Joe Biden’s campaign field organizers are the first in presidential history to be covered by a union agreement as they work to elect a major party’s presumptive nominee in a general election.
Teamsters Local 238, which represents the organizers, announced the deal had been ratified effective Friday, covering about 100 organizers employed by the Democratic Party’s apparent standard-bearer.
“For the first time in history, the campaign staff for a presumptive nominee of a major political party will be covered under a union agreement that includes overtime pay for all hours worked after 40 in a week, 100% employer-paid health insurance, a six-day work week, a union grievance procedure, and other protections afforded by a union contract,” Teamsters Local 238 Secretary-Treasurer Jesse Case wrote in a statement Monday night.
The pact continues a trend away from how campaigns have operated in the past. They typically have fluid, underresourced structures, similar to startup companies, with a high turnover rate for staff, who work long hours for low wages as they adapt to rapidly changing situations and conditions.
Maju Varghese, Biden for President’s chief operating officer, said the arrangement was aligned with the values of the two-term vice president and 36-year senator from Delaware.
“His plan to grow a stronger, more inclusive middle class — the backbone of the American economy — demands that we strengthen public and private-sector unions and help all workers bargain successfully for what they deserve,” Varghese wrote. “Our hardworking field organizers are no exception, and their efforts are critical to our success at the ballot box this fall.”
Though organizers will be paid $15 an hour (for an average increase of $1,900 in annual wages) under Biden’s framework, its terms aren’t as generous as that for aides of former 2020 White House hopeful Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator had agreed to allow staff to take up to 57 days of paid leave each calendar year, as well as generous termination provisions, before he ended his bid last month.
