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Disillusioned Bernie Sanders staffers get a little taste of socialism in their paychecks

July 19, 2019 | | Print Article
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(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Sen. Bernie Sanders can talk the talk but apparently falls short when it’s time to walk out the promises he makes.

The Vermont senator and 2020 presidential contender touts himself as a champion of the poor and has long argued for a $15 an hour minimum wage. But it seems some of his campaign staff is getting a socialism reality check as they complain that the lawmaker’s rhetoric is not borne out in his actions.

(Video: Fox News)

“Bernie Sanders has made it very clear when he is campaigning, he would like to see a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour,” co-host of “Fox & Friends” Steve Doocy said Friday. “And yet, the height of hypocrisy, it turns out that he is not paying $15 per hour to his field hires on his campaign.”

“What?” Pete Hegseth interjected.

“They want $15 an hour, but his campaign says look, they’re unionized, there’s a collective bargaining deal already on the table, and we stand by that,” Doocy explained.

“Oh, details,” Hegseth quipped.

“They are using his own rhetoric against him now!” co-host Ainsley Earhardt laughed.

“Well apparently, somebody in his campaign actually heard him to say that, and was like wait a minute we’re not getting 15 an hour!” Doocy said after playing several video clips of the Independent Vermont senator arguing for an increase in the minimum wage.

“I can’t believe that didn’t come across his mind if you’re going to say that, would you think ‘How much am I paying my people?’” Earhardt added before quoting a Washington Post article which noted complaints of “poverty” wages by Sanders campaign staff.

According to The Washington Post:

Unionized campaign organizers working for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s presidential effort are battling with its management, arguing that the compensation and treatment they are receiving does not meet the standards Sanders espouses in his rhetoric, according to internal communications.

Campaign field hires have demanded an annual salary they say would be equivalent to a $15-an-hour wage, which Sanders for years has said should be the federal minimum. The organizers and other employees supporting them have invoked the senator’s words and principles in making their case to campaign manager Faiz Shakir, the documents reviewed by The Washington Post show.

 

According to the report, the staffers – who are unionized – work a minimum of 60 hours of a week, making their average hourly “less than $13.”

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

The union is pushing for a $46,800 salary for field organizers and for regional field directors, $62,400 as it pressed for a response to the “unsustainability” of the current situation. Workers who expected the socialist senator to practice what he preaches have reportedly been leveling multiple complaints at Sanders’ campaign manager.

“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 in a statement.

“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,” he added.

Sanders, meanwhile, continues to push for the $15 minimum wage, attacking corporations like McDonald’s for not paying employees more.

The airing out of Sanders’ dirty laundry by his staffers set off a wave of mockery on social media.

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Frieda Powers
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