanna said in a statement.
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The Congressional Workers Union, a House and Senate staff-led organization that has helped individual offices unionize, did not respond to a request for comment.
In May 2022, the House, then controlled by Democrats, voted 217-202 to adopt a resolution extending federal-service collective bargaining rights to House staff.
The measure was led by then-Rep. Andy Levin, Michigan Democrat, whose office was the first to enter into a union contract later that year. However, the December 2022 ratification of the short-term contract was a mostly symbolic victory, as it came in the final weeks of Mr. Levin’s time in Congress.
The Congressional Workers Union still touted the contract as setting a “bold precedent” of wins for workers, including guaranteed salary increases, compensation time and telework benefits.
Mr. Khanna’s staff also formed their union in 2022, but it took four years to negotiate a contract.
The contract was ratified in August but not made public until a Politico article published Monday. According to the outlet, the agreement is valid through the end of the congressman’s current term and his next one, assuming he is reelected in November.
Nicole Waring, Mr. Khanna’s deputy director of constituent services who led the union negotiations, did not respond to The Washington Times’ request for comment.
She told Politico that the ratified contract establishes a higher salary floor, a mechanism to renegotiate salaries if the office’s budget allowance increases and a procedure to resolve internal grievances.
Mr. Levin’s and Mr. Khanna’s staff were among 13 House offices that formed unions in 2022, according to news releases the Congressional Workers Union put out at the time. It is not clear how many of those unions are still active and negotiating contracts.
Staff for Reps. Mark Pocan, Wisconsin Democrat, and Val Hoyle, Oregon Democrat, secured memorandums of understanding in 2024 addressing cost-of-living adjustments and other salary issues.
The Congressional Workers Union has not put out any news releases since that announcement, in which the offices said they were still negotiating union contracts that would build on the memorandums of understanding.
Mr. Khanna said in his statement Monday that the union effort in his office and Congress is about lawmakers proving they stand behind the labor policies they say they support.
“We need to be a model for the collective bargaining in our offices that we want to see across our nation,” he said.
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