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 remainder of Senate Democrats that have scab symbols have not made public statements and did not return a request for a comment.
There are three exceptions to this
1) Senator Hickenlooper
2) Senator Murray
3) Senator King
All three have gone back on their commitments. They explicitly have made statements declaring support for staff unions but have NOT signed onto introduced legislation for Senate unions. They all get scab symbols.
*If there are any other offices that have publicly 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.”
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.