About a month ago, Mitt Romney traveled to Beallsville, Ohio, for a campaign event with of a group of coal miners. Among other things, the Republicans told his audience that President Obama "took the work requirement out of welfare," a claim which remains patently false.
A month later, the footage from Beallsville, using coal miners as a prop, is the subject of a new Romney campaign attack ad, hoping to convince voters in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania that the president hasn't done enough for the coal industry. The ad, however, has become controversial for reasons Romney probably didn't expect.
Mitt Romney's campaign is airing two ads in eastern Ohio that include footage of the coal miners who lost pay because he campaigned at their mine. [...]
The footage is from Romney's Aug. 14 campaign stop at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, owned by a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. It was later learned that the miners on stage were ordered out of the mine because of Romney's campaign stop and were not paid for the portion of their shift that was canceled by the event.
It's also worth noting that several of the miners who appeared behind Romney have said "they were forced to attend" the campaign event by the mine's owner, Robert Murray, an ardent Romney backer and major GOP donor. Asked for an explanation, a plant executive responded, "Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event."
If you don't know what that means, you and I are on the same page.
Ohio AFL-CIO spokesman Michael Gillis told reporters, "The Romney Campaign now knows full well that those miners, wage earners as they are, missed a day's pay when they were required to attend the event. Instead of those workers providing for their families and putting food on the table that day, they were used as political props by a candidate that understands nothing about the plight of the average American."
It's also worth noting that Romney isn't the only Republican with a coal problem. This story out of Kentucky is pretty amazing.
An official with the United Mine Workers of America union lambasted a new TV ad by Republican Andy Barr on Monday because it features a Western Kentucky coal executive who appears to be speaking as an Eastern Kentucky miner.
In the ad, Heath Lovell, the vice president of River View Coal in Union County, accuses Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler of trying to destroy the coal industry. Lovell is wearing a t-shirt, bib overalls and a coal miner's helmet. He is identified by name only.
"I've never seen anything so appalling and deceitful from the coal industry and in a campaign," said Steve Earle, a regional vice president of the UMWA in Kentucky. "You have a pencil pusher acting like a coal miner."
Did Republicans assume no one would notice?
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psst. it means that they didn't go at gunpoint.
And close examination of the photo shows there are no manicles, either.
Well no one in his right mind pulls a gun on an Appalachian coal miner.
No, it means that there is an invasive picture and word virus that is spreading across the country. It is epitomized by Fox News but it has spread dangerously. Words that have that mean the same thing like "mandatory" and "forced" the virus gives them "different" meanings, so it makes sense for the virus infected people to say "mandatory", but "not forced" The executive dressed as a miner is an example of the picture virus. "If he's dressed like a miner, he must be a miner." Fox News with "fair and balanced" is the most offensive form of the virus. "We report, you decide" is another case where people belief "report" means the "an unbiased, objective presentation of the facts" are given the opposite, "We lie, you agree" is really what Fox News means by "We report, you decide." "Lies" mean "Truth". "Rights" are "privileges". "Earned benefit" becomes an "entitlement." "Government doesn't create jobs, the private sector does." All examples of the word virus. It spread in 2010and millions of those afflicted sent T.E.A. to elected office to engage in corporate takeover of the government. The antidote to the virus is out there and may be winning the battle against the picture and word virus. Stamp out the virus!
I remember this ad and news clip. I knew right away that something was amiss when I did not see one miner smiling! I had my suspicions, unfortunately, I was right.
Maybe the mine workers should just borrow money from their parents.
Maybe The Blank will come along to "explain" along the lines of "Well now, if the miners don't like it, they have the right to take their labor elsewhere. The mine owners have the right to run their business as they see fit."
sad even now many of those workers still can not speak up for fear of losing their jobs.
Clean coal technology; the original Oxymoron.............
Mitt Romney: The original OxyMormon...
'Oxyclean' will get that out........!
This is a typical Bain tactic: Use unpaid employees as props, because it is cost effective. Hiring actors and renting uniforms, having them sign non disclosure clauses, would use valuable campaign funds!
