.. where is the DOJ?

Activists? Protesters?

to never do any business with, adding other business enterprises who do business with them. Hit them where it hurts--their profits and their reputations. Remember--it's our money they are trying to suck out of our pockets. Don't give it to them.
You can start here: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/ASG-Software-Solutions-1058777/about

would ever do business with Westgate (high pressure timeshare operation)?

Maybe if they are impressionable enough, they'll think they'll lose their job if Rmoney doesn't win and vote for him to keep their jobs.

Sounds like the business may be failing and they want another excuse. But only the terminally dull would not realize this company has been there through the first four years, so its sudden demise would be ridiculous.

He's claiming that if Obama is reelected the economy will go to shit and he will be forced to "downsize" his company.

If Romney is elected the economy will go to shit, and he'll only have his cushy bank accounts in the caimans to fall back on, and his employees will be fucked.

but repukes only see what they are told to see.

and their employees may already be screwed. the repugs wouldn't pass a bill to give incentives to businesses using american labor and still want perks for corporations moving labor overseas. it doesn't matter if the president wins or mittens to them. If obama wins they'll just make an excuse, "see we got to move our business, we can't afford you employees." if mitten wins, "well we have no incentive to stay here, so we still get perks moving labor overseas." I think they are using an excuse.

there's an ad with the home depot owner that just sickens me. he had a benefit for little boots and now he's on the telly talking about how business people should be in the administration instead of those educated economists. because, hey, business people like little boots and his friends are what this country needs. it's these con artist, greedy, sociopathic business people that got us into this mess in the first place; especially since little boots believed allowing his friends to police themselves was okay.

anyway this guy has the audacity of going on the telly and spouting this bullshite-bullshite that got us here. I'm thinking he just wants to finish us off.

yep--

It's just good business

The economy hasn't shut down in the last 4 years so there is no reason there would be a sudden change, and in addition to that, the economy has improved by any objective measures. I hope the employees are not that stupid. Again, I bet that company is failing anyway and the guy wants to find someone to blame other than himself.

the vote and if Eric Holder did his job, we wouldn't be sitting here three or four weeks from the election seeing this crap happening.

who owns 50+ large buildings, and as many parking lots. He has more money than he knows what to do with. There is more than enuogh for the enxt 20 generations of his family. the company is telling all of the workers to vote Romney. they are whispering about it. because it made them so uncomfortable.

Perhaps someone should make a case against him.

if Obama wins? If he's planning on selling up and retiring, then this is something he can use to make the point. Otherwise he has no interest in closing up business just because Obama got a second term.

Creating an intimidating environment, in which the boss says that if you don't vote for x, and x doesn't win, the corporation will lose money and your job will be at risk.

Ironically, I live in a state with still active blue laws (prohibition era), that disallows the sale of alcohol while the polls are open. Why? Because in the way back when machine there was a concern that votes could be bought, by offering free drinks.

That is a far less coercive tactic than this: implicity saying that your economic stability is thrown up into the air, unless you vote the way I (CEO) dictates.

This is about a very wealthy person attempting to scare (per one's economic existence) employees into voting a particular way, giving that one threatening voice, a multitude of votes - beyond the one that he/she exercises at the voting booth.

They make hysterical claims about how they will be forced to fire people or move the company. Of course it's intimidation!

I bet that causes more employees to switch their votes from Republican to Democratic rather than the opposite.

The robber barons hate it when we peasants misbehave.

Otherwise, this could really backfire.

Most employers I've had, if they told me to vote for clear skies, I'd run out and vote for rain.

they should have cut them in for some of the profits.

The old-time capitalists understood this.

The nuevo capitalists are dumber than a rock.

A piece of the action motivates employees more than all the coercion in the universe.

