REPORT: Elizabeth Warren Baits and Switches College Students Over Paid Campaign Positions
Tom Pappert
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It appears Sen. Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (D-Mass) is back on the war path, this time allegedly baiting and switching college students with paid positions on her presidential campaign.
According to reports from The Daily Beast, college students say they are being mislead about paid positions on her presidential campaign. As the campaign recruits them, they are enticed with the possibility of paid positions, only to be given unpaid roles on the campaign if they decide to move forward.
Nendze told The Daily Beast that he drove about five hours from Little Falls, New Jersey, to Manchester, New Hampshire, for what he hoped would be an exciting entryway into the field of political campaigns. Prior to arriving in Manchester, he said, he had multiple communications with Warren campaign workers over the fellowship program. But as those talks continued, it became increasingly unclear what the difference between volunteer fellow and paid intern was.
“The way they always communicated it was always fellow/intern, like they were synonymous,” he said. “Their application kind of took advantage of people who were really eager to get experience.”
Prior to orientation, Nendze said he was told multiple times that an organizer would get back to him about possible payment. “I was getting super-concerned,” Nendzes said. “I had no information about where to go, if I was being paid. If they had told me upfront that I was unpaid, maybe I would have been able to prepare better.”
Upon realizing he would likely not be paid for his roll on the campaign, Nendze refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the Warren campaign, and went on to tell his story to The Daily Beast.
This may mark yet another example of a Democrat failing to, in the eyes of their supporters and constituents, pay their campaign staff an adequate wage.
The Democrat presidential roundup was rocked over the past month by allegations that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was not paying his campaign at least $15 per hour, an hourly wage he says all Americans are entitled to as part of his campaign.
Sanders later relented to his campaign worker’s request, but lowered the maximum hours his campaign staff could work simultaneously, likely cancelling out any benefits from the pay raise.
For the last weeks, Sanders’s campaign has been rocked with allegations of unfair pay, as the Democrat presidential candidate running on a platform of raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour has been paying much of his campaign staff less than the coveted hourly amount.
To accommodate his campaign workers’ request, Sanders relented, and gave them a $15 wage. However, in order to afford such an increase, Sanders had to severely cut back the number of hours each campaign worker is allowed to put into the fledgling presidential campaign.
It appears for some congressional Democrats, running for president may be the first real experience in the business world they have enjoyed, and they are learning hard lessons about hiring, retaining, and compensating employees.
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