Bernie: Sign our petition: encourage each of the campaigns in the Democratic primary to form unions

[Omaha Steve]

Last edited Sun Mar 17, 2019, 04:07 PM - Edit history (1)

Edit to add I signed and answered the questions. I did not donate!

OS

Sign here: https://act.berniesanders.com/signup/em_campaign_union/?source=em190316-1-30-full&t=2&akid=746%2E1280%2Evvy1oB

[NurseJackie]

1. ...

[LuvLoogie]

50. ...

[sheshe2]

61. ...

[Lazy Daisy]

2. Between this

And Elizabeth Warren we should see a whole new way Democratic campaigns are run. I like it.

[Blue_true]

76. Well, maybe running a campaign without sexual harrassment, violence and equal pay for women would be

a good place to start, but that does not require a union to get done.

[RandySF]

3. I will take it at face value and sign because it's a good idea.

[Omaha Steve]

5. BTW I signed but did not donate

[RandySF]

7. And there are unrelated questions.

[Historic NY]

4. So what happens to them when its all over?

[bernie59]

46. I don't think they have a contract yet.

Obviously, campaigns are not a long time propositions. I imagine when the campaign winds down (hopefully the day after election day) there is a little wrap-up work, and nearly everyone says goodbye and does something else. Key to the contract will be work rules and policies on the workplace environment.

[Blue_true]

77. Hopefully they join the surviving campaign (s).

And once the party nominee wins, join the administration. I am ok with the concept of people that are willing to put in the long hours involved with a campaign and put their life on a back burner becoming part of a governing group once their candidate wins.

[RandySF]

6. Wait a minute

The page asks unrelated questions and requests a donation. No thanks.

[R B Garr]

8. LOL, predictable.

That’s quite a stretch to be lecturing other candidates.

[dalton99a]

9. Encourage each of the campaigns in the Democratic primary to release tax returns

if they're not busy

[CrossingTheRubicon]

10. A new high (low?) in the art of "re-framing."

Having a campaign racked by rampant sexual harassment and gender-based pay inequality that was so pervasive that staffers felt compelled to take the unprecedented step of unionizing in order to protect themselves from "management" and then to have "management" try to spin this as some sort of milestone in labor history, really takes the cake.

It is Orwellian.

[R B Garr]

13. Exactly, well stated. It really is a gimmicky move to change

the subject and point fingers at others instead. Can’t even say what this reeks of.,

[Me.]

51. You Said It Brother/Sister

And they want to be paid for it. What A con.

[CrossingTheRubicon]

54. Brother. And yes, the degree of "re-framing" and does seem incredulous.

To fundraise on this. I do not understand.

[Me.]

55. ...

You'll notice I added the IT to my post though you seem to have gotten it...

[sheshe2]

52. Dear Goddess.

He is asking for donations as well.

[betsuni]

63. +1

[Hortensis]

73. :) Exactly what I said when I heard. Gotta admit it's

clever -- every time Sanders is asked about abuse of women in his office, he can segue off to unionization. And then use it to criticize competition who haven't followed his "lead."

Whoever came up with it should use the union rep to negotiate a raise, or bonus. Especially if it's one of his lower-paid female staffers.

[TCJ70]

11. Did Hell freeze over? I never thought I'd see on DU...

...people going AGAINST unionization. It’s really something else to see. And why? Because it happened in a campaign they’ve been railing against for 3 years...

...and yet, here we are.

[LongtimeAZDem]

14. People can be completely for unions and still reject a ridiculous campaign ploy.

[TCJ70]

15. But why is it a ploy...

...and not a step in the right direction for campaign workers?

[LongtimeAZDem]

17. I completely support Sanders' campaign workers unionizing to protect themselves from

the creation of another pervasive culture of sexual violence and harassment, and if workers on other campaigns feel the need to do so, I'll back that as well.

But unionizing is driven by the workers, not the management; this looks like nothing more than a cynical plot to avoid addressing past wrongs and play "gotcha" with other candidates.

And that is an insult to unions, not an endorsement.

[TCJ70]

22. Good grief...

...I can’t stand this place sometimes. I guarantee no other candidate would be booed for having a union in their campaign. It’s just that it’s a certain candidate that’s bothering people.

[LongtimeAZDem]

25. You're wrong; I would boo any candidate that used it as a tactic like this, and I think most

others would as well.

