Coal miners say they were forced to attend Romney event and donate

Here is a question to ask why would Miners support a President who wants to take their jobs away

Originally posted by TXRabbit
Not sure what they're complaining about. It's not like anyone is holding a gun to their head and saying "you must be a coal miner. You must join the union. You must miss work when told and attend events when told."

If they don't like it - quit.

Ohh...that's right. They're uneducated imbeciles who don't know HOW to do anything else - far be it from trying to actually Learn something.

Yeah....let's feel sorry for them.

Booo

Hooo
(sorry for the rant. I have nothing against miners specifically. I just can't stand it when people take anything that's totally in their own control and shift accountability when something bad happens).

Because any smart person would choose to jack their job and join the "underclass" of jobless workers. Hey, Arent Mcdonalds employing?? Someone's gotta give those guys a heads up! Leave a well paid #ty job for a low paid #ty job!

Your view of reality is impeccable - You been outside in the real world yet?

reply to post by TheGreatDivider


What do Obama's contributors have to do with Romney's fake photo-op?

Can we stick to the subject?

Here is the thing about Honest working men. They have a hard time hiding what they think.

Take a good look at these expressions....Anyone else see the thought bubbles...."what an A*hole..."?

reply to post by pteridine


So you mean to tell us that coal is harmless?

Do you do PR for a mining firm or something?

Originally posted by frankensence
No union was involved in this, the company forced them to attend this rally and donate, and couldn't even pay them their day's wages for it!

The mine was closed by the company that day so these miners could be forced to go to that rally - so why are the miners all in their dirty uniforms and still covered in dirt and soot? Hilarious, LOL.

On a side note; coal is a dying industry. Most big electric utilities have been mmoving away from coal for 2 decades. Too expensive to mine, too expensive to ship. Most utilities are switching to natural gas and nuclear energy. Much cleaner, much cheaper. Natural gas has been supplanting coal by the widest margin.

Anyone thinking Obama or Dems are 'killing coal' are ignoring the bigger picture - simple economics are what's killing coal, and good riddance to it, too.

Yeah...UHM okay: whatever you want to believe....Part of your "economics" is being taxed and regulated out of business bya pick and choose Govt ( GM shareholders anybody?) that Knows better what's good for you.

reply to post by RedParrotHead


Well said. We've also been hearing this same story from more and more employers - go out and support this candidate, or else.

Employees with families can't just up and quit. They can't put on a big show of bravado and tell their boss to stick it, cause then they'll be hurting only their family.

Take a trip through some of these coal towns- it's basically the only jobs available. Companies like Murray Energy control everything.

I won't derail the topic with a rant against coal, and how a lack of foresight into our energy needs left us in the hands of 'robber barons' who exploit our massive energy consumption for their gain. The simple fact of the matter is, we use too much energy, and we need coal miners to work these mines to help produce the electricity we take for granted.

What we really need is a way to break the connection between the wealthy power moguls (Murray, Moore, for example) and the politicians they will seek to influence with their money. What these two hope to gain with their money and influence over Romney is obvious - fewer work oversights, fewer regulations of their industry, laxer rule on employment, diminished unions (which could have prevented this idiotic "forced attendance" power trip), and fewer environmental regulations, on top of bigger breaks for themselves while impoverishing their working class employees.

Originally posted by TheGreatDivider

Originally posted by Chrisfishenstein
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

I don't know how many of you have ever been in a coal mine, but I have!!

There is absolutely NO black soot anywhere!! Everywhere in a coal mine is COVERED in limestone, which is non flammable so the mine doesn't explode from a spark.....

You look more like a snowman coming out of a coal mine........There are parts of the mine by the conveyor belts that have a foot or so deep of limestone because of the fans blowing from one end to the other.....To keep the limestone moving to coat everything possible!!!

I had fun in the coal mines, but this is rediculous!!! There is no BLACK soot that you can be covered with......Maybe at the drilling point, but even there, by the time you get back on the rail car and drive 40 minutes plus back to the entrance, you are covered in white again!!!

What a joke!!! This stuff makes me sick.....

........So does ROMNEY!!!

