Elon Musk’s efforts to help Donald Trump win the 2024 Presidential Election have led to some serious accusations from the workers tasked to help him.
In a story reported by Wired, workers who were recruited to work for America PAC, the Tesla CEO’s super PAC, claim that they only learned that they were working for the controversial billionaire after signing multiple non-disclosure agreements.
One worker shared, “I knew nothing of the job, or much of the job description, other than going door to door and asking the voters who are they voting for. Then, after I signed over an NDA, is when I found out we are for Republicans and with Trump.”
Many of the door knockers also claim that they were given poor working conditions, which included being driven around in the back of a U-Haul truck with no seats.
But how did this happen? Allegedly, these door knockers were hired by Blitz Canvassing, a subcontractor that was paid $9 million to be in charge of America PAC’s plan to generate voter turnout in Michigan, a battleground state in this upcoming election.
These workers, who came from all over the country, were flown to Michigan to go door to door to ask people who they plan to vote for. As mentioned earlier, until they arrived, many of them had no idea they were door-knocking for Musk’s super PAC, which is backing Trump’s campaign.
Others didn’t know until they overheard their supervisor mention Musk’s name.
More from WIRED on the threats and poor working conditions these door knockers faced:
The contract these door knockers signed with Blitz Canvassing, which is a subcontractor of Musk’s America PAC, says they are “expected to maintain a 17-22% engagement rate during the campaign,” which is a high target relative to the number of people who typically open their door for a stranger. A group of out-of-state America PAC canvassers were told during a recent team meeting that if they didn’t hit their targets, which the door knocker says were more than 1,000 a week on total doors knocked, the organization would stop paying for their motel rooms.
“What’s gonna happen is, they’re gonna stop paying for these rooms,” a manager told the door knockers in an audio recording obtained by WIRED. “And then you’re gonna end up having to pay for it yourself. You can’t do that with no money.” The door knocker also alleges that they were told that they will have to pay for their own flight home.
Initially, supervisors paid for Ubers to help these workers reach the addresses they were tasked with. But after a few days, they were simply loaded into the back of a U-Haul truck with no seats or seat belts.
Video obtained by Wired shows the group of mostly Black workers sitting in the back of the truck and even catches a conversation between them and the driver.
At one point in the video, a worker is heard telling the driver, “I’m scared.”
In response, the driver stated, “And all [the manager] is concerned about is how many motherf**kin’ doors the b***h got.”
Each door knocker was dropped off 40 minutes apart from each other.
Even before these recent allegations, Musk’s super PAC has been under fire in many other states.
Last week, The Guardian obtained data from America PAC which allegedly showed that roughly 25 percent of the door knocks in Arizona and Nevada were fraudulent.