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https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/shell-employees-who-skipped-trump-rally-lost-hundreds-in-income-while-attendees-made-time-and-a-half-pennsylvania-union-leaders/

no lnx pix vid

Shell employees who skipped Trump rally lost hundreds in income while attendees made time and a half: Pennsylvania union leaders

Written by Jessica Sutherland / Daily Kos August 18, 2019

Thousands of Shell contractors were in attendance at Donald Trump’s big union speech in Monaca, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean they wanted to be. While it’s no secret that the workers were paid to be there, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported on Friday that the consequences of not attending amounted to far more than just the loss of one day’s wages. Employees who wanted to skip the MAGAfest were technically free to do so, but their choice would cause a loss of as much as $700 later in the week.

Those that decided to sit out the event would have an excused absence, the company said, and would not qualify for overtime pay on Friday. The company has a 56-hour workweek with 16 hours of overtime. That means those workers who attended Mr. Trump’s speech and showed up for work on Friday meeting the overtime threshold are being paid at a rate of time and a half, while those that didn’t go to hear the president are being paid the regular rate, despite the fact that both groups did not do work on the site on Tuesday.

And everyone knows how much this administration loves overtime.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2019/03/08/trump-administration-releases-new-overtime-rules/

Those that did attend were required to be present from 7 AM until well after 3 PM with no lunch break allowed, or lunch provided. Additionally, employees were told that they were expected to “promote good will from the labor unions” by Shell, whatever their personal feelings about the current administration might be.

So @Shell Oil had them show up at 7am but without steel toe boots and thus not working all day on a construction site.

They were paid props, ordered by @Shell not to “resist”. pic.twitter.com/3FI67zCT5l

— STOP tRumpnado ?? (@Trumpnado2016) August 14, 2019

Just in case you missed it:

“No yelling, shouting, protesting or anything viewed as resistance will be tolerated at the event.”

In an interview with the Post-Gazette, one union leader was careful to defend the event.

“This is just what Shell wanted to do and we went along with it,” said Ken Broadbent, business manager for Steamfitters local 449. […]

“We’re glad to have the jobs. We’re glad to have the project built,” he said. “The president is the president whether we like him or dislike him. We respect him for the title.”

Mr. Broadbent said anyone who did not want to show up to work that day was free to do so. “This is America,” he said.

This is America, it’s true, but is it really free will with such expensive consequences for refusing to be part of a presidential photo op … and such restrictive conditions if one agreed to do so?

Reporters on the ground on Tuesday also noted that after standing, without a lunch break, for eight hours, the workers were forced to spend more of their time, unpaid, in an exit queue.

It’s becoming a mess getting workers out of Trump event. Crowd getting angry. Many of them stopped getting paid at 3pm when their shift ended. pic.twitter.com/KIe0x6WxA7

— Shannon Pettypiece (@spettypi) August 13, 2019

The Post-Gazette reports that, despite Shell claiming that “building trades leaders and jobs stewards have agreed to” the terms of the Trump appearance, several union leaders stated that they weren’t aware of the rules until the day before, when Shell sent out the infamous memo.

On Friday, a Shell spokesman insisted that Tuesday’s event wasn’t propaganda fodder for Trump, it was simply a “paid training day with a guest speaker who happened to be the President.”

“It’s not uncommon for us to shut down the site for quarterly visits from VIPs — popular sports figures like Rocky Bleier and Franco Harris have visited the site to engage with workers and to share inspirational messages. Shell/Penske NASCAR driver, Joey Logano was another guest at the site,” (Shell spokesman Ray) Fisher said.

As a Browns fan, it seems like it would be much easier to show up for Steelers legend Franco Harris than for Trump. But hey, maybe that’s just me.

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• Max Tani @ Semafor: Paid actors, AI writing: How a new kind of video business cashed in on America’s divided politics

Over the last several months, a new generation of YouTube growth-hackers have flooded American politics with sensationalized, low-quality content, reaching millions of viewers with nearly identical videos taking aim at progressive politicians including Zohran Mamdani, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Notably, while the videos are presented as laypeople giving straight-to-camera ideological news recaps, they feature actors and spokespeople paid small

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On February 21, the New Orleans City Council unanimously voted to uphold approval of Entergy's proposed natural gas power plant, which faces a growing number of lawsuits, and passed a resolution toimpose a$5 million fine on the company for its role in a paid-actors scandal.

https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/05/10/entergy-natural-gas-power-plant-new-orleans-astroturfing-campaign

Before the vote, in nearly three hours of often emotional testimony mostly against the plant, many contended that the $5 million fine was not a sufficient punishment. This was in light of the council's commissioned investigation, which concluded the company "knew or should have known" that a subcontractor was paying actors to support its proposed power plant at council meetings.

