Every time I visit Berkeley I see signs from Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. offering competitive wages to people who want to protest for a living. They have a national presence.
In 2006, GCI was sued for overtime wage violations for allegedly working its staff 14-hours a day. The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco in 2006, accused Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. of overworking mostly college students long hours, seven days a week gathering petition signatures and donations for Democratic candidates and groups like Moveon.org. "It's ironic that a company that bills itself as a champion of the progressive movement would treat its own employees so badly," said Robert S. Nelson, of the Nelson Law Group, a San Bruno, California firm that filed the class action on behalf of at least six (of thousands) of former employees.
Fourteen students sued Grassroots Campaigns Inc. for wages they claim the nationwide contractor for the Democratic National Committee owed them for their local work as canvassers in 2004 for the failed John Kerry campaign. According to the complaint filed in August 2006 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Grassroots paid the students the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, instead of Oregon's then-minimum wage of $7.05 an hour. The suit seeks the wages each student is owed, plus a $1,692 penalty per student. Grassroots claimed the students were paid properly and legally. (Willamette Week, 9/20/06) After a settlement was reached by both parties, the case was dismissed on August 2, 2007.
Near the end of 2008 Grassroots campaigns was involved in a lawsuit for firing 3 employees from their Chicago office after attempting to form a union. Originally the employees sought the aid of the ACLU as one of the clients of Grassroots, but were told by the national office it would be a "conflict of interest" since Grassroots ran the ACLU's canvassing operation. The employees took their case to the NLRB who agreed to take the case as they felt they had sufficient evidence that a violation of the National Labor Relations Act had occurred. Grassroots ultimately agreed to settle the case and agreed to pay backpay for all 3 employees nearing $18,000.
Every time I visit Berkeley I see signs from Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. offering competitive wages to people who want to protest for a living. They have a national presence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots_Campaigns,_Inc.
In 2006, GCI was sued for overtime wage violations for allegedly working its staff 14-hours a day. The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco in 2006, accused Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. of overworking mostly college students long hours, seven days a week gathering petition signatures and donations for Democratic candidates and groups like Moveon.org. "It's ironic that a company that bills itself as a champion of the progressive movement would treat its own employees so badly," said Robert S. Nelson, of the Nelson Law Group, a San Bruno, California firm that filed the class action on behalf of at least six (of thousands) of former employees.
Fourteen students sued Grassroots Campaigns Inc. for wages they claim the nationwide contractor for the Democratic National Committee owed them for their local work as canvassers in 2004 for the failed John Kerry campaign. According to the complaint filed in August 2006 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Grassroots paid the students the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour, instead of Oregon's then-minimum wage of $7.05 an hour. The suit seeks the wages each student is owed, plus a $1,692 penalty per student. Grassroots claimed the students were paid properly and legally. (Willamette Week, 9/20/06) After a settlement was reached by both parties, the case was dismissed on August 2, 2007.
Near the end of 2008 Grassroots campaigns was involved in a lawsuit for firing 3 employees from their Chicago office after attempting to form a union. Originally the employees sought the aid of the ACLU as one of the clients of Grassroots, but were told by the national office it would be a "conflict of interest" since Grassroots ran the ACLU's canvassing operation. The employees took their case to the NLRB who agreed to take the case as they felt they had sufficient evidence that a violation of the National Labor Relations Act had occurred. Grassroots ultimately agreed to settle the case and agreed to pay backpay for all 3 employees nearing $18,000.
3/13/11 9:13 AM