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Another issue is that the unionizing effort creates a problem of political optics, particularly for Democrats.
另一个问题是，组建工会的努力造成了政治视野的问题，尤其是对民主党人而言。
So far, the CWU movement has been dominated by Democratic staffers, and only Democratic lawmakers have expressed support for the effort.
到目前为止，CWU运动一直由民主党工作人员主导，只有民主党议员表示支持这一努力。
In a recent House hearing, Republican members dismissed the unionizing effort as “impractical” and a “solution in search of a problem.”
在最近的一次众议院听证会上，共和党议员认为组建工会的努力“不切实际”，是“在找麻烦”。
Democrats, who generally fund raise and campaign on pro-worker platforms, are perhaps particularly vulnerable to allegations of hypocrisy if they don’t support their own staff’s organizing.
民主党人通常在支持工人的平台上筹集资金和开展竞选活动，如果他们不支持自己员工的组织，他们可能特别容易受到虚伪的指控。
But there are legitimate reasons lawmakers might be skeptical of a unionized Congress.
但国会议员可能有正当理由对成立工会的国会持怀疑态度。
The offices of Representatives and Senators don’t function like normal businesses; each is provided a strict yearly allowance, which they use for most expenses, including district travel and paying aides.
众议员和参议员的办公室不像普通企业那样运作；每个人都获得严格的年度津贴，用于支付大部分费用，包括地区旅行和支付助手费用。
That model doesn’t leave much wiggle room to boost salaries.
在这种模式下，涨工资的可能性很小。
Each lawmaker’s office also operates independently, meaning that each must be unionized independently.
每个议员的办公室也独立运作，这意味着每个办公室都必须独立成立工会。
A “unionized Congress” is, in reality, hundreds of discrete bargaining units.
一个“工会化的国会”实际上是数百个独立的谈判单位。
CWU organizers say they aren’t intimidated by the significant hurdles ahead.
CWU组织者表示，他们并没有被前方的重大障碍吓倒。
With public support for labor unions reaching a nearly 60-year high and the Great Resignation reorganizing Americans’ priorities, now is the time to act, they say.
他们说，随着公众对工会的支持达到近60年来的最高水平，而且“大辞职”正在重组美国人的优先事项，现在是采取行动的时候了。
Since congressional Democrats have failed thus far to pass any significant labor legislation— including Build Back Better, which included increased penalties for union busting— supporting the effort to unionize Congress offers lawmakers an opportunity to make good on their pro-labor campaign promises.
由于国会民主党人迄今为止未能通过任何重要的劳工立法——包括加强对破坏工会行为的惩罚——支持国会工会化的努力，为议员们提供了兑现其支持劳工运动承诺的机会。
If it can’t act to legislatively protect U.S. workers, says a member of the CWU, “then the next thing that Congress can do to help the labor movement is to look at their own workers.”
CWU的一名成员说，如果国会不能通过立法保护美国工人，“那么国会为帮助工人运动所能做的下一件事就是关注他们自己的工人。”
It’s no big secret in Washington that Hill staffers are underpaid and overworked.
在华盛顿，国会山的员工薪酬过低，过度劳累，这并不是什么大秘密。
But the past two years have brought those conditions into even sharper focus.
但在过去的两年里，这些情况变得更加突出。
Grueling, COVID-19-related working conditions, combined with the terror of the Jan. 6 insurrection, galvanized a longsimmering desire for change.
与新冠肺炎相关的艰苦工作条件，加上1月6日暴动的恐怖，激发了人们对变革的长期渴望。
In the days after the attack, which forced hundreds of lawmakers and staffers to hide behind barricades or evacuate their offices, aides began reaching out to one another to discuss how to make their offices safer.
袭击事件迫使数百名议员和工作人员躲在路障后面或撤离办公室。袭击发生后的几天里，助手们开始相互联系，讨论如何让自己的办公室更安全。
Eventually, three young aides convened on a FaceTime call to talk about creating a formal union.
最终，三名年轻助手通过FaceTime电话会议讨论了建立正式工会的问题。
One of them, a young woman who took the call in a Rayburn House Office Building bathroom stall to avoid eavesdroppers, remembers being so relieved to discover she was not alone that she cried after hanging up.
其中一位年轻女士，她在雷伯恩大厦办公楼的卫生间隔间里接听电话，以免被人偷听。她记得，当发现自己不是一个人时，她如释重负，挂电话后哭了。
“To be at a point today where we’ve come from these dark moments is so exciting,” she says.
她说:“从这些黑暗的时刻走到今天，这是非常令人兴奋的。”
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