Bernie Sanders is upset that his campaign workers have gone to the media with their concerns about Bernie’s wage hypocrisy.  “It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media,” he said. “That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it’s improper,” he grumbled.

The campaign pay and benefit issue is a little funny considering how Bernie Sanders holds himself up as the global arbiter of all that is righteous and indignant about worker’s pay. In essence Bernie is the self-appointed Che’ Guevara of the current presidential candidate pool.

The problem is that capitalist Bernie is in a fight with communist Bernie.  As a capitalist Bernie wants to count all of the benefits (healthcare payments, reimbursement, etc) as well as a fixed salary as part of the collective pay package of $36k per year.

Keeping the strict salary system in place means Capitalist Bernie can demand a six-day workweek, 60 hrs per week, and retain a $36k/yr minimal payroll per worker. Meanwhile communist Bernie wants to apply a standard $15/hr wage, for every hour and time-and-a-half beyond forty hours, to the rest of American business.  [A tad hypocritical.]

If Communist Bernie was to apply the same $15/hr wage rates to his staff, he would have to increase their total salary. Capitalist Bernie (pictured above), of three-home ownership infamy, says: no way; and is now engaged in a fight with the same labor union Communist Bernie put into place so he could use the pro-worker political talking points.  Negotiations between Capitalist Bernie and Communist Bernie are now taking place.

WaPo – […] The union and the Sanders campaign reached a collective bargaining agreement that went into effect on May 2 and expires on March 31, 2021. The agreement established wage classifications for national and state staff, ranging from $15 an hour for interns and canvassers to $100,000 annual salaries for bargaining unit deputies.

Field organizers, who are on the front lines of the campaign’s crucial voter contact efforts, were to be paid not by hours worked but via an annual salary set at $36,000. Regional field directors were to be paid $48,000 annually, and statewide department directors were allocated $90,000 per year.

It was not completely clear why the wage dispute began so swiftly after the campaign and the union reached the initial agreement, though at that point the campaign had yet to assemble its sprawling roster of field organizers.

But on May 17, Shakir convened an all-staff meeting, during which he recommended raising the pay for field organizers to $42,000 and changing the workweek specifications, according to an email he later wrote to staff.The union draft indicated he was seeking to extend the workweek to six days.  (read more)

No word yet on when the Bernie campaign will follow through on electoral promises to give campaign workers safe spaces, uniform allowances, free cars, free college tuition, free healthcare, nutrition justice and subsidized housing allowances to the remaining staff…

…. “wait, he’s got three houses?” … “time to text Antifa”!