The House of Representatives made headlines earlier this month when they passed a resolution that will allow their staffers to form a union. The push was driven in part by the Instagram account, @dear_white_staffers, which shares anonymous stories of congressional staffers’ negative experiences with their employers.
Similar Instagram accounts have appeared across the country with a focus on state legislative staff. New York’s @nysstaffer has been particularly successful, with over 3,000 followers. In a recent post, they congratulated congressional staffers for their successful unionization campaign asking, “When will we get the same rights?”. They tagged Democratic leaders and Governor Kathy Hochul in the post.
New York is not alone. Unionization pushes by legislative staff have begun or been successful in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington. And many states have their own version of the federal @dear_white_staffers account including Connecticut, Texas, New Jersey, Nevada, Illinois, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Washington, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Minnesota.