"Is anyone out there aware of the mass layoff of Mobius employees that occurred at its Rye headquarters Friday evening, 6/15? This was the same day that ASG's takeover of Mobius became final. Mobius, a publicly traded software firm, had recently celebrated its 25th year in business. Roughly 300 employees were herded together after normal hours on Friday evening, and told they were being dismissed as "redundant". This leaves the new acquisition with only about 110-120 employees remaining nationwide. Entire divisions were eliminated or decimated. Not a sole was retained from Finance, their positions apparently all being redundant. ASG - Allen Systems Group - is a private firm headquartered in Naples Florida, wholy owned by Arthur Allen. Mr. Allen routinely acquires companies and lays off their employees, but Mobius was the largest acquisition to date. God help the non-redundant staff in Naples that presumably is going to assume the workload of all the redundant staff in Rye and other Mobius offices! How come we've heard nothing of this community calamity in the local news?"

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/rye-brook-ny/T467SCNO9DHB8LF7O

Typical Republican trick. I've begun to really hate them. Hatred is something I try to avoid but these people are evil.

but this guy just wants to have his "cake and eat it too." he wants that big tax break, instead of being a real patriot, knowing the country and the people need help. he's just another sociopath thinking out what's good for him.

the way i'm feeling about now, they should nationalize some "too big to fail" corporations for the good of the people in this country. but, oh no, we can't do that, it's better to have predatory capitalism. hell, some in our government have had a hand in murdering democratically elected leaders who just think about the welfare of their people over those of a global corporation. I think the majority of the american people are so screwed with the insane, greedheads, attempting to run the show.

The American worker is already working for less than he/she is worth, harder and for more hours than ever before and these sons of bitches want to co-opt our precious, private right to elect our leaders? They want to control our bodies, the school curriculum of our children, privatize anything good and decent left to us by prior governments...what's next, signing labor contracts for our first born children?

Already a done deal, it's called the National Debt.

before I decided only to work for myself, "I was looking for work when I got this job, too." He had threatened to fire me over some misunderstanding where he was actually incorrect.

...to axe some jobs post-election...putting even more money in the pockets of the super rich. Man, these guys never cease to amaze with their money making schemes.

(?)

How many of those employees are afraid those calls aren't coming from the boss to check up on them?

I know I'd lie about my vote to anybody who asked, if I were one of these workers.

If the employer actually followed people to the polls and attempted to intimidate their vote right there in the polling place, then that would be illegal.

Would you rather have a motherfucker like Arthur Allen holding the nation's purse-strings, or would you rather have the good capitalist that you despise holding the fucking purse-strings? Clueless bullshit has consequences.

they decided to quit doing that, en mass, about thirty years ago and society has finally reacted,

and is contemplating shutting them down.

Totally predicable, and if they were really so brilliant, they should have seen it coming and prevented it.

livelihood is being threatened.

losing your job might mean going without food or healthcare, things can feel different.

Economic coercion and intimidation

When employers speak out, employees always listen carefully for even the subtlest hints as to what kind of behavior will be rewarded or punished. This is all the more true in an economy where so many Americans feel insecure about their economic future. For this reason, federal election law maintains a blanket prohibition on private companies telling their employees which candidate they should support. Even making more nuanced statements - such as suggestions that if one party or the other triumphs, business may suffer and workers may have to be laid off - is illegal under federal law.

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/neither-free-nor-fair.html

about this. The lawyers on Chris Hayes Up this morning said it wasn't against the law.

fraud. big nothing. citizens blew the whistle, 4 months after Holder was supposed to invesigate...

But after Citizens United I am not sure...

... I'd wager those dickheads just put most of their employees into the Dem column.

Freakin' idiots, keep it comin'.

Saddam would be proud.

There must be some way this isn't legal.

country and tell assholes like this to fuck-off. American workers have become little lambs.

it can be legal.

...these bastards are gonna keep this up until they finally piss off the wrong employee who'll decide that they've had enough of being bullied by rich-ass pricks, figure that they no longer have any options and off the SOB. Until there are consequences for their behavior they'll keep on keepin on pushing people around.

It started with a recorded message to executives and managers that then filtered down to the employees. My specific department was pretty much split between Clinton and GHWB. When Clinton was elected, the next day I laughed and laughed.

Penal Code

518. Extortion is the obtaining of property from another, with his
consent, or the obtaining of an official act of a public officer,
induced by a wrongful use of force or fear, or under color of
official right.