[Mr Tibbs]

31. It's a nod to unions

It's a good thing.

[LongtimeAZDem]

32. Only the most naive Sanders supporter could possibly believe that.

[Mr Tibbs]

35. It's awesome! Kudos to Sanders for leading on this issue

“Bernie Sanders is the most pro-union candidate in the field, he’ll be the most pro-union president in the White House and we’re honored that his campaign will be the first to have a unionized workforce,” Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, said in a statement.

[R B Garr]

18. Yup. A ridiculous campaign ploy and yet another

obvious phony litmus test for Democrats where he thinks he gets to judge yet again. Being honest about why his campaign unionized would have been better, but the facts are still out there regardless of this distraction.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

19. There's always an excuse by some liberals why this or that union is not needed.

I’ve heard it for years. Oh that’s not a “union type job” - I’ve heard that one for years about Walmart or McDonalds and now Amazon. Never mind they are the country’s largest employers and owned by the richest people to ever walk our planet.

[LongtimeAZDem]

27. Nobody's arguing that Sanders' folks don't need to unionize; the culture of the last campaign

makes it clear that they need some mechanism to protect themselves.

The argument here is that the call for other campaigns to do likewise is disingenuous.

[Mr Tibbs]

34. That's not what's happening

Unions don't protect union members from each other. Nice try.

[R B Garr]

38. That is exactly what is happening. Sanders is attempting

to change the subject about his campaign abuses into a litmus test of other Democratic candidates. He should just be honest about the abuses in his campaign that led to this unionization instead of setting up phony tests for others.

[Mr Tibbs]

40. Cute conspiracy theory

one of many...

[R B Garr]

41. Cute dodge

It’s in the text of his letter in the OP.

[Mr Tibbs]

42. It's a brilliant move on Sanders part

There is no conspiracy

[R B Garr]

43. It's a transparent gimmick meant to deflect attention

from his campaign abuses and set up a phony litmus test with other Democrats. edit: he should have been honest about his campaign abuses and his moves to correct those errors unique to his campaign.

The letter in the OP outlines the litmus test for other Democrats.

[Lazy Daisy]

56. Bernie's campaign

isn't the ONLY one who had problems. His & Hillary's are just the only ones to become public. (that I'm aware of) I'm not naive enough to believe sexual harassment and other types of harassment only just begun in 2016. With the culture of politics it's been around a very long time.

I love what Bernie & Elizabeth are doing to change political campaigning.

[LongtimeAZDem]

57. His was the only one we've heard described as having an "untenable and dangerous dynamic"

that culminated in a "predatory culture" of "sexual violence and harassment on the 2016 campaign".

So, saying his campaign "wasn't the only one" is just unsupported deflection, much like this crafty call for unionization.

[Lazy Daisy]

59. Are you willfully ignoring

What happened with Hillary's 2008 & 2016 campaign? How a staffer had to be moved?
Just stop. No one with any realistic view of the world believes it ONLY happened on Bernie's campaign.
Seriously. Women have been dealing with this shit for way too long for someone to make light of this as a one off. Just stop.

[LongtimeAZDem]

60. You just stop; this whataboutism has been discussed many times here. There was one instance on the

Clinton campaign, and it was dealt with.

The workers on the Sanders campaign allege a widespread predatory culture of harassment and even violence, in addition to pay inequity. Sanders has repeatedly avoided confronting addressing it, saying "we'll fix it".

Now that his campaign workers have unionized to protect themselves, we have this ridiculous "every campaign should do it; see how innovative we are?" nonsense.

Only his supporters are falling for it; the rest of us can see right through it.

[Lazy Daisy]

83. I've thought about this all day at work

I had such angry words for you. Now I think it's best I just say good bye.
YOU choose to make a weapon out of women's pain. This stuff didn't only happen on Bernie's campaign. It's been documented on several campaigns spanning decades. It's been mishandled on every campaign. It's a subject that needs to be addressed all over politics. Women walk the halls of Congress every day wondering if today will just be a creepy day or a full on terror day.

I'm done with the hate here. People who can't reason get put on ignore.

[LongtimeAZDem]

84. You chose to minimize women's pain, to deflect from your candidate's responsibility. Ciao

[George II]

72. "A" staffer had to be moved, it wasn't pervasive to the degree that dozens of ex-workers....

