Skip to main content

Bernie Sanders' Presidential Campaign & Campaign Staff Ratify Union Contract


Recently, the Bernie Sanders campaign and its campaign staff ratified a union contract, marking a major step forward for unions in the country.  (This comes on the heels of the Sanders campaign voluntarily recognizing the union back in March.)  With the ratification of the union contract, it is believed that the Sanders campaign for President is the first Presidential campaign to be unionized.  The union that will be representing the Sanders 2020 campaign workers, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, lauded the ratification as a win for the working class.

The contract appears to include full health benefits (including the campaign covering the entire health insurance premiums for those workers making under $36,000.00), a minimum $20/hour in pay for interns, overtime pay for all hourly employees, "robust anti-discrimination protections," up to 20 days of vacation pay, regularly scheduled staff breaks throughout the day, and time off between long shifts.  As well, one of the more notable provisions in the contract is the pay limit for top campaign officials, capped at no more than three times the highest paid worker in the bargaining unit.  (However, outside consultants do not fall within this restriction.)

I would expect this announcement will assist Senator Sanders as he continues to court the support of labor unions in his campaign for President.  Whether other staffs follow suit and ratify union contracts with their campaign workers will be something to keep an eye on as the Presidential nomination process unfolds.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum,...
Post a Comment
Read more

San Diego Rolls Back Vaccine Mandate For City Workers

Last Tuesday, the San Diego City Council voted to do away with the vaccine mandate for city employees. The city’s vaccine mandate that was in place required city workers to get the coronavirus vaccine or risk termination.  Perhaps to this surprise of no one, the city’s policy came under fire with 14 employees being terminated and over 100 other employees resigning.  With the coronavirus subsiding, including in Southern California, the San Diego City Council took action. Now, bear in mind, the repeal of the vaccine mandate does not take place immediately. With that being said, the mandate will be repealed March 8th.  I suppose the question now is, what other cities or regions follow San Diego’s lead? For additional information:   https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2023-01-24/san-diego-repeals-controversial-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-citing-drop-in-cases-hospitalizations
Post a Comment
Read more

NLRB: Former Employee Cannot Be Barred From Work Premises After Filing Wage Suit

MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC - NLRB Facts :  MEI-GSR Holdings, LLC d/b/a Grand Sierra Resort & Casino ("GSR") operated a facility that included a hotel, casino, restaurant, clubs, bars, and a pool which were all open to the general public.  Tiffany Sargent ("Sargent") was briefly employed by GSR as a "beverage supervisor" in December of 2012.  After her employment ended, Sargent continued to socialize at one of the clubs.  GSR had a long standing practice of allowing former employees to patronize its facility and did not prohibit Sargent from doing so.  In June of 2013, Sargent and another employee filed a class and collective action against GSR for alleged unpaid wages, in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and Nevada law.  In July of 2014, GSR denied Sargent access to an event at one of the clubs.  GSR followed up with a letter and stated that with the on-going litigation (from the wage suit), it decided to bar Sargent from the premises. ...
1 comment
Read more