Workers at Bohemian Grove, one of the country’s oldest and most secretive men’s retreats, complain that they are underpaid and overworked, especially during the two weeks in July when some of the country’s most powerful men descend on their camping in the woods of Northern California. , according to a recent lawsuit.
The campers, including Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and a host of former presidents and billionaires, descend on the campgrounds, which are spread over 2,700 acres in Monte Rio, California. Most of the activities center around drinking and eating, said one of the workers, known as “valets” in the camps.
“These guys don’t want that college experience to go away,” Anthony Gregg said in an interview with AirMail published Saturday.
“Now they [just] have more money and better alcohol.”
Gregg is one of three named plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit filed in June in US District Court in Northern California against the Bohemian Club, the San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that manages more than 100 exclusive camps.
A campfire at one of a series of campsites at Bohemian Grove, a top-secret haven for the richest and most powerful men in the country. Facebook/Bohemian Grove
In addition to low wages, “defendants continually worked together to devise methods to avoid payment of payroll and overtime taxes,” according to the legal documents.
Some of the workers said they were regularly paid “in the black” so the Bohemian Club could avoid paying payroll taxes and workers’ compensation insurance, according to the documents.
The Bohemian Club, founded in 1872 by a group of journalists, writers and actors, brought in more than $4.5 million in 2020, according to its latest federal tax returns, which also showed total assets of more than $38 million.
Visitors on a tour of one of the camps that make up Bohemian Grove in California, where workers have launched a class action lawsuit to demand higher wages.Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images
“We have reviewed the allegations and it is clear that the claims in the lawsuit are brought by people who were never employees of the Bohemian Club and therefore the Club should not be a party to this action,” the Bohemian Club said in a statement in June.
Since 1878, the Grove has played host to the country’s most powerful men, including former presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, IBM founder Thomas Watson Jr., and media mogul John Kluge, once the richest man in the world. country.
AirMail, a newsletter founded by former Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, described the booze-filled days at the Grove “and the kind of partying you learn in a frat house and develop for men whose careers depend on sociability.” “.
One of the first photographs of Bohemian Grove in California, where elite men spent two weeks in the woods getting drunk, according to a recent article.
The online outlet noted that one supposedly special cocktail in the camps is Nembutal, which is made with hot chocolate laced with a horse tranquilizer, which “can make you lose control of your bowels and bladder.”
“Getting unconsciously drunk is not unusual in Bohemian Grove,” the report continued.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn