Bernie Sanders campaign staffers may be out of a job, but they’ll have access to healthcare for a while longer.
Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir reassured his former colleagues during an all-staff call Thursday that aides who worked on the Vermont senator’s roughly 14-month White House bid would have healthcare insurance coverage until October 31 through COBRA.
A campaign source confirmed Shakir’s comments to the Washington Examiner, which will affect about 500 employees.
Sanders, whose signature policy is expanding government healthcare through “Medicare for all,” suspended his second presidential campaign this week, cementing Joe Biden as the presumptive 2020 Democratic nominee. The senator dropped out of the primary race with roughly $18 million cash on hand as of March 23, according to Open Secrets data.
Under a collective bargaining agreement the Washington Examiner reported on last fall, employees who were with Sanders’s team for at least a year are entitled to 30 days of severance. NBC News reported staff who were on payroll for more than six months would receive a check worth two pay periods, while newer colleagues would only be reimbursed for one pay period.
The senator’s provision of benefits beyond the life of his campaign contrasts with similar promises made by another vanquished Democratic candidate, Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, lured top talent to join his ranks and eased concerns he would mount a third-party effort by telling Democrats he’d operate his Manhattan headquarters and field offices in six general election battleground states through November, regardless of whether he became the nominee.
The philanthropist is now being sued by former employees after he decided last month to nix plans to run an independent expenditure organization targeting President Trump. Instead, he transferred $18 million to the Democratic National Committee, donated his offices to state parties, and offered healthcare to his former workers through April.
