No yelling, shouting, protesting or anything viewed as resistance
Another event Trump did, this one at a Shell plant in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, was a kind of Stakhanovite exercise.
The choice for thousands of union workers at Royal Dutch Shell’s petrochemical plant in Beaver County was clear Tuesday: Either stand in a giant hall waiting for President Donald Trump to speak or take the day off with no pay.
“Your attendance is not mandatory,” said the rules that one contractor relayed to employees, summarizing points from a memo that Shell sent to union leaders a day ahead of the visit to the $6 billion construction site. But only those who showed up at 7 a.m., scanned their ID cards, and prepared to stand for hours — through lunch but without lunch — would be paid.
Like a normal work day but the work is standing to wait for Trump and then listening to Trump as opposed to actual work. It may be a nice break from work, I don’t know, but it doesn’t seem all that appropriate for a president to force himself on people that way. It doesn’t seem right for a president to do “attendance is mandatory if you want to get paid” events. Too much like Waiting For Stalin.
And it’s all the more so given that they were given strict instructions on how to behave.
The contractor’s talking points, preparing his workers for the event read:
“No yelling, shouting, protesting or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event. An underlying theme of the event is to promote good will from the unions. Your building trades leaders and jobs stewards have agreed to this.”
Hmm. They had to go or forfeit a day’s pay, and they had to act as if they liked it. No, I don’t think a president should be doing that.
“Attend this partisan political event and appear to give support” seems like forced political speech and a breach of the constitution. I thought conservatives loved the constitution?? (Rhetorical!)
I think it’s not a breach of the constitution because it’s the company doing it, not Trump and co. But it’s skeevy as fuck and a proper president would have nothing to do with it.
More to the point, what the hell were their Union leaders doing agreeing to that?
Hell. Not He’ll. Apparently this autocorrect does not know the word hell…
Good question. I suspect it has to do with the “Trump is good for jobs” delusion.
It’s got to be a violation of labor laws, though.
I don’t think so. I thought so at first glance but when I read the whole story I didn’t. It’s a work day and listening to Trump is the work for that day.
Unless there’s a labor law about not forcing political views on the workers, but I don’t think there is. Norms yes, but we’ve seen how strong norms are in this environment…
They used to do this sort of thing in Franco’s Spain.
I just bet they did.
The words ‘anything viewed as resistance’ in there are rather chilling in a 1930s Europe kind of way.
I’m trying to imagine Trump’s reaction to an entire hall full of people just silently and blankly staring as he blathers on. Or just smiling politely, if blank stares are viewed as resistance.
The thing is, this is standard procedure for businesses. Sitting for mandatory meetings of people spouting nonsense we find objectionable or even repulsive is something many of us have had to do for years. It’s just that Trump out-repulses any of the obnoxious speakers I’ve had to sit through, even the ones who managed to barely veil the religiously aggressive commands to believe (knowing they were at a public school).
I don’t think my school would make us attend if the president came, though. I think he would be like those obnoxious, supposedly environmental speakers that we are allowed to attend by choice, and we would be given the option. I hope.
Is there any difference, though, between people spouting nonsense and people with government power spouting nonsense? Difference in terms of policy I mean? Making you listen to some rando spouting nonsense is one thing, and making you listen to say the mayor or governor or president spouting nonsense is another. I’m wondering if management sees it and treats it any differently.
I seem to recall at least mine where they did just this during Romney’s campaign…