The Left’s New Town Hall Army- Duped and Exploited College Students
By Dr. Tony Magana
The Democrats plan to counter citizen outrage at recent town hall forums on health care? Dupe young college students into employment at less then minimal wage and with fake health benefits.
Recently the left has complained that the high degree of public dissatisfaction demonstrated at town hall meetings held by members of Congress during the August recess to discuss the Democratic hodge-podge of reforms was not a grass roots movement but instead was “astro-turf”. This is a term they created to describe participants of whom they accuse conservative organizations of planting.
Rather than try to start their own “grass roots movement’ it appears the Democratic response will involve using paid staff, instead of a real grass roots volunteer effort, to try to save the progressive health reform movement from crashing. Today a real revelation was made apparent on the website, Craiglist. A coalition of progressive activist groups is advertising jobs that pay $6000 for a two month period of time for becoming a paid activist. The jobs were created by the Fund for Public Interest and are located in 50 offices across the country and in Washington DC. Leadership positions they claim will work with paid staff to carry out door to door drives, fund raising, organize coalitions, and news conferences.
The Craigslist listing is linked to a website called Jobs That Matter. An impressive list of organizations including the Sierra Club and the Human Rights Campaign that raise millions of dollars each year from America’s prosperous progressive elite such as movie stars promise great pay and experience for doing social good. The ad does not mention anything about volunteerism or community service.
On the surface, this appears to be a wonderful opportunity for college students or recent college graduates to get paid for political activity, but the promise did not turn out to be real for Christian Miller. From 2002 to 2006 he was employed as a “canvasser” in Los Angeles raising money for prominent organizations including the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, and Save the Children. Employee dissatisfaction according to his account lead to a move by employees to try to unionize in 2005 which was resisted successfully by the Fund for Public Interest. They tried to get help from the sponsoring organizations like the Sierra Club but instead just found a cold shoulder. According to Miller, the Fund would not pay wages for mandatory worker training sessions and other events with mandatory attendance resulting in actual pay amounting to less than the minimum wage.
J.D. Castigilione was employed as a “Canvass Director” in Washington DC office. His experience was very similar to that of Mr. Miller. Although the “Fund” promised an income of almost $20,000 per year in reality that was almost impossible to achieve.
In 2002, several employees in Los Angeles complained that they were not being reimbursed for out of pocket expenses and denial of promised health benefits. Tamara Rettino suffered a severe kidney infection during her employment only to find that the health coverage promised by the Fund did not exist. Only after she threatened a lawsuit did the Fund finally pay her medical bills. That same year, Directors Brande Jackson and Dan Binaei made a request to the state labor board to unionize. Their request was greeted by an immediate termination.
Going back many years the Fund for the Public Interest has been involved in controversy over how it treats employees. Former employees have complained that they have not been paid for overtime, were disallowed from forming a union, and did not received health care benefits that were promised. A lawsuit has been filed on the behalf of former and current employees in Northern District Federal Court of California to “recover overtime and related claims”. The law firm involved confirmed no settlement of the abused workers claims has been reached. Despite these complaints the liberal organizations that contract with the Fund have never taken any action to force the Fund to improve conditions and pay for its employees.
The ultimate hypocrisy is that after accusing conservatives of improper activism the left is now desperately going to rely on an organization with a clear cut history of abuse including denial of health benefits to its own employees as the champion of health reform.
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Thanks for reading Contempo Magazine blog which discusses issues for McAllen, the Rio Grande Valley, and America from a conservative Hispanic point of view. Tony Magaña grew up in McAllen Texas, attended Texas A&M University, served as an officer in Army Reserve, and holds a doctorate from Harvard University. The co-founder of Contempo Magazine has participated in Valley business for over 20 years. He is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and also writes for the American Daily Review. Follow him on twitter http://twitter.com/contempomagazin
Copyright 2009, Dr. Tony Magana. Some rights reserved.
To reproduce or distribute, visit: drtonymagana.icopyright.com
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