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Entergy New Orleans, the company that recently won approval to build a controversial $210 million natural gas power plant in the city, confirmed that actors were paid to show support for this project at public meetings. Though Entergy claims it was unaware of the situation, a public relations firm it hired had paid freelance actors to testify in favor of the project at public meetings. 

On May 10, Entergy released its finding from an internal investigation revealing that the public affairs firm The Hawthorn Group, which it hired to organize “grassroots support” for the natural gas power plant, in fact paid actors to voice and show support for the plant. The Hawthorn Group in turn hired a company called Crowds on Demand to “pay individuals that it recruited to appear and/or speak at those two meetings.”

“This activity was undertaken without our knowledge or approval, and I can say unequivocally that it would not have been approved had we known,” Entergy General Counsel Marcus Brown said in a statement. “We do, however, recognize that we ultimately are responsible for the actions of those who act on our behalf, and we are taking immediate steps to prevent a similar situation from happening again.”

Earlier this week, The Lens, an investigative journalism site, reported that actors were paid $60 to show up at the meetings, and up to $200 to read a statement at two recent public meetings when critical votes regarding the plant were held.

At one meeting in October last year, 50 people wearing orange shirts that read “Clean Energy. Good Jobs. Reliable Power” filled seats in an auditorium, preventing many residents who oppose the project from getting into the room. Entergy plans to build the natural gas power plant in New Orleans East, which is home to majority African-American and Vietnamese communities, raising concerns of environmental racism. Proponents claim the plant would address New Orleans’ energy outage issues, while critics say they could be solved for less money by fixing the city’s ailing transmission system.

The Lens reported that the actors had to sign a non-disclosure agreement and were instructed not to speak to the media or tell anyone they were being paid to attend.

Before the admission, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of opponents of the power plant, including members of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, the Sierra Club, the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and 350 New Orleans, in order to void the actions taken at the two meetings, one a city council meeting and another a utility commission meeting.

The opponents also sent a letter to the Louisiana Attorney General, Buddy Landry, calling for an investigation into who paid for the fake participants, and possible legal and ethical violations. 

Renate Heurich of 350 New Orleans testifying against the gas power plant on March 8, 2018.]

Renate Heurich of 350 New Orleansdoesn’t believe Entergy didn’t know the company’s money was going to paid actors at the public meetings. “I think the corruption goes much deeper than that,” she told me. “Why else would anyone on the council vote ‘yes’ on a project that has no value for the residents of New Orleans?” 

At the March council meeting before the vote for the plant was held, Heurich pleaded with the council not to invest in a fossil fuel infrastructure project in a city already plagued by the effects of climate change. “The vote for the plant, clearly wasn’t based on logic,” Heurich said. “The only one who benefits is Entergy.

Astroturfing — secretly paying for efforts to create the illusion of grassroots support — is nothing new, but proving a company like Entergy may be involved can be challenging. 

Hawthorn, however, has a history of astroturf campaigns on behalf of the energy industry, as pointed out by the Energy and Policy Institute. In 2009, the company, paid by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, hired a subcontractor to create the illusion of grassroots support against climate change legislation, which involvedforging letters from minority groups such as NAACP’s Charlottesville chapter. And sometimes paid support can take another form — such as the fact that Entergy's foundation donated more than a million dollars to at least nine charitable organizations that testified on the plant's behalf, without always disclosing those donations, at the same public meetings now under scrutiny.*

Brendan DeMelle, DeSmog’s executive director, wrote about a 2014 astroturf effort made by communications firmEdelman on behalf of TransCanada for the Energy East tar sands export pipeline (a project ultimately killed in 2017). Documents obtained by Greenpeace outline a “grassroots advocacy” campaign plan to build support for TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline, as well as to undermine public opposition to oil and pipelines generally.

Entergy’s claim that it didn’t know about the astroturfing effort made on its behalf sounded disingenuous to members of the coalition against the plant whom I spoke with after Entergy released its findings.

Happy Johnson testifying at a New Orleans City Council Meeting against Entergy’s proposed natural gas power plant. FLAnked by 2 cops about to pull him out?!

