Astroturf activism: what won’t people do for a free lunch?

We’ve been following the hearings over the Phillip 66 rail spur project in San Luis Obispo closely, and watched with interest as hundreds of people have shown up to speak passionately about the project.

It seems, however, that many of supporters of the project at the February 25th hearing were actually bussed in from over 200 miles south. What’s even more strange is they got on that bus at 4.30AM not knowing where they were going or why. We found this flyer on the USW website:

Why would USW not be forthcoming about what the action was for? Do they think members wouldn’t actually support going to the hearing if they knew what it was really about? And if that’s the case, why should officials at the hearing listen to people who had to be lured there under mysterious circumstances? But the biggest question of all, for those of us mulling this over at SFC headquarters, is simply this: What WON’T people do for the promise of a free breakfast and lunch?