Want a raise? Organize around the MRA increase!

Hello! 

As you may have heard, last week congressional offices received notification on the availability of the 21% increase in Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) funds included in the FY22 Omnibus. 

We encourage you to join others in taking this opportunity to flex your collective power with your colleagues! What might that look like before we form a union? Glad you asked. 

First, take a look at whether your boss signed this letter led by Representative Ocasio-Cortez that specifically requested this increase go to staff pay and benefits. Leader Hoyer has also expressed support for using this increase to better compensate junior staff. Let’s hold Members of Congress to their words and promises.

Second, consider whether you and your junior staff colleagues might feel comfortable joining together to ask that management consider including junior staff in discussions and decisions on how this new money is spent. Of course, keep in mind that collective action is not currently protected, but that you are more protected when you stand in solidarity with one another. We are completely in our right to ask that we be included in these decisions as equal participants. To get your imagination going, we want to share that staffers in various offices are starting to report across the board raises of $10k-20k, so don’t limit your expectations for what you deserve. We hold more leverage as a united front than as individuals requesting a raise!

Lastly, if your office has already made a decision on how these funds will be spent, let us know! We are collecting this information to better understand and assess how we can flex our collective power as we continue to organize across Congress. 

We know it’s been a busy time, and we hope everyone is hanging in there. More updates from the CWU Organizing Committee are coming soon!

In solidarity, as always,

CWU