Bernie Sanders campaign staffers want $15 minimum wage that he argues for in public 

Bernie Sanders' campaign staffers are asking for a wage equivalent to $15 per hour - a position the presidential candidate has argued for on the 2020 trail. 

Field organizers, who work in the states to get out the vote, put in 60 hours a week, which makes their pay equivalent to $13 an hour.

The staffers, who are unionized, have asked campaign manager Faiz Shakir to boost their salaries to meet the level of the pay the senator has advocated for, The Washington Postreported. 

'Many field staffers are barely managing to survive financially, which is severely impacting our team's productivity and morale,' they wrote in a draft letter that is going to Shakir soon. 'Some field organizers have already left the campaign as a result.' 

Some staff reached out to Shakir personally with one writing him: '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.' 

Sanders has pushed for a $15 minimum wage both on the campaign trail and in the Senate, where he has sponsored legislation on the issue.

He's also touted his support for workers' rights. In May, Sanders supported striking McDonald's workers who were demanding to be paid $15 per hour. 

The senator from Vermont has also supported striking teachers and striking workers at Amazon and Disney. 

'If Amazon can raise their minimum wage to $15 an hour there is no reason that McDonald's, a company that took in $1.4 billion in profit and paid its CEO $22 million, can't pay its workers a living wage,' Sanders said in a statement in May.

He has also used his campaign's massive email list to rally support for striking workers - an unusual move for a presidential candidate. 

His campaign was the first of the 2020 presidential candidates to unionize its staff - a fact he touted heavily. 

'We cannot just support unions with words, we must back it up with actions,' he tweeted in March when his campaign unionized. 'On this campaign and when we are in the White House, we are going make it easier for people to join unions, not harder.' 

The Post reported it received internal documents and emails from Sanders campaign officials describing the staffers' battle for a higher wage.

Field staff, often 20-somethings, uproot their lives and move to early voting states to help their candidate get out the votes necessary to win the Democratic nomination.  

The draft letter to Shakir notes the field staff 'cannot be expected to build the largest grassroots organizing program in American history while making poverty wages.'

It then points out Sanders' commitment to paying $15 per hour: '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.' 

Under the collective bargaining agreement reached in May with the workers' union, United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400, field directors were not to be paid hourly but via an annual salary set at $36,000. 

'We know our campaign offers wages and benefits competitive with other campaigns, as is shown by the latest fundraising reports,' Shakir said in a statement to The Post. 'Bernie Sanders is the most pro-worker and pro-labor candidate running for president. 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.'

It was unclear when or whether Sanders is aware of the situation with his field staff.

In May, Shakir recommended raising the pay for field organizers to $42,000 and changing the workweek specifications.

He pushed for a swift union vote so he could make budget decisions on how many field organizers to hire.  

The union rejected his offer because it would have kicked the field staff up to a pay level where they would have to pay more of their own health-care costs.

Shakir said he was disappointed in the union position. 

'I have no idea what debates and conversations were had, but candidly, it was a disappointing vote from my perspective,' Shakir wrote in an email to campaign staff. 'But the campaign leadership respected the union process and the will of the membership.' 

The union is preparing to send a new proposal to Sanders' campaign that would call for field organizers to be paid $46,800 and that all health care costs be paid for staff making under $60,000.  

This is not the first problem Sanders' has had with campaign workers.

In January, the senator apologized to women who were sexually harassed on his 2016 presidential campaign and thanked them 'from the bottom of my heart for speaking out.' 

'It appears as part of our campaign there were some women who were harassed or mistreated. And I thank them from the bottom of my heart for speaking out. What they experienced was absolutely unacceptable and certainly not what a progressive campaign or any campaign should be about,' he said at the time. 

'The allegations that I have heard, that you have heard, speak to unacceptable behavior, that must not be tolerated in any campaign or in any workplace in our country,' he noted.

'To the women in our campaign who were harassed or mistreated, I apologize. Our standards, our procedures, our safeguards were clearly inadequate,' he added. 

Source: Daily Mail

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