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How to read this tracker

We asked every single U.S. Senator two simple questions. 

Question One:
Would you support legislation giving Senate staff the right to unionize?

 

Question Two: If your staff decided to form a union, would you voluntarily recognize it? 
 

Offices that failed to respond or have not made clear public statements were given a scab symbol. Offices that responded yes to both questions were given green solidarity symbols. Offices that only publicly showed they supported the first question but not the second were given a grey solidarity symbol for the first question.


There is additional information about individual decisions on the tracker at the bottom of each table. Scroll to the bottom to find it. 
 

An Important Point


There is a huge difference between an office who might be in favor of these questions but is unwilling to tell anyone and one that publicly makes clear its views. Given the lack of clarity of Senate rules on unionization, a Senate office not publicly stating their support is putting their workers at risk of not being recognized. 

The only way for an office to have two solidarity symbols is to publicly make clear they are a "yes" on both questions. This can be in the form of a public statement or by reaching out to Senate Union Tracker directly, preferably both. 
 

Senate Democrats

Photo
Senator's Name
Would you support legislation giving Senate staff the right to unionize?
If your staff decided to form a union, would you voluntarily recognize it?
Baldwin, Tammy
Bennet, Michael F.
Blumenthal, Richard
Booker, Cory A.
Brown, Sherrod
Cantwell, Maria
Cardin, Benjamin L.
Carper, Thomas R.
Casey, Robert P., Jr.
Coons, Christopher A.
Cortez Masto, Catherine
Duckworth, Tammy
Durbin, Richard J.
Feinstein, Dianne
Fetterman, John
Gillibrand, Kirsten E.
Hassan, Margaret Wood
Heinrich, Martin
Hickenlooper, John W.
Hirono, Mazie K.
Kaine, Tim
Kelly, Mark
King, Angus S., Jr.
Klobuchar, Amy
Luján, Ben Ray
Manchin, Joe, III
Markey, Edward J.
Menendez, Robert
Merkley, Jeff
Murphy, Christopher
Murray, Patty
Ossoff, Jon
Padilla, Alex
Peters, Gary C.
Reed, Jack
Rosen, Jacky
Sanders, Bernard
Schatz, Brian
Schumer, Charles E.
Shaheen, Jeanne
Sinema, Kyrsten
Smith, Tina
Stabenow, Debbie
Tester, Jon
Van Hollen, Chris
Warner, Mark R.
Warnock, Raphael G.
Warren, Elizabeth
Welch, Peter
Whitehouse, Sheldon
Wyden, Ron

Additional Notes

The following offices have tweeted generalized support for congressional unionization when the House changed its rules to allow for unions in 2022. All of these indicate legislative support for forming staff unions but indicate nothing about voluntary unionization. They each earn the respective Senators a single solidarity symbol on Question 1. Some of these Senators have clarified they supported Question 2 but others have not. The ones that have not clarified will not be given a solidary symbol until they make clear they support it. 

The remainder of Senate Democrats that have scab symbols have not made public statements and did not return a request for a comment with the exception of Senator Baldwin's office.

Senator Baldwin gave a statement that said the following: "Senator Baldwin believes Congressional staff work hard to serve the public, and she fully supports their right to organize and unionize."

 

She was asked for clarification on if this means she supports voluntary unionization and no answer was recieved. She will recieve a grey solidarity symbol on Question 1 but a scab symbol for Question 2. 

*If there are any other offices that have pub
licly expressed support in some form, please email press@senateuniontracker.com and let us know. 

Some Shoutouts


Senator Markey's office deserves special praise for being the absolute first office to not only agree with both of these questions, but also actually unionizing with the Senator's voluntary recognition. Their statement they gave to this tracker is below: 

 

“I applaud these passionate, dedicated workers who are exercising their right to organize through this fundamental, critical exercise in democracy. I am proud of my staff for embodying the commitment not to agonize, but to organize. I recognize their effort to unionize and look forward to engaging with them and the Congressional Workers Union.” 

Senator Hickenlooper's office gets points as well for being the first office other than Markey's to respond and make clear their stance on both questions. Senator Gillibrand's office replied within minutes of Senator Hickenlooper's and also gets points for this. 

Last but certainly not least, the Congressional Workers Union deserves all the praise in the world possible. This website would not exist without their leadership and their work to change a far too often dysfunctional instutiton for the better. 

Senate Republicans

Photo
Senator's Name
Would you support legislation giving Senate staff the right to unionize?
If your staff decided to form a union, would you voluntarily recognize it?
Barrasso, John
Blackburn, Marsha
Boozman, John
Braun, Mike
Britt, Katie Boyd
Budd, Ted
Capito, Shelley Moore
Cassidy, Bill
Collins, Susan M.
Cornyn, John
Cotton, Tom
Cramer, Kevin
Crapo, Mike
Cruz, Ted
Daines, Steve
Ernst, Joni
Fischer, Deb
Graham, Lindsey
Grassley, Chuck
Hagerty, Bill
Hawley, Josh
Hoeven, John
Hyde-Smith, Cindy
Johnson, Ron
Kennedy, John
Lankford, James
Lee, Mike
Lummis, Cynthia M.
Marshall, Roger
McConnell, Mitch
Moran, Jerry
Mullin, Markwayne
Murkowski, Lisa
Paul, Rand
Ricketts, Pete
Risch, James E.
Romney, Mitt
Rounds, Mike
Rubio, Marco
Schmitt, Eric
Scott, Rick
Scott, Tim
Sullivan, Dan
Thune, John
Tillis, Thom
Tuberville, Tommy
Vance, J.D.
Wicker, Roger F.
Young, Todd

Additional Notes

No Republican Senator returned a request for comment or made any public statements in support of congressional unions. Senator Hawley's office did complain about assigning Hawley's position if they did not get back to us in time.

 

If any Senator is willing to make clear their stance publicly in favor of staff unions and questions one and two, they will be given the same treatment as anyone else. Otherwise, the most notable time we saw Senator Hawley use the solidarity symbol was in support of rioters during an insurrection. 

If you want a .CSV file of this table:

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