Bernie Sanders' campaign staff wants $15 minimum wage

Bernie Sanders’ campaign staffers claim they’re really getting berned — by not being paid the $15-an-hour minimum wage the democratic socialist advocates for all workers.

The unionized employees — known as the bottom-rung “field organizers” — say they work a minimum of 60 hours of a week, which drops their average hourly pay to less than $13, according to a new report by the Washington Post.

“Many field staffers are barely managing to survive financially, which is severely impacting our team’s productivity and morale,” union members said in a draft letter that will soon be sent to campaign manager Faiz Shakir. “Some field organizers have already left the campaign as a result.”

The staffers say their work conditions fly in the face of Sanders’ campaign platform when it comes to fair pay — he has marched with McDonald’s employees for better wages and has slammed Walmart executives for paying “starvation wages.”

The independent from Vermont has also led the fight to boost the current minimum wage, which stands at $7.25 an hour, to $15.

Field organizers, often 20-something-year-olds who uproot their lives and spend long days on the front lines of the campaign, are paid a set annual salary of $36,000, while interns and canvassers make $15 an hour and bargaining unit deputies rake in $100,000 a year, according to the collective bargaining agreement.

In a draft proposal obtained by the Washington Post, the union, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, and the staffers it represents are pushing for a $46,800 salary for field organizers and $62,400 for regional field directors, as well as a 58-cent-per-mile reimbursement for car travel expenses.

“We expect negotiations and concessions to be given to this committee by July 31st at the latest, given the urgent nature of raising pay for Field staff and the unsustainability of the current situation,” the draft said.

At a May 17 meeting, Shakir recommended raising field organizers’ pay to $42,000 and modifying the work week — but the union rejected the plan, saying he was proposing a six-day work week and that a higher salary would mean having to pay more for health care costs, according to the draft.

Meanwhile, field organizers have been bombarding Shakir on the messaging service Slack to put on the pressure.

“I am struggling financially to do my job, and in my state, we’ve already had 4 people quit in the past 4 weeks because of financial struggles,” one organizer wrote.

Another said his colleagues “shouldn’t have to get payday loans to sustain themselves.”

And someone drew inspiration from Sanders himself — riffing off a quote he often gives at campaign events: “As you know, real change never takes place from the top on down, it always takes place from the bottom on up.”

In a statement to the Washington Post on Thursday night, the union said it can’t comment on ongoing negotiations.

“We look forward to continuing to work closely with our members and the management of the Bernie 2020 campaign to ensure all workers have dignity and respect in the workplace,” it said.

Shakir issued a statement on behalf of the Sanders campaign, saying it “offers wages and benefits competitive with other campaigns, as is shown by the latest fundraising reports.”

“Every member of the campaign, from the candidate on down, joined this movement in order to defeat Donald Trump and transform America. Bernie Sanders is the most pro-worker and pro-labor candidate running for president,” Shakir said.

“We have tremendous staff who are working hard. Bernie and I both strongly believe in the sanctity of the collective bargaining process and we will not deviate from our commitment to it.”

Source: Nypost.com

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