What??? You obviously have never been in an active/working coal mine. My entire family were coal miners... you get covered in black.

Yea, but not on your day off, right? These miners were still covered in black but didn't work that day, so what was up with that? Did they forget to take a bath? Did they come home from the mine, covered in black, sleep in their clothes, then go to the rally the next day still filthy from the mine the day before? This was such a stupid political stunt.

After the miners spoke out on the radio, I noticed the owner/CFO (the Moore guy) not deny it, he only pulled a weasel dick move and blamed it on his managers.

Originally posted by detachedindividual

Originally posted by VaterOrlaag
reply to post by TheGreatDivider

 

What are you talking about?

If these miners had an union, the company could not force them to vote for a candidate nor stage a fake rally in support of one.

I fail to see the logic in blaming unions.

Republicans LOVE to blame the unions, it's like the Tories in the UK, they know that Unions give people the power rather than their corporate buddies. It's almost like a tic these days, the moment you say anything about workers and their rights a conservative will be along at any moment to chirp "UNIONS!"

That's a nice but incorrect strawman. Unions may or may not give people power, they do however help push the agenda of the union (yes, I'm in the UK and I have been royally fudged by a union). Unions have a block vote in the UK that DOES NOT require a vote from their actual membership. If the tories are against that I don't blame them because it depends on the whims of the unions leadership (possibly along the lines of I vote labour so you all do). Unions working to assist at an individual level may be good, but it's fewer and further between than you may think and even then it often looks to bend law to help their members.

as we all know obama & company have made it well known of their hatred for ( dirty coal) so you would think the miners would be running to the rally !!!

Originally posted by knightrider078
Here is a question to ask why would Miners support a President who wants to take their jobs away

Have any of you EVER been around a coal town or coal operation? It's a whole different set of rules now.

Without the protection of the unions and Collective bargaining, they are in a real spot. If they don't do as they are told, they will be removed from the payroll...it's that simple. In the areas of mining operations...that's generally the only decent paying job you can find. If you get black balled or yellow listed...you can't just go to the mine around the mountain and get a job. Several people have said "I'd tell them to stuff it" or "why don't they just quit"...because there is nothing else for them to do to feed their families! They are indentured servants...they are bound because there is nothing else they can do. Sure...today...they make a decent wage...but since the Unions lost their power and influence, that pay scale has been steadily falling...as have benefits and protection from black lung (remember that little jewel from history...here's a clue...it never went away).

I have worked in construction engineering for close to 30 years now. Many years I worked around the coal fields. I have been "underground" many times and if you don't think these guys deserve every penny and then some...I recommend you take your booty to the nearest shaft mine and spend a day on your knees nearly a mile underground...threats of cave ins and pocket falls all around you. It is a terrifying experience until you get used to it. There is absolutely no light but the one on your hard hats. You cut yours off, you literally cannot see your hand right in front of your face. It IS that dark. If you have an ounce of claustrophobia...you will not make it.

All that ranting aside. These guys most assuredly had to do what they were told...there is no resistance to the company.

reply to post by thomas81z


Don't tell me you're buying into those right-wing talking points. The expressions on those miner's faces is all one needs to see, to know how they are going to vote.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


This is from one of the links you provided:

Murray, whose companies have a history of environmental and safety violations, has blamed layoffs at some of his mines on Obama’s policies. This morning he said “there were 3,000 coal miners who are frightened and scared to death that Barack Obama is going to destroy their lives.”

Coal mining does not need any help destroying lives. It does that outright and without subterfuge. If you don't die in a cave-in, there is always black lung to look forward to in your old age. Not to mention a broken back and a piddly, if at all, pension.

The argument against Obama is an argument against renewable energy...if these men did not have to work in a coal mine they might have new jobs in renewable energy. I heard that training for maintenance of wind turbines is the #1 growing trend in technical education.

'Cost' of renewable energy is purported to lack feasibility but that is only from the perspective of actual financial costs and is focused on the capital needed to initiate these technologies/plants...not the sustained operation of same. And cost is something that truly applies in all aspects affected...including quality of life for those employed in the energy industry not to mention the cost to the planet.

