Well, this should go over big for Romney in Ohio . . .
AP Photo
Some Ohio coal miners are quite peeved that their company forced them to attend a recent Romney campaign event there, then docked them for the “mandatory” time they spent as blue-collar window dressing for the GOP presidential campaign.
And they’re calling into a West Virginia radio station to complain about it.
The Raw Story has more:
“Yes, we were in fact told that the Romney event was mandatory and would be without pay, that the hours spent there would need to be made up my non-salaried employees outside of regular working hours, with the only other option being to take a pay cut for the equivalent time,” the employees told Blomquist. “Yes, letters have gone around with lists of names of employees who have not attended or donated to political events.”
“I realize that many people in this area and elsewhere would love to have my job or my benefits,” one worker explained. “And our bosses do not hesitate in reminding us of this. However, I can not agree with these callers and my supervisors, who are saying that just because you have a good job, that you should have to work any day for free on almost no notice without your consent.”
“We do not appreciate being intimidated into exchanging our time for nothing. I heard one of your callers saying that Murray employees are well aware of what they are getting into upon hire, or that they are informed that a percentage of their income will go to political donations. I can not speak for that caller, but this is news for me. We merely find out how things work by experience.”
The mine’s boss, Murray Energy CFO Rob Moore, countered that, “We had managers that communicated to our work force that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend the event . . . As a private employer, it was our decision and we made the decision not to pay the people.”
Maybe those guys need a union!
August 28, 2012 - 1:46 PM
Some Ohio coal miners are quite peeved that their company forced them to attend a recent Romney campaign event there
It’s not like they have much else to do.
Kind of like when Romney had to bus Mormon students to his rallies in SC during the republican primaries…smoke and mirrors.
Romney has to bus in supporters from somewhere.
“attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend the event”
Someone get that guy a dictionary because he clearly does not know what “mandatory” means.
The miners don’t look too happy to see Mitt.
Wait… what? Attendance was mandatory, but they made the decision not to pay their employees for attending?
Real classy.
“We had managers that communicated to our work force that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend the event …” Isn’t that what mandatory means?
Isn’t that called slavery? And people say that unions aren’t “needed” anymore.
Lori, maybe he means “no one had a gun to their head”.
Rmoney has his jeans on. I guess he was ready to go down in the mine with these guys.
The Romney campaing should compensate these guys for their time. It’s not like he doesn’t have enough money in his offshore accounts.
Typical!
If there is not more to this story, Murray Energy is in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/labor-laws-volunteering-workplace-25747.html
Fair Labor Standards Act
“FLSA regulations state that employees cannot volunteer services to for-profit, private employers.”
It was mandatory but they weren’t forced?
#7 +1 Dave
You cannot blame Romney. The coal miners boss is the culprit
Sounds like the Murray Energy leadership made a stupid decision… but I don’t see how that’s good or bad for Romney. Romney didn’t make that decision not to pay these folks.
No, you can’t blame Romney, but he may have lost some votes because of Murray Energy CFO Rob Moore and the managers actions. The bosses actions are mind boggling.
First there is the elimination of unions, then there is collaboration with industries to intimidate employees, and then workers are mandated to attend unpaid “rallies” – now clap damnit…
Sounds like republicans are embracing their inner fascism…
WOW…is this breaking news Dan…
any news on the busing of unions to Wisconsin…or the spineless Democrats Fleeing Wisconsin to Illinois to Avoid a vote.
Maybe these Miners want jobs…(not a Democrat Vice President Joe Biden’s 3 letter word.)_
Great Dan…China is blasting Mitt and Government Motors stopped production of the OBAMA…Chevy VOLT for a month..(too much demand…huh) Hey Roanoke City should have bought that instead of $35k golf cart…can carry more then one person)
CHINESE MEDIA SLAMS ROMNEY…
Chop soy Hop Sing!!
I agree with VRWC, there surely must be something more here or the company has some serious issues.
I wonder if it is like the Obama ads running where democrat women are claiming to be republican “converts” against Romney. (or maybe they were once Nixon supporters…sorry Dan…lol).
