[A] former staffer for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential effort has accused the campaign of firing three people in retaliation for attempting to exercise rights under a collective bargaining agreement.
The former employee charged the Sanders’ Iowa campaign with multiple violations of the agreement, according to documents filed Monday with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency in charge of enforcing U.S. labor laws. The name of the individual was withheld.
The NLRB documents, however, name Brooke Adams, the deputy field director for Iowa, as the employer. Adams did not return multiple requests for comment.
In a letter from the NLRB to the staffer who filed the charge against Adams, the NLRB said that it is “just beginning to investigate” the accusations and that “no decision has been made” about the merits of the case.
The complaint, alleges the Sanders campaign failed to notify staffers that they had a collective bargaining agreement and maintained they could be fired without “just cause” for termination — called “at-will.”
The former employee accuses the campaign of requiring employees to work more than five days a week and of not paying collective bargaining guaranteed relocation fees. In addition, the individual claims three employees were fired for joining or supporting a union. The firings were designed to discourage employees from taking advantage of the collective bargaining agreement, according to the complaint.
Promised benefits, such as housing and reimbursement for expenses, were provided to some, but not all employees.
The union that represents Sanders’ campaign staffers, the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400, “did nothing,” according to the employee, who plans to file a charge with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board against the union as well.
“Employer retaliated against me when I organized the bargaining unit and sent an email requesting compliance with the CBA [collective bargaining agreement] (I understand CBA violations are not ULPs [unfair labor practice] — the ULP arises from the retaliation),” the individual writes.
The alleged violations of the union contract took place in late May through early June.
UFCW Local 400 agreed on a contract with the Sanders campaign in early May. At the time, Faiz Shakir, the campaign manager, said the contract set “some of the strongest standards for campaign workers in history.”
Sanders’ presidential campaign was the first to allow union organizing.
A spokesperson for UFCW Local 400 said it would not comment on the allegations leveled against the campaign and the union.
The Sanders camp said Sanders and campaign leadership respect the rights of all of employees to speak collectively and bargain for their terms and conditions of employment.
“That is exactly why the Bernie 2020 campaign voluntarily recognized the employees’ chosen union and engaged in good faith bargaining that resulted in a historic collective bargaining agreement,” the campaign said in an email response.
“We are committed to cooperating with the NLRB and we are confident that they will find the campaign honors all of its employees’ rights to both the letter and spirit of the law. Sen. Sanders and the campaign believe all workers should have a strong voice on the job and the right to due process, including the right to petition to the NLRB,” the campaign added.
A spokesperson for the campaign said the campaign’s union contract includes a probationary period in which workers are “at-will” for a period of time before receiving full union protections.
The Washington Post has reported that negotiations between the union and campaign leadership have been complicated at best. Last week, field organizers complained to Shakir that they earn less than $15 an hour based on the annual salaries set by a union contract finalized in early May.
The campaign released a statement last week bemoaning that employees had decided to leak the details of ongoing negotiations to the press.
“We look forward to continuing those discussions and obviously are disappointed that some individuals decided to damage the integrity of these efforts before they were concluded,” said Shakir.
This week, The Washington Post reported that the union had negotiated a pay raise and reached a compromise to reduce the hours for some workers.