519. Fear, such as will constitute extortion, may be induced by a
threat, either:
1. To do an unlawful injury to the person or property of the
individual threatened or of a third person; or,
2. To accuse the individual threatened, or any relative of his, or
member of his family, of any crime; or,
3. To expose, or to impute to him or them any deformity, disgrace
or crime; or,
4. To expose any secret affecting him or them.

www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=24368617475+1+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

In California, an employee fired for such a reason should talk to a lawyer because he might have a claim against the employer depending on the circumstances. If the employer just throws a huge unpatriotic temper tantrum and shuts down, maybe not.

And in Ohio. . . . also maybe not.

http://www.sjlaboremploymentblog.com/ohio-limits-employee-breach-of-public-policy-claims/

While we spend a lot of time on other issues, we ignore the fact that employees in the workplace need to protect their rights with new laws that limit the employer's ability to just fire at will.

Bain and Romney took advantage of their "right" to fire at will. No one wants to be enslaved to a job, but there should be some standard that can be enforced that requires responsibility on the part not only of the employee to the employer (to get to work on time, to work the hours required, to be honest, etc.) but on the employer to the employee.

Along with some very large fines. Fines that will bankrupt the company and the families of the people doing the intimidation.

them bullshit

romney's policies will be the same as bush, he has the bush advisors on his team, and we all know how good the bush administration was on American job

NOT

Used to work for a company that did this, but on a smaller scale. They would always send out a list of local candidates that were "business friendly" and say the "company" was endorsing those candidates. To this day, I still get angry when I think about it, and that was over 20 years ago!

But I always just said - "oh, thank you"...and then voted how *I* wanted to vote. Screw 'em!

I agree that I think there should be some limits placed on employers' abilities to do this sort of thing. It amounts to attempted coercion at the very least.

and quietly vote for Obama just to show him I can't be pushed around.

Then they make you work at 3 a.m. and tell you to go home at 4 p.m. and work you until you are sick.

The American workforce has been reduced to WORSE than prison labor.. yet no one complains?

I don't get it...

A new campaign needs to be started across the country against companies that would want to destroy the US from within by firing employees for political reasons. All government subsidies and benefits to these companies should be stopped and we the people should stop doing business with them or buying their products. It would take some effort, but it could be done. And the government should help any small business that wants to take over there market products.

I`m game to start e-mailing and boycotting any of the companies that are doing this. I would love to tell them off in an e-mail.

And yes it can cause problems. As an OFA supporter, I still have the right to vote for the candidate of my choice, but would create friction and jeopardize my job if I discussed my feelings with my coworkers.

they will not bat an eye at voting in a way that they believe will harm their security.

This is definitely a Rovian idea. They weren't winning on message, they weren't winning on likeability...but they could very well win on fear...fear of losing their jobs and their homes.

I don't think this can be undone by the Justice Department. You can't just undo this.

Last edited Mon Oct 15, 2012, 09:41 AM - Edit history (1)

Obama must REALLY be threatening to unleash his true Progressive side for real if these guys are acting up like this.
Obama's gonna make the rich pay more taxes, their overdue fair share.
With Warren Buffett up there making words about him paying less than his secretary, these CEOs must have started to get worried.

In my opinion his lowest max amount should be 50%.
Roosevelt made 'em pay 94% when it was all said & done.
They haven't gotten over that since.
John Lucas

make them pay for all the problems they have created, and for all the disunity they have fostered. To create evil and then be forced to pay to create balance may cause a rethink. But I thought 65% had a more pleasant sound.

about how much damage I could do to their business from the inside.

They should be held to the highest extent of the law. It's blackmail.

WE don't live in fucking China yet do we?

Allen has a VERY BAD reputation around here. A few of their former employees work now work with my husband. They tell stories all the time about what a horrible place it is to work for. CHEAP, no raises, runs the place like a dictator.

There was a big scandal a while ago about them trying to get info from their rival company's employees concerning their new software. Their employees were posing as potential customers from major corporations wanting to buy the new software.

