By TREVOR SCHAKOHL and MUST READ ALASKA
The prominent Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue, which has been unveiled as having questionable fundraising techniques that involve fundraising mules, announced the decision Monday to terminate about 17% of its employees, according to NBC News, despite recently agreeing to a new contract with one of its employee unions.
The PAC facilitates donations to Democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations and aligned nonprofits in exchange for a processing fee, raising and spending more than $4 million during the 2019 to 2020 election cycle, according to Open Secrets. ActBlue called the job-cutting move part of a “restructuring” towards growing its strategic impact, better assisting clients and ensuring long-term financial stability, Seitz-Wald reported, but the ActBlue Union representing some of its workers blamed “mismanagement.”
The ActBlue Union secured its first collective bargaining agreement with ActBlue in early February. The union claimed Monday that ActBlue leadership refused to have their own pay reduced and called that proposal “additionally oppressive,” adding, “This stance highlights how incredibly out of touch Leadership is, not only with ActBlue workers, but also with our mission.” (RELATED: Dem-Linked Dark Money Group Is Masquerading As A Newspaper To Influence Pivotal Court Race)
The union announced on Twitter, “Today @actblue laid off 54 employees, 32 of which were in our bargaining unit. Layoffs unfairly punish union employees who are both not responsible for the current financial difficulties & have invested considerable effort into making @actblue what it is today. We are disappointed in the mismanagement that has gotten us here. @ActBlueUnion has met with management twice since receiving notification of the potentiality of layoffs. In both meetings, management was unwilling to explore the alternatives we brought to the table with us.”
