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Workers told to choose between Trump speech, using paid time off or no pay

The event was billed as an official White House event, but Trump turned much of it into a campaign-style rally.
Credit: AP
President Donald Trump walks on stage before speaking to a crowd of construction workers before touring Royal Dutch Shell's petrochemical cracker plant on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019 in Monaca, Pa.

When President Donald Trump spoke this week at a soon-to-be completed Shell plant in Pennsylvania, workers were reportedly told they had to choose between attending the speech, staying home and using paid time off or not getting paid for the day.  

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was first to report on the rules that one contractor relayed to employees summarizing a memo that Shell sent to union leaders before Trump's visit. It explained that "attendance is not mandatory," but only those who showed up at 7 a.m., scanned their IDs and stayed for the speech would be paid. 

"NO SCAN, NO PAY," a supervisor wrote, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Shell spokesman Curtis Smith told Newsweek that workers who chose to skip the rally could "take paid time off (PTO), instead." He added that Tuesday's event was treated as a training day, except that it included "a guest speaker who happened to be the President." 

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Smith told NPR that the company did not write the notice to the workers. 

The event was billed as an official White House event, but Trump turned much of it into a campaign-style rally, boasting of achievements he claims as president and assailing his would-be Democratic rivals for the 2020 election.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Credit: AP
President Donald Trump walks on stage before speaking to a crowd of construction workers before touring Royal Dutch Shell's petrochemical cracker plant on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019 in Monaca, Pa.

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