Usually the truth comes out, we will see what happens; but none of this has a thing to do with Romney (unless he threatened to curse their wives, with death by cancer in seven years, if they did not attend).
mike O and others,
There was no suggestion in this blog post that Romney was to blame for this. The headline simply suggests this won’t help Romeny with votes in Ohio. The state is full of the kind of blue-collar votes he needs to win election. He CAN’T with the presidency without Ohio.
And when other worker hear that these miners for forced to attend, AND docked a day’s pay, to boot, it’s NOT going to help Romney at all among other workers.
Ya gotta give the company credit for one thing — I guess: The company president is says the company paid for the buses that took the miners to the rally.
How generous that they didn’t charge the miners for the ride!
Actress Hopes Storm Kills ‘Every Pro-Life, Xenophobic, Gay-Bashing SOB’…
Samuel L. Jackson asks why Republicans ‘spared’… GOV’T BARS JAMES O’KEEFE FROM TRAVELING TO TAMPA…
Local HOOTERS welcomes Biden with a jab…
Dan, only problem Democrat President Barrack Hussein Obama hates coal…any West Virginia delegate attending the DNC.
2008 Democrat President Barrack Hussein Obama ..ad libbing” I will bury any utility company that wants to build a new power plant”.
Keep it real!
Dan..just an FYI for Dave,Sandi and others!
Sarah Palin versus Democrat President Barrack Hussein Obama…are you kidding…
Democrat President Barrack Hussein Obama COST U.S. taxpayers..200K PLUS..(we can not get ANY TRANSPARENCY..
“WORDS JUST WORDS”.
Can US taxpayers SEE Democrat President Barrack Hussein Obama PELL GRANTS” and “BARRY’S college TAX RECORDS..
Sarah Palin’s education vs the amount of MONEY barry spent of his education …DUH!
Steve Nelson is proof that those extra fees we’ve been paying to bring high speed internet to rural areas has, in fact, been working. This misguided idea was …well misguided. The workers should be paid for anything that’s mandatory.
Steve Nelson,
I guess you’d have to check with the 6 colleges Ms. Palin attended to get her transcripts & costs.
“Sarah Palin’s education vs the amount of MONEY barry spent of his education …DUH!”
STEVE NELSON,
Thank you for defending SARAH PALIN. TO often She has been RIDICULED for her intellect and inEXperience. But you sir, defend her well.
Plus, she’ still the only candidate who has PROTECTION from WITCHES. Yep, she’s got that going for her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg
Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the mine had to closed because of the Romney visit. Nice partial portion of the story to make YOUR point Dan. Par for the course here. Same old same old. Looks like no one got paid that day. If working for that mine is so bad and if employees are treated bad and run over it looks like they could go to work somewhere else. Everyone has that choice. This isn’t the 1930′s ……. yet.
Keep on keeping on Steve Nelson and Mike O.
The way this mine owner is treating his employees is nothing new for the coal industry. As a grandson of two coal miners, I have heard first hand of the way the miners were/are treated. I remember hearing the stories from my grandfather of the struggles of when the union tried come into the southern West Virginia coalfields, and the U.S. government intervention to stop it. At least the miners in Ohio are being paid in U.S. currency, and not in coal company script. The poor treatment of coal miners by the company owners will never change.
I noticed the Democrats haven’t tried the “dumb” label for Paul Ryan. That would be laughable, because he’s running circles around these idiots. There is NO ONE who can spar with him. Nor has their second, third, and fourth go-to smears–he’s evil, he’s crazy, he’s square–worked. The guy’s great looking, he’s hip, and he’s ripped.
They can’t get to Ryan, and it’s killing them.
More bad news for mitt and chedderbomb. Based on current polling trajectory as calculated by RCP the republican ticket ends up with 206 electoral votes. Chedderbomb is turning out to be only slightly less toxic than crazy sister sarah was 4 years ago.
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/swing-state/
This is not about my usual emotive language that I use to club the right like baby harp seals; it’s about simple math. There’s just not a lot of room for the right to maneuver here. Do the math and show me how Mitt gets to 270 electoral votes. It’s mathematically possible but obviously highly improbable. Even if Mitt won FL, VA and OH he’s still at 266 but take any one of those states away and he’s done, stick a fork in him.
I could be wrong but I doubt it.
Sweet dreams.
