In Conference Call, Romney Urged Businesses To Tell Their Employees How to Vote

[ProfessionalLeftist]

(Thanks to effing Citizens United, this crap is now legal)

In a June 6, 2012 conference call posted on the anti-union National Federation of Independent Business’s website, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney instructed employers to tell their employees how to vote in the upcoming election.

Romney was addressing a group of self-described "small-business owners." Twenty-six minutes into the call, after making a lengthy case that President Obama's first term has been bad for business, Romney said:

I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And whether you agree with me or you agree with President Obama, or whatever your political view, I hope, I hope you pass those along to your employees.

The call raises the question of whether the Romney campaign is complicit in the corporate attempts to influence employees' votes that have been recently making headlines. On Sunday, In These Times broke the news that Koch Industries mailed at least 45,000 employees a voter information packet that included a flyer endorsing Romney and a letter warning, “Many of our more than 50,000 U.S. employees and contractors may suffer the consequences [of a bad election result], including higher gasoline prices, runaway inflation, and other ills.” Last week, Gawker obtained an email in which the CEO of Westgate Resorts, Florida billionaire David Siegel, informed his 7,000 employees that an Obama victory would likely lead to layoffs at his company. This week, MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes unveiled an email by ASG Software Solutions CEO Arthur Allen in which he, too, warned employees that an Obama second term would spell layoffs.

MORE...

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/14046/romney_instructed_employers_to_tell_employees_how_to_vote_in_conference_cal

NOTE: the site is very slow, probably getting slammed

[liberalmuse]

1. Fracking used car salesman trying to get his greasy hands on America.

I didn't think I could loathe this man more, but apparently my loathing is something of a black hole.

edited to clean up language.

[haikugal]

5. I'm finding the same thing to be true...

[Blue Owl]

2. Hey Mitt bind your own misses

n/t

[LiberalAndProud]

3. This isn't right or just or moral. But it is legal.

He's correct that such speech is now legal for the first time ever, thanks to the Citizen United ruling, which overturned previous Federal Election Commission laws that prohibited employers from political campaigning among employees.

In the post-Citizens United era, “there is not much political protection for at-will employees in the private sector workplace,” explains University of Marquette Law Professor Paul Secunda, a pro-union labor lawyer. "It is conceivable, under the current legal regime, that an employer like Koch could actually get away with forcing his employees, on pains of termination, to campaign for a given candidate or political party."

Neo-feudalism, here we are.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

12. Yes as I noted in my OP - thanks to Citizens United...

...this crap is now legal.

[patrice]

4. Mike Elk is doing yeoman's work on labor issues. The times I have heard him speak, he is always

waaaaaaaaaaaaay more fully prepared on Labor facts than anyone else in attendance.

[ruffburr]

6. ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

At what point is employer Coercion, Vote / Election fraud and Fixing Vote machines, All at the behest of the all powerful mighty Mitt BECOME A CRIME?????

[tanyev]

7. "And if elected, I promise to revive the company store model!"

*not intended to be a factual quote

[tk2kewl]

8. slimier than tricky dicy, this one

[Turborama]

10. OMG! That top one badly needs captioning

(In a thought bubble) "hmmm... Can't wait to get home to my women in binders mwahahaha..."

[patrice]

9. K&R

[53tammy]

11. link not working for me?

here is a different one http://www.classwarfareexists.com/romney-make-it-very-clear-to-your-employees-how-they-should-vote/#axzz29bCp9WYY

[ProfessionalLeftist]

13. I was able to get to the site in the OP but it took a while

I suspect it's getting slammed. Thanks for the alternate link!