Yang Staffers tried unionizing for more rights and a basic income. So he fired them.
Andrew Yang’s campaign slogan may be “Humanity First,” but his employment practices are not. Yang had staffers begin talks of unionizing this year. They wanted better work conditions, increased pay, and a month’s severance pay. They sent the request to Campaign Chief Nick Ryan. 4 days later, Yang laid off 130 staffers. At least 3 of the 5 unionized staffers who put their names on the list of demands were among those canned. It is evidence that Yang was not going to play ball with unionizing under his watch.
Unionized staffers complained of $10 an hour pay, which they deemed insulting. Sasha Cohen was one of the staffers laid off. They spoke to Rolling Stone Magazine about it.
“I still very much believe in Andrew’s message but the way his campaign treated staff runs completely counter to the concept of Humanity First,” Sasha said. “I believed in the campaign and what it stood for but to be treated this way is disheartening.”
Yang’s campaign disputed the 130 number. They told the magazine only “Dozens” of staffers got sacked. They also said that it was not due to unionizing. Spokesperson Sy Lee said the campaign “remains at full strength in New Hampshire, where we expect to compete and outperform expectations.”
“As part of our original plans following the Iowa caucuses, we are winding down our Iowa operations and restructuring to compete as the New Hampshire primary approaches,” Campaign Manager Zach Graumann said. “These actions are a natural evolution of the campaign post-Iowa, same as other campaigns have undertaken, and Andrew Yang is going to keep fighting for the voices of the more than 400,000 supporters who have donated to the campaign and placed a stake in the future of our country.”
The union staffers say they sent the memo during Iowa. Staffers even stopped campaigning in protest: Sasha says they wanted to sit down and negotiate with Yang. a sitdown never happened. Instead, they were fired.
“Our legal team received a memorandum of understanding over the weekend before the Iowa caucuses from these individuals and was not provided sufficient time to review it, even though our campaign has acted in an abundance of good faith in previous negotiations because we strongly support the right to collectively bargain,” Lee expalined. “However, despite our repeated attempts to negotiate with these select individuals, we were rebuffed with no reason given.”
Lee added: “After months of hard work on the ground organizing volunteers, knocking on doors, and making phone calls, our organizers deserve better. They should not be exploited for personal gain and attention by a select group of individuals with suspect motivations within their ranks.”
Yang’s website he says “empowering unions” is a major plank of his platform. He talks of the importance of workers to unionize for their rights. It’s apparently though that he only means when they aren’t working for him.