...traveled to Washington a month or so ago to address the issues face to face with the candidate. Why drag in isolated cases from other campaigns?

By the way, Congresswoman Elizabeth Esty had ONE situation with one staffer a year ago that she failed to address immediately, and as a result she did not run for re-election in November. If you're going to do this "what about" stuff, why not call for Sanders to drop out of the race like Elizabeth Esty did?

See how that works?

[CrossingTheRubicon]

29. Sanders' female staffers were subjected to widespread sexual harassment and

gender-based pay discrimination by management.

To have management crowing that their abuse of workers who unionized in response to those abuses is a victory for labor is bizzare, to put it mildly.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

30. Bullshit

[CrossingTheRubicon]

45. LOL. It is the plain truth. Mentioned in press releases.

Why try to “re-frame” the terrible circumstances that lead female staffers to seek protection from management?

It just makes BS look bad.

[LongtimeAZDem]

33. +1

[Mr Tibbs]

36. Show evidence of this claim

[LongtimeAZDem]

44. Are you serious?

Bernie Sanders apologizes to women who were sexually harassed while working for his 2016 presidential campaign

Sexism Claims From Bernie Sanders’s 2016 Run: Paid Less, Treated Worse

Bernie Sanders Responds To Allegations Of Sexism, Harassment By Aides During 2016 Race

[CrossingTheRubicon]

48. From the AP:

The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 confirmed that Sanders’ campaign workers were the first to win union representation.

“We expect this will mean pay parity and transparency on the campaign, with no gender bias or harassment, and equal treatment for every worker, whether they’re in Washington, D.C., Iowa, New Hampshire or anywhere else,” UFCW Local 400 President Mark P. Federici said in a news release.

Earlier this year, Sanders apologized to female staffers on his 2016 presidential campaign who said they had experienced sexual harassment from male staffers. The New York Times had reported allegations of unwanted sexual advances, as well as pay inequity.

The union now expects a type of treatment of female staffers that was sorely lacking prior to the unprecedented unionization efforts that were launched "for cause" due to grievances over sexual harassment and gender-based pay inequality that were endemic in the Sanders' campaign.

What part of this do you fail to understand?

[R B Garr]

39. Exactly. Pointing fingers at others is a really kind of

hostile act. He should be accepting responsibility for his campaign abuses instead of dragging other Democrats into it.

[sprinkleeninow]

62. Gimmicky. eom

[Me.]

53. Yeah, You Keep Saying That

when you know quite well that's not the issue

[LexVegas]

66. ...

[George II]

71. I don't see anyone going against unionization. But this is a bizarre step...

...taken by the Sanders campaign to tell other campaigns what to do.

What prompted Sanders' workers to organize was probably the wide-spread abuse and harassment of his workers and gender based pay inequality in the past.

Workers don't organize just for the sake of going through the process for a job that most likely won't even exist in a year or so.

[WeekiWater]

12. Serious issues with the way this is written...

And the way it was originally stated that the campaign workers unionized.

The ethical relationship between company and union is already being broken. Not that this was more than a campaign tactic in the first place.

Union boss needs to get out in front of this.

[lapucelle]

16. Don't workers decide whether or not to unionize? The BS campaign workers need the protection

of a union after what happened last time. Campaign workers for other candidates can decide for themselves whether or not they want to make this move.

Strong-arming workers through online petitions as a face-saving tactic is about as jaded and self-serving as it gets.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

20. Has the campaign recognized the union, or will it push the workers to a vote? Will it drag out

negotiations? Why is it so eager to tout this news now, when the campaign resisted the Campaign Workers Guild's efforts so strenuously? Questions, questions.

[nolabear]

21. I'm very pro union but this sounds like using, not supporting.

To form a union and immediately challenge other Democrats to do the same just smacks, not of honest concern, but maybe honest concern and certainly holier than thou opportunism. It feels disrespectful to both the opposition and unions. But maybe it’s just politics. They can be that way.

[SidDithers]

23. Are Bernie's Senate staffers unionized?...nt

Sid

[Amimnoch]

24. Ha! I should have known better. And here I was praising him for this.

Just yesterday, when others were insulting this move by BS as just a political stunt, I stepped up and defended it. Thought this really was a great way to get the discussions on Unions going again.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=25937

I guess the others were right.. It really was just a political stunt, and a way that he would manufacture a situation to point his boney fingers at other Democratic Party candidates again, and to raise money..

