Like the miners that were forced to appear in his ad but not paid for their time?
Coal miners lost pay when Mitt Romney visited their mine to promote coal jobs
Published: Tuesday, August 28, 2012
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited an Ohio coal mine this month to promote jobs in the coal industry, workers who appeared with him at the rally lost pay because their mine was shut down.
The Pepper Pike company that owns the Century Mine told workers that attending the Aug. 14 Romney event would be both mandatory and unpaid, a top company official said Monday morning in a West Virginia radio interview.
A group of employees who feared they'd be fired if they didn't attend the campaign rally in Beallsville, Ohio, complained about it to WWVA radio station talk show host David Blomquist. Blomquist discussed their beefs on the air Monday with Murray Energy Chief Financial Officer Rob Moore.
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Because the company's mine had to be shut down for "safety and security" reasons during Romney's visit, Moore confirmed workers were not paid that day. He said miners also lose pay when weather or power outages shut down the mine, and noted that federal election law doesn't let companies pay workers to attend political events.
http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/08/coal_miners_lost_pay_when_mitt.html
Romney ad features miners allegedly forced to attend rally
By Neela Banerjee
September 19, 2012, 2:33 p.m.
WASHINGTON -- On Wednesday, the Mitt Romney campaign released an ad spotlighting President Obama’s putative "War On Coal," despite a controversy in Ohio about the coal miners’ rally featured in the spot. In the ad, Romney appears on a stage before rows of hard-hatted miners, their faces smudged with coal dust, as he says, “We have 250 years of coal. Why wouldn’t we use it?”
The rally was held last month in Beallsville, Ohio, thick with miners from the Century coal mine, owned by Murray Energy, a major donor to Republican causes. Within days of the rally, Murray employees contacted a nearby morning talk radio host, David Blomquist, to say they were forced to attend the Aug. 14 event at the mine.
Murray closed the mine the day of the rally, saying it was necessary for security and safety, then docked miners their pay for those hours. Asked by WWVA radio’s Blomquist about the allegations, Murray Chief Operating Officer Robert Moore said, somewhat confusingly, “Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-romney-ad-miners-rally-20120919,0,5570673.story
Even if Rowe was only at the event today because he was paid, I am disappointed in him. He sold out too cheap.
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