City Councilman Mark Levine is powering his campaign for Manhattan borough president with an army students and recent grads doing the yeoman’s work for free.
“TeamLevine hoped to have 80 interns by June. Tonight, we onboarded our 81st!.” crowed a January .
“Amazing!!! Now we need 82. ;-).” Levine .
Levine only reported working on his borough president’s race, public filings show.
The Democrat has long espoused paying workers🏅 a fair wage and championed the for fast food workers. In 2016 he was arrested at🦋 a protest with other lefty pols demanding the pay increase.
Unpaid i🉐nternships are a no-no in progressive circles.
“Experience doesn’t pay the bills,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in when asked about the subject. “When we don’t pay our interns, the only folks that get access to becoming interns are people who already have access to privilege and opportunity.”
Levine is far from alone in taking advantage of free labor. His opponent, City Councilman Ben Kallos, has an opening for an unpaid internship on his borough president . State Sen. Brad Hoylman, another borough president contender, has in hi𒁃s Senate office. Federal filings suggest that a fourth candidate, Gov. Cuomo accuser Lindsey Boylan, also used them during her unsuccessful primary against Rep. Jerry Nadler last year.
“Since day one on this campaign, I’ve been blown away by the volunteer enthusiasm for Mark, including high school and college students who I’m honored to campaign with each and every day,” said Ilana Maier, Levine’s campaign manager. “Spending my days with young adults fighting to improve their communities is inspiring.”
Reps for the other three campaigns did not🏅 immediately respond to reques꧃ts for comment from The Post.