Shame on me for letting my guard down. Should’ve known better.

[ucrdem]

26. This raises the question of what exactly Sanders is trying to accomplish

with his campaign? If its primary purpose is to generate profits, which appears to be the case, fine, unionize and make it a permanent workplace. He could even sue for religious exemption by calling it a mega-church. But that's not what most presidential campaigns are set up to accomplish.

[comradebillyboy]

28. A ploy to get donations is it? It figures.

[LuvLoogie]

37. I want to see Bernie's campaign workers picketing the other

campaigns. I knew it was a stunt.

[dalton99a]

47. Picket sign: "Nobody protects workers more than Bernie Sanders"

[CrossingTheRubicon]

49. The picket sign should read: "No workers need protection more than women working on the...

Bernie Sanders' campaign."

What other campaign has had these sorts of problems to this degree?

[sheshe2]

58. Perfect.

He is campaigning on equality for all.

Then the information comes out about his past campaign where women were paid far less than men. Also sexual harassment claims.

Asked if he knew about the staff complaints, he said, “I was a little bit busy running around the country trying to make the case.”

Some women said the fledgling 2016 campaign was disorganized and decentralized, which made it hard to know whom to turn to in the case of mistreatment.

“I did experience sexual harassment during the campaign, and there was no one who would or could help,” said Samantha Davis, the former director of operations in Texas and New York, who also worked on the campaign’s advance team. She said that her supervisor marginalized her after she declined an invitation to his hotel room.

In interviews, women told of makeshift living accommodations on the road, where they were asked to sleep in rooms along with male co-workers they didn’t know. Women who had access to salary records were taken aback to learn that some female staff members made thousands of dollars less than their male counterparts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/us/politics/bernie-sanders-campaign-sexism.html

Now it seems they are unionizing for equal rights and HE is asking for donations. Donations! He is also saying every other campaign should follow his lead when he has not even addressed his own campaign issues on sexual harassment and unfair pay to women.

[ehrnst]

68. +100000.

[TexasTowelie]

64. No thanks.

I don't want to provide my name, email address, or make a donation to Bernie. A campaign that cares about its paid employees doesn't need a union to act as an intermediary when grievances are filed.

[ehrnst]

65. Will the union give staffers a means of reporting when they are sexually harrassed

or they find a gender pay gap?

[Blue_Tires]

67. Unions for temp/contract/fixed-term employees??

What am I missing here??

[George II]

70. It's not even the Campaign Workers Guild, which would be the logical choice.

[George II]

69. He wants people to sign a petition on HIS website that tells other candidates what to do?

I suspect the reasons his campaign workers are looking to organize is that there is "history" to be concerned about when it comes to to working conditions, pay equality, harassment, and abuse. They weren't just isolated incidents. It was so bad that dozens of ex-workers flew in to Washington a while back for an all-day meeting to address such incidents.

Perhaps workers in other campaigns don't feel the need to take such a step? Remember, for many of the campaigns that are just beginning to gear up, this will be over in a year.

[MineralMan]

74. "OK. Look at Me! My Campaign Workers Have a Union!"

"Any Democratic candidate whose workers aren't unionized isn't as good as me! Tell other campaigns to unionize their workers like Bernie Sanders did in 2019!"

If this was such a good idea, why not do it in 2016, Bernie? I don't get it. But, I do get that you're going to hold this over the heads of all your primary competition. I can see it now: "See! Look at Bernie! He Let His Campaign Workers Unionize! Why Didn't You Do That?"

OK, then. I see that we've established the tenor of the upcoming campaigns...Uffda!

[George II]

75. Here's what I got when I clicked the link:

Two requests for money (upper right and last question). I didn't contribute. But after clicking the "Add your name" button, the second page below came up. Another request for money. No link to or text of the actual "petition".



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[stonecutter357]

78. lol .

[brooklynite]

80. Unions are not inherently good...

...they are a mechanism of representation for workers who feel they need it. If campaign workers are unhappy with their existing arrangement they can form one. Otherwise, I see no reason to advocate for one in other situations.

[George II]

81. CNN is now talking about O'Rourke "stealing Sanders' thunder".

[Skidmore]

82. I don't think so.

Don't want to be added to his database or give him my money.