Bernie's campaign staffers challenging him on pay/hours

[Deleted]

I couldn't help myself. I had to post this separate from the other Dem candidates. Basically, the campaign staff is unionized but is still overworked just like campaign staff everywhere.

Labor fight roils Bernie Sanders campaign, as workers demand the $15 hourly pay the candidate has proposed for employees nationwide

Highlights:


A draft letter union members earlier had prepared to send Shakir as soon as this week said that the field organizers “cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages. 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.”



The draft letter estimated that field organizers were working 60 hours per week at minimum, dropping their average hourly pay to less than $13. It said that “many field staffers are barely managing to survive financially, which is severely impacting our team’s productivity and morale. Some field organizers have already left the campaign as a result.”

......

This week, the union, in conjunction with the Sanders campaign staffers it represents, has been preparing to send Shakir a new proposal. According to a draft of the proposal obtained by The Post, they are asking for $46,800 for field organizers and $62,400 for regional field directors.



The draft also asked the campaign to cover 100 percent of the health-care costs for employees making $60,000 per year or less. Under the current agreement, the campaign pays all premiums for salaried employees making $36,000 or less per year. Those making more are covered at a rate of 85 percent.



It also requested that the campaign reimburse field staff for automobile transportation at $0.58 per mile.

[ESF]

The bro uprising is just fantastic.

I hope all these entitled jerks get demoralized and quit, and Bernie is left with no ground game.

[candreco]

Jul 19, 2019 10:51:32 GMT -5 ESF said:

The bro uprising is just fantastic.

I hope all these entitled jerks get demoralized and quit, and Bernie is left with no ground game.

This is exactly what was I was thinking.

Typical Bernie, lots of talk, no follow through.

[SusanBAnthony]

Do campaigns typically pay better than that?

[heat40]

lol I mean, can this get any more ironic

[Deleted]

Jul 19, 2019 12:16:36 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Do campaigns typically pay better than that?

From what I know (which is limited), this is probably on par with other campaigns. But if you’re making a “rigged economy” the central part of your campaign and you’re expecting people to work 60 hours/week for $36,000, that’s not a great look.

[penguingrrl]

Jul 19, 2019 12:16:36 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Do campaigns typically pay better than that?

No, they don’t. But you can’t campaign on income inequality while benefitting from remarkably few employee protections and underpaying and overworking your staff.

[SusanBAnthony]

^^ I agree with both of you, I just figured it was par for the course. I'm surprised more campaigns haven't had this issue.

It still brings me more joy when it is Sanders.

[seeyalater52]

These staffers are delusional but I'm still gleeful about Bernie getting called to the mat for hypocrisy.

[Deleted]

A Bernie bro I know posted an article today about Buttigieg hiring a former Goldman Sachs executive director as his policy director. But I love that he’s silent on this issue.

[ESF]

Jul 19, 2019 12:33:24 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

Jul 19, 2019 12:16:36 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Do campaigns typically pay better than that?

From what I know (which is limited), this is probably on par with other campaigns. But if you’re making a “rigged economy” the central part of your campaign and you’re expecting people to work 60 hours/week for $36,000, that’s not a great look.

Also Bernie is now a millionaire from his book sales, plus he's now got a reputation as someone who can fundraise easily.  I think he might have been able to inspire people to work for low pay back in 2016 when he was new and just seen as one of the poorest Senators working on his little shoestring movement. But that schtick doesn't work anymore. He's got too many cult members willing to send him $27 every time he plays the victim card. The staffers probably see this and want their "fair share."

[boiler717]

Jul 19, 2019 12:35:17 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Jul 19, 2019 12:16:36 GMT -5 SusanBAnthony said:

Do campaigns typically pay better than that?

No, they don’t. But you can’t campaign on income inequality while benefitting from remarkably few employee protections and underpaying and overworking your staff.

I saw on Twitter recently (probably because of this!) that all of Pete’s staff make at least $15/h.

[penguingrrl]

Jul 19, 2019 15:40:45 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

Jul 19, 2019 12:35:17 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

No, they don’t. But you can’t campaign on income inequality while benefitting from remarkably few employee protections and underpaying and overworking your staff.

I saw on Twitter recently (probably because of this!) that all of Pete’s staff make at least $15/h.

That’s good to know. I know campaign work generally doesn’t pay well, but what works out to under $15 is inexcusable in a candidate who claims to be fighting for that. And I say that as someone who makes $10/hr (which is minimum wage in NJ).

[seeyalater52]

Jul 19, 2019 15:40:45 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

Jul 19, 2019 12:35:17 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

No, they don’t. But you can’t campaign on income inequality while benefitting from remarkably few employee protections and underpaying and overworking your staff.

I saw on Twitter recently (probably because of this!) that all of Pete’s staff make at least $15/h.

So do Bernie’s on paper. I’d be curious to see whether this holds for the actual amount of hours worked assuming they are salaried (as most full time campaign staff are.)

