Pro-Romney employer warns workers of 'personal consequences'

[babylonsister]

Posted with permission.
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Pro-Romney employer warns workers of 'personal consequences'
By Steve Benen
-
Thu Oct 25, 2012 1:19 PM EDT


We've talked a bit lately about business leaders using heavy-handed election tactics, pressuring their employees to support Mitt Romney, apparently at the candidate's behest. A new example out of Wisconsin is one of the more striking cases to date.

Mike White, the chairman and owner of Rite-Hite, a major Milwaukee manufacturer of industrial equipment, told employees in an email this week that all employees "should understand the personal consequences to them of having our tax rates increase dramatically if President Obama is re-elected, forcing taxpayers to fund President Obama's future deficits and social programs (including Obamacare), which require bigger government."

The email stunned some employees. One employee said he felt threatened by the email. "It's a good company, but for this to come out, it's absurd," the employee said.

The employee said even supervisors were surprised by the tone of the email.

White's email said he didn't intend to "prejudice any employee," but nevertheless urged them to "think carefully."

As a substantive matter, it's worth noting that Rite-Hite owner appears confused about several key policy areas. White, for example, said his workers' personal income taxes would "increase dramatically" under a second term, which is at odds with all existing tax proposals. He also makes it sound as if it's impossible for a business to thrive with top marginal rates from the 1990s.

But even putting policy accuracy aside, it continues to be unnerving to find employers issuing vague threats about "personal consequences" to their employees. It is, as best as I can tell, legal, but the pressure and coercion from Romney allies -- who appear to be following Romney's own instructions -- is a bit much.

As The Atlantic's Adam Clark Estes recently put it, "It's not technically illegal for employers to tell their employees how to vote. That doesn't mean that it's ethical or understandable or even acceptable to connect people's livelihoods with their political beliefs. There's a fine line between an employer telling an employee, 'Vote Romney!' and a boss telling a subordinate, 'Vote Romney, or else!' At least, in the eyes of the inevitably subordinate employees there's not."

[BainsBane]

1. What dramatic tax increases? n/t

[abelenkpe]

2. Why are our job creators

A bunch of I'll informed bullying asshats? Our system has rewarded a bunch of rude bigoted rubes.

[patrice]

3. Right to Work + At Will Employment assume there is power parity between employers & employees,

so these legal positions give no advantage to one over the other. Not true.

Employers have a one to many relationship with employees and prospective employees, so opportunities to covertly discriminate for reasons that have NOTHING to do with job performance are unlimited. The employer's needs can be met in a wide variety of ways on his/her own timetable.

Employees have a one to a few or at best several relationship with employers and prospective employers, their opportunities to turn-down employment that is not completely appropriate to their needs are severely limited by needs that are much more immediate than those experienced by employers.

Right to Work and At Will employment are legalized discrimination.

[litlbilly]

4. My boss threatened to fire me and my 7 co-workers

My boss threatened to fire me and my 7 co-workers if we voted Democratic.
We were pulled into a meeting at our Westinghouse service center in Lake Oswego
Oregon and were told, " If you vote for Dems, your jobs will be gone" I stood up,
told my boss he was full of shit and bet him 1k dollars that if Dems got in, not only would
our jobs be safe, but we would all prosper. Here's what happened: My wife and my
income tripled within a year, we bought our first house, we bought 2 new cars,
I got to golf 3 times a week and we went skiing every weekend during the winter.
Here's the thing, the meeting with our boss was 2 weeks before Bill Clinton was elected.
I am still waiting for the 1k my boss still owes me.
Today, i am struggling to keep our house and our 2 cars are 20 years old cause we can't afford new ones. Things are starting to turn around for us in spite of the republican obstruction.

[blazeKing]

5. .........

[img][/img]

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. I still don't understand, why if ...

This the below had been reported:

Mike White, the chairman and owner of Rite-Hite, a major Milwaukee manufacturer of industrial equipment, told employees in an email this week that all employees "should understand the personal consequences to them of having our labor cost increase dramatically if this union certification drive is successful

That company would have been faced with huge NLRB fines, why this reporting hasn't triggered a criminal voter suppression, i.e., intimidation, charges?