Sanders: “It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media”

An ironic thing is happening in the Bernie Sanders campaign. While Bernie travels the country demanding a $15 dollar an hour minimum wage, his staffers are demanding the same from him. Luckily, Bernie has found a solution to the problem.

He cut their hours.

Rachel Frazin of The Hill provides some background:

Sanders campaign staff fighting for $15 minimum wage he pushed nationally: report Workers for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign are reportedly pushing for higher wages as the candidate urges support for a nationwide $15 an hour minimum wage. Campaign field employees are asking for salaries they say would be equal to the $15-an-hour wage Sanders has championed, The Washington Post reported Thursday, citing internal documents. The documents reviewed by the newspaper reportedly show that the unresolved dispute between the unionized workers and management has been going on since at least May. A draft letter members of the union planned to send to campaign manager Faiz Shakir said that field organizers “cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages,” according to the Post. “Given our campaign’s commitment to fighting for a living wage of at least $15.00 an hour, we believe it is only fair that the campaign would carry through this commitment to its own field team.” Organizers worked at least 60 hours per week, resulting in pay of less than $13 per hour, the letter reportedly estimated.

Bernie had to find a way to deal with this, so like many business owners, he chose to cut employee hours:

Bernie Sanders says his campaign will limit the hours staffers work so they are paid the equivalent of $15 an hour. “I’m very proud to be the first presidential candidate to recognize a union and negotiate a union contract,” he told me. https://t.co/IBJdMiIIIu — Brianne Pfannenstiel (@brianneDMR) July 19, 2019

From Brianne Pfannenstiel at the Des Moines Register:

Sanders said field organizers, who are the lowest-ranking members of a presidential campaign and are typically in their 20s, make $36,000 a year with 100% employer-paid health care, as well as paid vacation and sick leave. For a staffer working 40 hours a week, that comes out to about $17 an hour. But 40-hour workweeks on presidential campaigns are rare. Sanders said the campaign will limit the number of hours staffers work to 42 or 43 each week to ensure they’re making the equivalent of $15 an hour.

Twitchy notes this passage from the report which seems to indicate Bernie was not pleased with the way this was handled:

“It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media,” he said. “That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it’s improper.”

Maybe Bernie could sell one of his many homes to help pay these workers.

Just a thought.



