Mairead McArdle,National Review•March 23, 2020
A former field organizer for Mike Bloomberg’s Democratic presidential campaign filed a class-action lawsuit against the campaign on Monday, claiming Bloomberg lured her and thousands of other employees into jobs they were falsely told would last until November.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York City by Donna Wood, who worked for the former New York City mayor’s campaign in Miami and was laid off on Friday.
Wood alleges in the suit that the Bloomberg campaign breached its contract with employees by laying them off eight months earlier than was promised and failing to pay them overtime. The campaign “deprived them of promised income and health care benefits, leaving them and their families potentially uninsured in the face of a global pandemic,” the suit states.
“People are going from a pretty generous health care benefit to projected 20 to 30 percent unemployment,” said Wood’s attorney Sally Abrahamson.
Bloomberg entered the 2020 race for the Democratic nomination in late November after other candidates had been on the campaign trail for months. The New York billionaire spent more than $900 million on his campaign, including $500 million for political ads, and offered generous pay and benefits to campaign workers.
However, Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race on March 4, a day after his disappointing finish in Super Tuesday primaries. Over the last several weeks, the Bloomberg campaign has fired campaign workers and invited all former staffers to apply to work for the Democratic National Committee, saying staffing for the DNC would draw “in part from our own incredibly experienced and talented organizing staff.”
Bloomberg also announced he will donate $18 million to the DNC instead of putting it towards a new super PAC to aid Democrats in securing the nomination. The former New York mayor had previously promised over the course of his campaign to offer his campaign resources to the eventual Democratic nominee.
The campaign promised “employment through November 2020 with Team Bloomberg,” according to talking points used when interviewing and hiring field organizers. However, contracts signed by the employees stated that employment was in fact at-will and could be terminated at any point and also that campaign staffers were “classified as exempt from the overtime provisions of federal and applicable state laws.”
Dumped amid coronavirus, former Bloomberg campaign aides sue for pay and benefits
By Sharon Bernstein, Reuters•March 23, 2020
FILE PHOTO: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg's Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm BeachMore
By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) - Former organizers for Michael Bloomberg's unsuccessful presidential bid sued the billionaire's campaign on Monday, saying he laid them off amid the global coronavirus pandemic after promising pay and benefits through the November election.
Employees resigned from good jobs to take positions with Bloomberg's campaign, and they now face unemployment and the loss of their health insurance in the midst of the spreading virus, field organizers Alexis Sklair, Sterling Rettke and Nathaniel Brown said in their complaint, one of two proposed class action lawsuits potentially representing thousands of workers.
"They promised salaries nearly double that of other campaigns," alleged their complaint, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "And they pledged to keep this promise regardless of whether Bloomberg won the Democratic nomination."
Donna Wood, an organizer in Miami, said in a separate complaint that she was laid off last week despite promises of continued employment.
Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York, was a late entrant to the Democratic Party's nominating race and then abruptly exited after a disappointing showing on March 3, the first time his name appeared on ballots.
Seeking to assuage concerns that he was a spoiler in the race to challenge Republican Donald Trump for the presidency in November, Bloomberg had said publicly that he would keep his campaign offices open through the election so employees could work for whoever became the Democratic nominee.
Bloomberg has since endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads remaining rival Bernie Sanders in delegates. But the nominating contest is now on hold as several states have postponed their primary elections due to coronavirus concerns.
On Friday, Bloomberg field organizers were laid off from their jobs. The same day, Bloomberg said he would donate $18 million to the Democratic National Committee.
In an emailed statement to Reuters on Monday, the campaign did not address the allegations made in the lawsuits but said Bloomberg had been generous with employees.
"Staff worked 39 days on average, but they were also given several weeks of severance and healthcare through March, something no other campaign did this year," the campaign said.
To help former employees weather the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg is creating a fund to provide healthcare through the month of April, the campaign said.
Both lawsuits, which must first be approved as a class action by the court, seek overtime as well as full pay and benefits through the November election for Wood and other employees. The lawsuit filed by Sklair, Rettke and Brown seeks punitive damages.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
However, Bloomberg dropped out of the presidential race on March 4, a day after his disappointing finish in Super Tuesday primaries. Over the last several weeks, the Bloomberg campaign has fired campaign workers and invited all former staffers to apply to work for the Democratic National Committee, saying staffing for the DNC would draw “in part from our own incredibly experienced and talented organizing staff.”
Bloomberg also announced he will donate $18 million to the DNC instead of putting it towards a new super PAC to aid Democrats in securing the nomination. The former New York mayor had previously promised over the course of his campaign to offer his campaign resources to the eventual Democratic nominee.
The campaign promised “employment through November 2020 with Team Bloomberg,” according to talking points used when interviewing and hiring field organizers. However, contracts signed by the employees stated that employment was in fact at-will and could be terminated at any point and also that campaign staffers were “classified as exempt from the overtime provisions of federal and applicable state laws.”
Dumped amid coronavirus, former Bloomberg campaign aides sue for pay and benefits
By Sharon Bernstein, Reuters•March 23, 2020
FILE PHOTO: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg's Super Tuesday night rally in West Palm BeachMore
By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) - Former organizers for Michael Bloomberg's unsuccessful presidential bid sued the billionaire's campaign on Monday, saying he laid them off amid the global coronavirus pandemic after promising pay and benefits through the November election.
Employees resigned from good jobs to take positions with Bloomberg's campaign, and they now face unemployment and the loss of their health insurance in the midst of the spreading virus, field organizers Alexis Sklair, Sterling Rettke and Nathaniel Brown said in their complaint, one of two proposed class action lawsuits potentially representing thousands of workers.
"They promised salaries nearly double that of other campaigns," alleged their complaint, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. "And they pledged to keep this promise regardless of whether Bloomberg won the Democratic nomination."
Donna Wood, an organizer in Miami, said in a separate complaint that she was laid off last week despite promises of continued employment.
Bloomberg, a former mayor of New York, was a late entrant to the Democratic Party's nominating race and then abruptly exited after a disappointing showing on March 3, the first time his name appeared on ballots.
Seeking to assuage concerns that he was a spoiler in the race to challenge Republican Donald Trump for the presidency in November, Bloomberg had said publicly that he would keep his campaign offices open through the election so employees could work for whoever became the Democratic nominee.
Bloomberg has since endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, who leads remaining rival Bernie Sanders in delegates. But the nominating contest is now on hold as several states have postponed their primary elections due to coronavirus concerns.
On Friday, Bloomberg field organizers were laid off from their jobs. The same day, Bloomberg said he would donate $18 million to the Democratic National Committee.
In an emailed statement to Reuters on Monday, the campaign did not address the allegations made in the lawsuits but said Bloomberg had been generous with employees.
"Staff worked 39 days on average, but they were also given several weeks of severance and healthcare through March, something no other campaign did this year," the campaign said.
To help former employees weather the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg is creating a fund to provide healthcare through the month of April, the campaign said.
Both lawsuits, which must first be approved as a class action by the court, seek overtime as well as full pay and benefits through the November election for Wood and other employees. The lawsuit filed by Sklair, Rettke and Brown seeks punitive damages.
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
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