Always focus on the bottom line!
PLEASE talk about this on the show tonight.
They "owe my (their) soul to the company store. '16 Tons'. Some manager is saying "if you don't like it, you can quit."
I assume the Dems could turn this into a pretty good anti-Romney ad. They should.
I know exactly what "attendance is mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event" means.
It's a free country. You don't have to go. But if you don't, you're fired.
Little pink houses, for you and me.
Reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons when pretty much the entire town joins a cult. When Marge tries to escape in the dead of night, the pimply teen sentry says "anyone is free to go," then we pan over to an obstacle course of doom - barbed wire fences, land mines, moats with crocs in them, etc.
Actually, it means "this is not a unionized mine."
Look up the 'Carnegie massacre' on the internets; no one lost their lives in this episode of Willard, but there was a big reason that Carnegie switched to a life of giving; mass murder of workers exorcising their right to a living wage......
I recall a school reading assignment that was particularly adept at isolating a childs point of view in the transition from innocent to bone weary tired . The focal point was how the youngster imagined defeating the unfairness of the pay scheme for coal diggers . This included only being paid for coal that was caught by a screen which simply put treated coal dust and its like as a magical element . Making its appearence freed from every miners cart and paycheck , to the miscellaneous profits on the owners ledgers .
At the time I was emotionally manipulated through my solidarity with youngsters who like myself found many items magically filtered from relevance by my revered elders .
When the young coal miner presented his simple route for success to his father , a point was reached where the illustration of a younster feeling the weight of generations of complaints epitomized inedelibly from his grandfathers to his own likely conclusion in unmistakable simplicity . I am only guessing here , but I imagine it was his father who exposed him to the inevitable golden road of the promises of black lung disease . His elder , in the manly way in which one may crush a hairbrained scheme without damaging a protégés feelings , noted the difficulties inherent to moving vast quantities of coal without including "free for some" , but just as heavy and time consuming for the miner who also enjoyed its poisonous deposits in an also "free" slowly insumountable fatal lung disease .
It sure is good to see how the respect for the working people lucky enough to face the dirty , dangerous , underground conditions has cleared the generally formidable obstacles of killing people into having them appear to beg for their opportunity to linger and die , or end in a violent accident . Accidents which upon further analysis seems closer and closer to a cold blooded premeditated mass murder . Just like Bain Capital didn't kill that woman , they just removed every tax free dollar to Mittens and friends "ironic patriots" off shore accounts . It just so happens there were no ironic dollars left for her or her doctors .
Stuff happens . Elect Mittens and stuff will still happen , ironically .
Is this an "in-kind donation", the lost wages from the mine workers, and what is the likelihood that would be greater than the limit to the campaign? Massey did not have to pay the wages during that time (and lost some revenue), but it is still a fair sum.
Actually, they did. If your employer requires you to be somewhere at a particular time, you're on the clock. Back wages owed.
If your employer doesn't pay promptly, there's a penalty (often the sum triples.) If it goes more than a short time, interest gets added.
If your employer doesn't let you put the time on the clock, then things get really serious, since the time card is a legal document and your employer has compelled you to falsify it.
No, I'm not a lawyer. I was, however, once employed by a company that engaged in this stuff and the Labor Department settlement was quite enlightening.
The company spokesman on the radio program (follow the link) says that there were people who did not show up and that there were no repercussions for those individuals. But he did admit that supervisors sent out info stating that there was no pay for the day and that attendance was mandatory. So basically you had to have the guts to call their bluff.
The workers had the "opportunity" to make up the hours, but they were NOT paid for that shift. Actually if they HAD been paid, then THAT would have been an "in-kind donation" which is exactly why Massey did not pay them. Massey wants to be able to claim that the attendance was voluntary.
And of the people that "didn't show up" how many of them are still employed NOW? So much for "Freedom"...
if the miners were not paid and the mine claims it attendance was voluntary, then the MINERS gave an in-kind donation
if it wasn't voluntary, or if (more likely) it was coercive, it probably violates the 13th amendment
Is that a redistribution of funds? Just askin'.