The history of coal mining has always boiled down to money is more valuable than men.

Originally posted by thomas81z
as we all know obama & company have made it well known of their hatred for ( dirty coal) so you would think the miners would be running to the rally !!!

You don't know much about coal mining, do you?

Coal IS dirty...it is dangerous...mining it is labor-intensive and at all times life-threatening.

I am NOT a Romney support by any means, but the gist I got from the article was that it was the employer who didn't pay the employees and supposedly forced them to go to the event. Whether or not Romney was involved or had a clue is anyone's guess. That said, I wouldn't doubt he did know, but he probably had no idea they weren't paid for the day. I am not sure about the allegations about being forced to donate. The employer said that it was voluntary, but I have the suspicion that these employees felt that, if they didn't donate, they would pay the price one way or the other.

The employer denied forcing anyone to go. They did shut down the mine since the managers would not be present so that meant that those who did not want to attend, still couldn't work for the day. The employer said they didn't pay the employees because it is illegal to pay someone to attend an event such as this. I don't think that law applies to employees who can't work because others decided to go.

Also, the employer actually made it sound like it was no big deal to be docked a day's pay. He must never have had to live paycheck-to-paycheck. One day of pay lost is the difference between choosing to pay the electric bill or putting food on the table for the week.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
Coal miners say they were forced to attend Romney event and donate
(rawstory.com)

A group of coal miners in Ohio feel they would have been fired if they did not attend an Aug. 14 event with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and contribute to his campaign — and to make matters worse, they lost of day of pay for their trouble.

In phone calls and emails to WWVA radio host David Blomquist, employees at the Century Mine in Ohio said they feared retaliation if they did not attend the Romney event.

“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.”

Knew something was very odd about this staged event. A group of coal miners acting as a backdrop for a Romney campaign stop, and yes, they are standing their with coal-smeared grimy faces and overalls even though they didn't work that day...

One quote really stands out:

“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.”

This is the direction the GOP wants to take labor - to make us so thankful to even have a job, we will do anything, even work a day for free with little notice and without your consent - or lose your job.

Phot: Nothing says "I believe in coal than unpaid miners forced to wear blackface on a day off"

At the time, conservative blogs and websites like The Daily Caller, The Gateway Pundit and Townhall trumpeted the fact that “hundreds of Ohio coal miners attended” the event. Even though the mine was closed on Aug. 14, soot-covered miners were staged behind the GOP hopeful as he spoke.

Ohio Coal Miners Lose Pay, Forced to Attend Romney Rally

Romney's coal mine speech is questioned

edit on 28-8-2012 by Blackmarketeer because: (no reason given)

Anyone see one of these emails? Been searching for one.

reply to post by queenannie38


The idea that we have to keep an industry afloat because people would lose their jobs irritates me. Yeah, it would really suck for people to have to lose their jobs, but that doesn't mean that we should keep using dirty coal and a dangerous jobs around just for the sake of the unemployment rate. The reasoning is flawed.

Is it just me or does it seem like the media is parading Mitt and Ann around like they're some sort of American royalty? I watched Ann Romney give her speech last night and the groveling by the media was sickening.

Originally posted by Blackmarketeer
This rally stunt was offensive on two levels. The first was the absurdity of the miners, covered in soot, arranged behind Romney. Did they just crawl out of a mine? If anything, it just looked comical.

The second is a little more serious. Where were their rights? Forced to attend a rally by their employer, and not paid for it. Obviously, we used to have unions to protect against these sorts of abuses. But that was then. Circulating memos that named those miners who refused to partake is disgusting.

And the Unions do the same thing to the miners when the Democrat politician comes to town. The two party system needs to change, IMHO.

reply to post by NavyDoc


Unions aren't employers, outside of their small office staff. On the contrary, unions will often pay it's members to attend functions or to protest.

This was a company (Murray Energy) telling the employees of one of it's mines (Century Mines) to attend this rally without pay.

If I choose to join a union, that is going to fight for my benefits, than that is my choice, and if my union asks me to attend a rally, that is also my choice. I've never once heard of an employee of a company being fired for not attending a union rally.

This is a case of an employer taking advantage of its employee's.