Happy Johnson, author and humanitarian and an outspoken opponent to the gas plant, hopes in light of Entergy’s admission the permit will be reconsidered. According to Johnson, at the next council meeting on May 24, opponents plan to make their case to the newly seated city council that the permit needs to be revoked. “With this kind of trickery, I hope the new council will do the right thing and take another look,” Johnson said.

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SHAPIRO, HOST:

Maybe you've been driving through town recently and seen a crowd of protesters or excited fans, maybe even paparazzi - at least that's what it looks like. There's a chance that each of those enthusiastic individuals is being paid to be there.

The writer Davy Rothbart knows this because he went undercover and got a job with Crowds on Demand, one of several companies that supplies fake crowds. Then Davy Rothbart wrote about it for the California Sunday Magazine. I asked him to describe one of his gigs.

DAVY ROTHBART: The Masonic Center in San Francisco was hosting a global gathering...

SHAPIRO: Of masons.

ROTHBART: ...For masons from all over the world. And the Georgia chapter has recently passed a rule prohibiting gay members. So we were hired to pose as a news crew, as these masons are streaming up to the event. I had a mic. We had camera crews and everything, and I would sort of engage with them to talk about the issues, you know. We'd say like, you know, are you aware of this Georgia edict that is banning homosexuality among that chapter's members?

SHAPIRO: But there seems like there must be less deceptive ways of accomplishing that.

ROTHBART: I mean, I will say this it seemed to me to be a productive way. And what happened was as we started talking to people, some of them weren't aware of the issue, so we were educating them about it. Some of them were aware but felt like there wasn't anything they could do, but we talked to them about things that they could do. And some of them just needed to be challenged to actually take a stand.

And what was the most interesting to me, Ari, was that all these people - me and others who had basically responded to a craigslist ad - adventurous videographers wanted - we had showed up to make 20 bucks an hour working as fake protesters. But our feelings about the issue were real, and we actually became real protestors over the course of like an hour.

SHAPIRO: This may be a relatively young company, but the practice of paying people to show up and be a part of a crowd is hardly new.

ROTHBART: Right, you know, in France in the 1800s, and England, you know...

SHAPIRO: They were called the clacquers (laughter).

ROTHBART: Right, right. They would hire people to say encore, encore, you know, or to laugh at certain moments in the play or to cry at certain moments. So we put a lot of meaning and value in a crowd. If there's two Japanese restaurants side-by-side and we're in some city we're not familiar with, you see one that's packed and the other's empty. You might kind of lean toward going to the packed one, you know? You're following the crowd.

SHAPIRO: Is there something a little gross, though, about when people start to undermine that power of the crowd by paying crowds to be there?

ROTHBART: Yes, (laughter) I think so. I mean, I think it's savvy, and I think it's smart. And I think it's effective, but I also think it's a little gross. I mean, it's - I think it's fair play. It's just like we are smart about when we watch reality TV. We know it's not real and interestingly this company, Crowds on Demand, they - unless you're a hate group or something like that, you know, they'll supply crowds. It doesn't have to be in line with their way of thinking.

SHAPIRO: You write about one case that sounds morally questionable to say the least, which is a college expulsion hearing.

ROTHBART: Yeah. And a kid had been - possibly going to be expelled by a college, and I'm not sure the reasons. And he had a chance at his expulsion hearing to bring people to testify on behalf of his character, you know, talk about what a great guy he was and how long they've known him.

Now, Crowds on Demand supplied 20 people to testify on this guy's behalf. This would've been perjury, you know, in the court of law. But at a expulsion hearing, people had testified on his behalf, and the kid actually was not expelled from the college thanks in part, I'm sure, to this crowd of 20 people saying what a great guy and how long they've known him. And so that is one that's pretty murky, ethical territory.

SHAPIRO: And when you talked to the CEO about this case, how did he defend it?

ROTHBART: You know, he just said that he had studied the facts of the case, and he felt like this was one where he felt on board with working with this student to make sure he wasn't expelled.

SHAPIRO: When you went out on these assignments, did they ever say if somebody asks whether you were hired or not, don't tell them the truth?

ROTHBART: Interestingly, I don't think it crosses anybody's mind. You know, it's just still kind of a secretive line of work, and I think most people aren't that clued into the possibility of hired crowd members. So the protest events we did, you know - I never saw the flicker of doubt in anybody's mind that we were who we appear to be, real protesters.

SHAPIRO: Davy Rothbart, thanks for coming in.

