In recent weeks, a flurry of news coverage has focused on an undemocratic trend in workplaces around the country: employers telling their workers which politicians they should vote for. CEOs for Murray Energy, Koch Industries, ASG Software, and Westgate Resorts have pressured their employees to vote for particular political candidates, like Mitt Romney.
This November, corporations are testing their new Supreme Court-granted rights for the first time in a presidential election. The coal industry is a good place to observe this shifting landscape.
Since 2004, lobbyists for the coal and mining industry have promoted something called "Mine the Vote," an effort to organize employees and get them to the polls.
The lobbyists, working for the National Mining Association, have taken advantage of their new freedoms to make that effort more aggressive. They have produced a voting guide website called "Mine the Vote," which they are promoting to their 325-member companies as a means to encourage employees to vote for Mitt Romney. The same website also lists endorsements for Congress, which skew Republican and conservative Democrat.
Patriot Coal, Caterpillar, and Rosebud Mining Company are among the mining industry companies that have posted links to Mine the Vote. "It is vital that we elect candidates that support American mining, so we have provided a guide to show you which candidates supported by NMA PAC's," a message with the effort explains. The National Mining Association has distributed get-out-the-vote posters featuring information about the voting guide website for managers to post in workrooms.
James Kahl, a corporate attorney advising a number of business associations, wrote in a memo for his clients that the Citizens United decision appears to legalize a number of workplace electioneering efforts. Corporations may now "express electoral preferences to employees" as well as distribute voter guides authored by executives, wrote Kahl.
It was the same conclusion reached by Karl Crow, a political operative who helped the conservative Koch Brothers develop their "Themis" grassroots strategy this year. In an article published several months after the court decision, Crow approvingly cited another prominent Republican attorney, Cleta Mitchell, who argued that Citizens United opens the door for businesses to educate "their employees, vendors and customers about candidates and ofï ceholders whose philosophies and voting records would destroy or permanently damage America's free enterprise system." Koch Industries had a head start. As Mike Elk and Mark Ames reported in The Nation, Koch began pressuring employees to vote GOP for the midterm elections two years ago.
The effort may spread like wildfire in offices and factories across the country. On Thursday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a lobbying association that represents companies like Dow Chemical and Prudential Financial, kicked off a campaign to have employers stuff payroll envelopes with explicit campaign propaganda. The first political mailer is being distributed in Massachusetts and in bold letters reads "Defeat U.S. Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren."
The Chamber, ABC News reports, says it hopes to reach 7 million people.
"The real concern here is...the inherent power dynamics between employees and their employers," Adam Skaggs, a senior counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice, explained recently on Current TV. An official e-mail from the boss saying something like "your job could depend on who wins the race" could be interpreted as coercion or intimidation, said Skaggs.
Of course, not all employee electioneering benefits the Republican Party. In 2010, the casino company Harrah's worked closely with Senator Harry Reid's (D-NV) reelection effort. "Waking up to the defeat of Harry Reid Nov. 3 will be devastating for our industry's future," one Harrah's executive wrote in an e-mail mobilizing employees to get to the polls.
Only weeks after his reelection, Reid introduced fast-tracked online gambling legislation, which many saw as a payback to companies like Harrah's. The case of Harrah's though differs from the other examples of workplace electioneering since the company worked in concert with their union, which was democratically elected as a representative of the employees.