By Shane Trejo
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who bills himself the socialist man of the people running for the Democratic nomination for President in 2020, has been hit with a federal labor complaintalleging that his campaign is engaging in abusive practices against its workers.
The complaint was made to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on July 19, filed by an anonymous individual from Indiana. The charges have not been made public at the present time, but the docket released by the board on July 22 indicates that the Sanders campaign may have committed as many as five violations of the National Labor Relations Act.
The NLRB will ultimately determine whether or not these allegations have any merit. The Sanders campaign is also accused in the complaint of illegally firing a worker, modifying a labor contract unlawfully, and disciplining a worker excessively. It appears Sanders isn’t even waiting until he’s President to institute a Gulag!
Sanders has come under fire in other ways for his campaign’s poor labor practices as well. After pushing the idea for a $15-an-hour minimum wage nationally, it was revealed that he didn’t pay his own staffers that same wage in many cases.
“Many field staffers are barely managing to survive financially, which is severely impacting our team’s productivity and morale,” the union representing Sanders’ campaign staff wrote in a letter issued to campaign manager Faiz Shakir. “Some field organizers have already left the campaign as a result.”
After the details of the negotiations were leaked to the press, Sanders commented against them in caustic comments that made the socialist egalitarian seem more like a penny-pinching fat cat.
“It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media,” Sanders said. “That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it’s improper.”
Sanders eventually capitulated after receiving widespread scrutiny regarding his campaign’s disingenuous labor practices:
Unfortunately for Sanders, that isn’t the only humiliating hypocrisy he has to worry about. The Indianapolis office of the labor board will hold a preliminary investigation into the complaint filed against the Sanders campaign in the upcoming weeks. Lawyers for the board will decide if the claim is meritorious after the investigation takes place, and make a final determination on whether it warrants further action.
Sanders made history when his campaign staff was the first ever to be unionized under the United Food and Commercial Workers, but his campaign is showing that union labor is inefficient and difficult to manage. Sanders’ beleaguered campaign is ironically providing the nation with a teachable moment about economics.
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