Daily Show; “2012 Republican National Convention, The Road to Jeb Bush 2016″
James Swingle,
You’re the one who hasn’t read the whole story, not me. Have you listened to the interview with the mine’s CFO?
Actually, I read the Plain Dealer story, and the one on Raw Story, and the one on Mother Jones. It’s spreading pretty quickly.
Here is the Plain Dealer story.
Here is the Mother Jones version.
The Plain Dealer story quotes the company as saying the mine had to be closed “for safety and security reasons.”
But what it doesn’t make clear is this: The “safety and security” reasons were because “our management personnel wanted to attend the event.” And for safety and security reasons, they couldn’t have miners underground when all the management was at the rally. Thus, the mine wouldn’t have been closed had the rally not occurred and had not the big boss ordered everyone to attend.
So — they simply made the rally “mandatory,” BUSED THE MINERS TO THE RALLY, and told them they wouldn’t be paid for the day.
A few of thoughts on this:
1. The mine certainly has the right to shut down so its management can go to the rally.
2. The mine operators have no duty to pay the miners when the mine is shut down. But it’s a rotten tactic, it sucks, etc.
3. The company is WAY WAY WAY out of line notifying employees that attendance at the rally was mandatory.
4. This cretin Murray who owns this coal company, and whose CFO refers to him with reverential tones that usually are reserved for deities, DESERVES to have his company unionized.
Murray needs to be taught a lesson that he can’t pull that kind of crap. Many of the workers who went to the rally went, ON THEIR OWN TIME because a) the company was taking names on who showed up and who didn’t; b) the employees felt it would be held against them if they didn’t show up; and c) employees have been pressured in the past to contribute to the company’s PAC. With a union they wouldn’t have to put up with that kind of garbage.
When you hear the CFO say “We had managers that communicated to our work force that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend the event,” it’s obvious what he was trying to say.
He was saying: “We told them they had to be there, but it’s not like we handcuffed them and dragged them there kicking and screaming.”
And the bastard was patting himself on the back for being so frickn’ open minded in that way. Listen to the tape yourself and tell me if there is any other interpretation.
It’s obscene, in 2012, here in America. But it’s not that surprising. It’s an extreme example of a trend that’s reflective in modern day management-labor relations.
VRWC is correct. This appears to be a willful violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act and wage hour laws covering non-exempt employees.
#29 Why, suzie troll, thanks for pointing out the fact we use the dumb label only when it’s deserved. We’re honest about it. Some of Ryan’s ideas are nuts and will clearly be bad for the country and he’s fairly dishonest about what they can accomplish, but he’s not dumb.
Sarah Palin — now there’s dumb.
#29 & 32 (or whatever number my reply is) My apologies for taking the bait on suzie’s attempt to hijack a thread. I saw her post and responded without looking at the subject of the rest of the thread because I was so excited that she had sort of complimented liberals. Of course the whole reason for her comment was to try to draw attention from the coal miner story, which makes this Rethug mine owner look really bad and for which there IS no defense.
And exactly where does management do exactly as the workers want? Murray needs to be taught a lesson? Like I said if it is such a bad place to work go work somewhere else. This is THE summer of recovery where 500,000 jobs are being created every month. Oh maybe not.
I also speak well of my current boss because they gave a chance to work for a good company. Way to call names and curse on your blog. Nice tantrum. So very professional.
James Swingle,
What does your boss demand you do, on your days off, for no pay? Nothing?
Congrats! You work for a much more enlightened company than those miners do.
I realize there are some nincompoops out there who consider “union” a curse word. I’m surprised you are among them.
Dan; the bigs never care what the littles want anywhere. It will always be you work for the me and this is what you will do. I am not a union guy but I do not look down on people who are members. That is their right. I am sure those miners are making good money for where they live or else they would go somewhere else. Especially if they are consistently treated that way on a shutdown day. I agree with you on that I sure would not want to go to a political rally on a day I could get away from work.
Speaking of unions how about the vision of this former union boss? Stephen Learner from SEIU has also stated some pretty crazy stuff.
http://www.therightscoop.com/former-union-president-at-occupy-dc-progressive-labor-is-a-revolutionary-communist-organization-to-overthrow-capitalism/
“the bigs never care what the littles want anywhere” And yet you support the party of the Plutocracy?