That this CEO is saying this doesn't surprise me at all. I need to send this to my husband. I am sure the owners of his company will get a good laugh from this article.

please let us know. If I was a buyer and knew about this, I would steer clear of that company. Any CEO or President of a company that threatens employees over their right to vote should be put in jail for life.

in the Senate to stop the obstructionism and you will see REAL IMPROVEMENT in our jobs numbers and in this country! At least until the 1% bribes enough Dems to F things up!

Where's your proof that any democratic business owner has done this? Or are you just spreading repuke lies?

What a POS.

vote for Obama instead, thus preserving my job so I can take care of me and my family until I could find another job without a wingnut as CEO.

He won't be there with me when I vote, so he can't force his demands to be met so this would be a non-issue for me.

Given all the jobs that are leaving the U.S. for other countries, I'd be surprised if people would come to the conclusion that Mr. "Outsourcing, No Tax Paying, Go use ER insurance if you are dying, otherwise take your slower deaths elsewhere and get your concerns off my lawn" Romney will be the man who will see that their jobs are secure after this fall election.

I'd just delete the email and move on...to another work place whenever it becomes possible. What a simply lousy thing to do to your employees.

One of the dad's on my son's baseball team HATES Obama and when I ask why he says "My business won't survive if Obama is re-elected". But he can't explain why, other than saying vague things like "his taxes will kill my business" or "his socialist agenda". This guy has a sanitation business (porta-potties). I honestly don't understand how re-electing Obama can cause this guys business harm. Maybe he's thinking that having to pay for employee's insurance will cut into his bottom line?? (Obamacare?). I wish we could have an honest discussion about this because I truly like to understand other people's points of view--but the guy can never give me an answer that make sense. FYI, I've voted for 5 Presidents in my life: 3 Republican's and 2 Democrats. I'm pretty firmly in the Democrat camp now after the George W. Bush era. I was a moderate Republican before they went off the deep end with the religious right and neocons. I mention that only because I honestly DO vote for the person and not the party. Coming from the point of view I simply cannot understand the visceral hatred of Obama and apparently blindness to facts. And from people who are nice, intelligent, "normal" people--except in this one area.

Perhaps the Justice Department should get involved....

Seriously, do you really think if the current President is elected, ANYONE risk losing any business because he was reelected. This is just a scare tactic to TRY and steal the election. I bet you $10,000, this idiots claiming they will fire everyone if Obama gets reelected will never be heard from after the election.....

For christ's sake.

If it is unlawful, during Union Certification campaigns, for an employer to attempt to influence the vote by saying, or even overtly imply, that if the Certification campaign is syccessful, he/she will close up shop, why isn't it unlawful to do the same thing with regards to a national election?

Secondly, this guy talks about a romney victory would improve the global economy, and therefore allow his company continue its "consolidations" (read: job/wage destruction) future; when everything romney has planned, i.e., austerity for the working class; while leaving the investor class untouched, is at the root of what is keeping the global economy de/re-cessed.

Finally,

I actually duped your 60 percent quote, but I think it's worth duping.

Romney types are mentally deranged. How can anyone seriously write a letter asking for their support when it's the same letter where they claim to eliminate jobs. THEY are the enemies of economic recovery. If they had any skills they'd create new products, and hire more people, not consolidate and downsize.

Wanna bet there isn't a woman or minority anywhere in management under this guy?

I'd also bet there is at least one guy who wears suspenders and sucks cigars.

The world would be better off without those SOBs in charge:

Their emails says straight up:

"Remember, in the world of business, companies are consolidators or they get consolidated; so far ASG has been a consolidator, completing over 60 acquisitions in our 26 year history. When we buy a company, we eliminate about 60 percent of the salaries of the employees of that company."

These are really bad people, running some vague "solutions" company offering nothing innovative, just feeding off the success of others.

This needs to be called out and if not a crime yet, to be made a crime.

This has ALEC's fingerprints all over it, we know who they are, and this
needs to get called out during debates, and the subject of hearings in
Congress, etc..

this is ilegal under Federal Law

Have you noticed how many fast food places (i.e. McDonalds, several pizza estabilshments, et al) that have televisions all have Fox News tuned in as its station of choice?

These guys think they can order people to vote their way by threatening their economic lives. Shows how little regard they have for democracy.