It is normal on a campaign to work 60-80+ hours a week so salaries would be for sure higher than typical campaign salaries if the staff were paid a $15 min hourly wage.

But I still hate Bernie and agree he is a hypocrite.

[WOT?*]

Jul 19, 2019 16:17:12 GMT -5 seeyalater52 said:

Jul 19, 2019 15:40:45 GMT -5 boiler717 said:

I saw on Twitter recently (probably because of this!) that all of Pete’s staff make at least $15/h.

So do Bernie’s on paper. I’d be curious to see whether this holds for the actual amount of hours worked assuming they are salaried (as most full time campaign staff are.)

It is normal on a campaign to work 60-80+ hours a week so salaries would be for sure higher than typical campaign salaries if the staff were paid a $15 min hourly wage.

But I still hate Bernie and agree he is a hypocrite.

I'm wondering, if the staff is salaried, if they qualify for exempt status. Not all salaried employees do. Many companies, in fact, put employees in salaried positions or claim the employee wrongfully as "management" and pay accordingly, misclassifying them according to FLSA regulations. When I was a legal assistant I was paid salary but classified by law as an hourly employee and not permitted to work over 40 without getting paid overtime for the extra hours. Lots of salaried employees don't know this difference and the employers count on it.

I would laugh if he was paying his secretaries and others a salary and working them extra hours because "you're a salaried employee" when that's totally against the law. And totally what Big Corp does to get away with it, too. Bernie Is Big Business.

[winecat]

Bernie is full of shit? You don't say.

[One Girl In All The World]

Jul 19, 2019 13:08:23 GMT -5 ESF said:

Jul 19, 2019 12:33:24 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

From what I know (which is limited), this is probably on par with other campaigns. But if you’re making a “rigged economy” the central part of your campaign and you’re expecting people to work 60 hours/week for $36,000, that’s not a great look.

Also Bernie is now a millionaire from his book sales, plus he's now got a reputation as someone who can fundraise easily.  I think he might have been able to inspire people to work for low pay back in 2016 when he was new and just seen as one of the poorest Senators working on his little shoestring movement. But that schtick doesn't work anymore. He's got too many cult members willing to send him $27 every time he plays the victim card. The staffers probably see this and want their "fair share."

Well to be fair, Bernie probably now considers millionaire status as middle class.

I'll see myself out.

[ESF]

OMG OMG OMG

THIS IS THE BEST SHIT I HAVE EVER READ.

"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."

[ESF]

So basically Bernie is mad that the union is using the media to put pressure on management.

Isn't that basically what happens when unions negotiate?

Maybe next Bernie will hire some Twitter bros as scabs.

[seeyalater52]

Jul 19, 2019 18:06:53 GMT -5 ESF said:

So basically Bernie is mad that the union is using the media to put pressure on management.

Isn't that basically what happens when unions negotiate?

Maybe next Bernie will hire some Twitter bros as scabs.

It’s almost like he is brand new to what things are *actually like* for ordinary workers.

[heat40]

Omg his response!!!! Hahahaha please let this make the rounds in the media.

[heat40]

Seriously though, let’s just put a pin on this kind of response and come back to it in the future. Just saying....

[MrsAxilla]

Jul 19, 2019 18:06:53 GMT -5 ESF said:

So basically Bernie is mad that the union is using the media to put pressure on management.

Isn't that basically what happens when unions negotiate?

Maybe next Bernie will hire some Twitter bros as scabs.

Yes, that’s actually in the union handbook, right after bringing permanently injured members to the table to shame the company for cutting their health care.

[isabel]

Jul 19, 2019 12:52:42 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

A Bernie bro I know posted an article today about Buttigieg hiring a former Goldman Sachs executive director as his policy director. But I love that he’s silent on this issue.

Same!

[WOT?*]

Jul 19, 2019 18:06:53 GMT -5 ESF said:

So basically Bernie is mad that the union is using the media to put pressure on management.

Isn't that basically what happens when unions negotiate?

Maybe next Bernie will hire some Twitter bros as scabs.

Yup. Exactly so. Handbilling, leafletting, media focus... Negotiations may be done behind closed doors, but the push to negotiate is done in broad daylight.

One of my favorites was when DH was negotiating with a Big Box Home Improvement Store which was building several new stores in a strong union town but using out of state non-union workers. The union rented a billboard truck (one of those flatbed trucks with the signs on the back) and drove it from East of Town site down the freeway to South of Town site, through Downtown during lunch hour then back on the freeway to West of Town site, then circling back. The company actually negotiated terms for the truckS to be pulled from service as part of the terms for prevailing wage and local union workers. It was so effective that the company actually thought there were multiple trucks ranging all over the community. They wanted "them" gone because it was giving a poor reflection of the company before it had even opened its first store, and they worried that folks wouldn't come because of the negative publicity.

The guy in a rat costume at various pickets was always fun too. That rat costume made rounds through several unions for picketing during negotiations.