Help Wanted: Need Employees to Write Form Letters and Attend Protest Rallies

It’s bad enough we’ve been swamped with all this phony “grassroots” activism manufactured by corporations and rightwing think tanks. Now it turns out this Astroturf “activism” is part of your job description if you work for UnitedHealth or WellPoint.

Consumer Watchdog has urged California Attorney General Jerry Brown to investigate these two companies for violating state labor laws. Both of these companies have in-house advocacy groups: United for Health Reform, and Health Action Network. Company employees were “encouraged” to contact their advocacy group — during business hours — for help in crafting letters to Congress. One company e-mail said: “By working with an advocacy specialist to personalize your message, you can quickly and easily add your voice to this historic debate.”

Employees were also encouraged to attend demonstrations and town hall meetings.

A spokesperson for Consumer Watchdog said: “While coercive communications with employees may be legal, if abhorrent, in most states, California’s Labor Code appears to directly prohibit them.”

This has all been part of the huge lobbying effort by AHIP, who’s mobilized fifty thousand “activists” to sabotage the public option.

Throw the book at those motherfuckers.

Remember that quaint old Fairness Doctrine that Republicans have such contempt for? Well, now it seems they want it back.