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Health & Fitness

Is it Really Protesting if You're Being Paid?

OWS protests CPAC in DC this weekend, but is their message stifled by the fact that their protesters were paid $60 a head?

By Hillary Pennington

The Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) Conference conveined in DC this weekend, drawing many top conservatives from around the country, including Allen West, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and, rising super star, Marco Rubio. 

The Occupy Wall Street movement pledged huge protests from the riled up and passionate 99%, calling it OccupyCPAC. And true to threat, many converged toting both hand made and professionally generated signage.  For a self proclaimed unorganized movement, they certainly looked like they had their act together.  So it shouldn't surprise anyone when it was revealed that this weekend's protest was actually organized and supported by America's largest labor unions, AFL-CIO and SEIU.

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However, it did surprise me (well, not really) to find that the protesters were paid $60 a head to come down and wave their signs.  Many, even, had no idea what they were wailing about.  They're members of local unions; out of work and desperate for a day's work. 

Say what you will about the Tea Party, but I can't find a single account of a protester being paid.  If the OWS movement is so strong, then why the need to pay people to join it? Why prey on the desperation of the unemployed?  And if this same movement, the 99% so they're called, are so principled and organic, then why are the labor unions stepping in and taking over?

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On another note, $60 a day? Really? From a union, whose purpose is to protect the worker?  The minimum wage in the District of Columbia, where the event was being held, is $8.25.  $60 divided out by 8 hours (assuming that's all they had to work) is $7.50.  Oops!  And do they get breaks prescribed by federal work laws, two fifteen and one thirty minute break?  If you're going to pay someone to do your dirty work, at least 1) compensate them according to your own standards, and 2) educate them as to what they're actually standing up against.  At least they got an Occupy t-shirt as a souvenir.

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