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.

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