ROTHBART: Thanks so much.

SHAPIRO: Davy Rothbart is the creator and editor of Found Magazine and their forthcoming podcast is called Found.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/05/608785751/new-orleans-news-site-finds-actors-were-paid-to-support-a-power-plant

Multiple actors were paid to appear at City Hall meetings in New Orleans and express support for a proposed gas-powered power plant, an investigative news site reports, citing interviews with actors and messages with organizers.

The New Orleans City Council approved the new Entergy power plant in March. Allegations have been swirling for weeks that some of the seeming supporters of the plant were actually paid actors, but now The Lens has published evidence. The site notes that the practice "appears to be legal."

Entergy New Orleans denies the claims. "The recent allegations that some supporters of the New Orleans Power Station may have been paid to attend or speak at certain public meetings are troubling and run counter to the values of our company," Entergy said in a statement on Sunday to NPR. "Entergy did not pay, nor did we authorize any other person or entity to pay supporters to attend or speak at council meetings."

The company continued that it is in the process of investigating "to determine if anyone retained by the company has acted in any way inconsistent" with Entergy's values, adding, "We will take swift and appropriate action if warranted."

You can read the full story on The Lens' website.

Long before the allegations surfaced, The Lens noted the striking number of bright orange T-shirts — celebrating clean energy, good jobs and reliable power — worn at a meeting in October to invite public comments on the proposal.

At that meeting, The Lens reported at the time, the president and CEO of Entergy New Orleans chuckled and said, "I think we've got them outnumbered."

Then, in early March, actor Andrew Wiseman spoke out publicly to say he was paid to sit in a meeting wearing one of those orange shirts.

Inspired by that disclosure, a lawyer compared speakers at the City Hall meetings with professional actor profiles and identified three other apparent actors in the audience. But he did not offer any evidence that those actors were paid to speak at the meeting.

A coalition of environmental advocacy groups then sued to reverse the approval of the plant for a variety of reasons. One of their suits alleges that opponents of the plant were turned away from public meetings because of a lack of space, while supporters — possibly including paid supporters — were allowed to enter early.

Entergy told local news station WWLTV that "seats were available on a first-come, first-served" basis and that it "did not pay anyone to attend."

Now The Lens, a nonprofit news organization, has published new evidencesuggesting a campaign to recruit, organize and pay people, including people from outside of New Orleans, to express support for the power plant.

One actor, in addition to Andrew Wiseman, was willing to go on the record.

"They paid us to sit through the meeting and clap every time someone said something against wind and solar power," Keith Keough told The Lens, saying he was not political and just needed the money.

Two more actors spoke to The Lens anonymously. The site also obtained screenshots of messages exchanged with a man who was apparently organizing the effort.

Those messages, which are displayed in the Lens' story, described when and where to appear, offered recruitment bonuses for finding more people for the event, provided talking points and full speeches to deliver, and referenced nondisclosure agreements.

The Lens reports that participants were paid $60 for showing up and wearing a shirt, and $200 for delivering a speech in support of the plant.

The news outlet also said that in one message, the organizer referenced "Crowds on Demand." In 2016, Davy Rothbart wrote about that company, which supplies fake crowds for events, for The California Report.

Sourcing The Crowd: California Company Stages Phony Protests June 9, 2016

He spoke to NPR about his experience going undercover to get jobs with them, describing the company's strategy as savvy and smart.

"I think it's effective, but I also think it's a little gross," he said.

Rothbart said that during his time with Crowds on Demand, nobody really seemed to be worried about being discovered as a paid protester.

"I don't think it crosses anybody's mind," he said. "It's just still kind of a secretive line of work, and I think most people aren't that clued into the possibility of hired crowd members."

But the messages acquired by The Lens show a preoccupation with not getting caught. In one missive, the organizer listed "a few things to keep in mind":

1) Tell nobody you're being paid

2) Tell nobody you're being paid

3) Media will be present, do not talk to them

4) Tell nobody you're being paid

5) If someone approaches you, don't tell them you're being paid.

The alleged organizer who sent that message did not respond to The Lens' request for comment. Another alleged organizer told the news site he helps run "grassroots organizations and campaigns," but did not respond to further inquiries.

Crowds on Demand has not yet responded to NPR's request for comment.

It's not clear who paid for the effort — or how many people were paid and how many were legitimate supporters.

But in March, at a meeting where there are no allegations of paid supporters, the room was "dominated by opponents," The Lens writes.

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