Cenk Uygur, the founder of the far-left website The Young Turks, reportedly discouraged his employees from forming their own union despite his public statements in support of unions, as The Daily Caller reports.
Uygur allegedly made the comments to a meeting of all Young Turks staff on February 12th, shortly after a group of employees had made an announcement via Twitter that they had decided to unionize. Chief operating officer Jack Gerard claims that Uygur “threw papers onto the floor” during the meeting “and scolded an employee.”
While Uygur admitted in an interview with the Huffington Post that he did throw a tantrum at the meeting, he claimed that the employee in question deserved the scolding because he was “smiling” during the meeting. Uygur explained his disapproval of a potential union by claiming that it would signal “a precarious position” for the website, since it is “in a digital media landscape where almost no one makes money.”
Uygur is a Democratic candidate for the 25th congressional district of California, which was left vacant by the resignation of Representative Katie Hill (D-Calif.) after her sex scandal with a congressional staffer. The special election to replace her will be held on March 3rd, the same day as California’s primary; if no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff will be held between the top two candidates on May 12th.