Willard was treating the miner's like they were his servants; they are inconvenient props for an inconvenient set of truths. He's running for president, for god's sake. Willard has so much money, he could have paid them the pittance that they probably earn; Willard doesn't get that what you do, comes back to haunt you. Dogs, maids, miners; there all just props in his plan. He has a plan, he executes a plan, and then he fails; you can't treat people like a business plan. I want a president, not a money manager..................
They correctly figured that it would do them more good than harm.
It's the miners' faults. They didn't take responsibility for their own lives and work hard enough. Those damn 47 percenters! (sarcasm)
I'd be laughing about this quote if the miners had been paid for their time.
Why the American people tolerate the lying from this man is astounding ?? These actions prove how he operated at Bain. He bullied people when he was younger,he lies and manipulates them today my,my, what a hero ??
Romney's treatment of these miners is just one letter away from mass statutory rape.
They really think they are entitled to their wages? What a pack of moochers!
Good grief, this campaign is getting more and more like Orwell's 1984 every freaking day.
That's how you got the past campaign slogan "peace through strength!"
OMG It's Romney's foreign policy!!!!
I wonder if they consented to their images being used in campaign ads.
Orwell had the advantage of creating characters who functioned as he wished . Massey has the advantage of manipulating those dependent upon a Massey industries paycheck , then kindly creating for them narratives that function as he wishes and dreams .
You say Orwell
I say Massey
Oh lets call the whole thing off ...
Before the bureau of labour gets a hold of it !
Good evening friends ...
I bet most of those miners will still vote Republican.
guess that depend on where the voting booths are, as if they are close to the mine betting mine bosses well make sure they vote teapublican.
Sadly, John, you're probably right, Romney being white and all...
"Attendance was mandatory but no one was forced to attend the event."
WTF!!!??????? I think this qualifies as "thinkspeak."
As a point of constructive criticism....
This isn't one of Steve's better articles. It doesn't really add anything to the narrative that was already out there about this appearance. I now know the footage is being used in commercial. Is that what is suppose to move the needle? That not only did they not get paid to be there, but they aren't getting any compensation from the campaign for being in the ad? If that's what he's after, I understand, but he didn't get there in this writing. Steve doesn't usually fail to make the point crystal clear.
As for the Western Kentucky exec? Why? We expect actors. It is what it is. Use them as actors and don't tell us. No problem. But stop having people misrepresent who they are. I don't care if an actor pretends to be a coal worker because he's earning his paycheck. I do care that an exec is pretending to be a wage-earner because I have reason to believe his interests have conflicts with the interests of the actual wage-earners.
YOU know the circumstances behind the miners in the footage. That doesn't mean everyone does, certainly not the low-info voters, which at this point one would have to be to still claim to be an undecided voter. Heck, I'll bet there are a lot of Romney supporters out there who honestly think Mitt's for the working man who nonetheless don't know the miners in this ad lost a day's pay, and it may be the sort of thing to at least jiggle the brainwaves a skosch.
The miners standing on a stage as props for Romney, THAT WAS THEIR PAY, standing beside Mr. Moneybags.
Redistribution run amok!!!!!!!!!!!!
The abosulty worse thing for ohio valley miners is the advent of 100 year supply of cheap natural gas from fracking. Coal being less cost effective will by Romneys free market be suplanted by the cheaper gas. Already a few power plants in the area are quietly converting or building new gas power plants. THe real war oncoal is by the gas industry not Obama.
Greg, you hit the nail on the head.
The "man" is just using his property to make more money. Forcing workers to volunteer their time as Romeny supporters is nothing shameful...in the Country Club world of Mitt Romney. The loyal Statford Wife always agrees with her husband.
Without unions, we'll be back to the days of the Robber Barons, where workers were squeezed for all they were worth, while the owners grew their fortunes and enjoyed life.
Once the unions are crushed, perhaps workers could somehow be made to purchase all of their needs at the "general store", and thus "eat up all their wages". It's slavery without the name. That's Romeny's vision!