Fox News Claims Obama’s Win Triggered ‘Massive Layoffs Across America’
11:49 am - 11/09/2012
Fox News Claims Obama’s Win Triggered ‘Massive Layoffs Across America’
According to Fox News’ Fox Nation website, the re-election of President Obama has triggered a wave of layoffs across the country. Fox Nation is featuring the claim prominently on its website (screenshot above). The evidence? One Utah company owned by a prominent Romney supporter has decided to lay off workers in the wake of election day:
A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.
The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.
The layoffs are necessary because of the president’s “war on coal,” the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Fox also linked to a series of other unrelated layoff stories, including those announcing layoffs in other countries, as if they proved the point. There are hiring and firings at firms all the time, and Fox presented no evidence that these layoffs were either related to the election or unusual in any sense.
Also, the claim that Obama has launched a “war on coal” is nonsense: coal employment hit a 15 year high last November, and coal jobs are either higher or at the same level as four years ago in West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio.
The coal CEO laying off workers is the same one who forced his workers to attend a Romney rally in August. Those workers had to forgo a day of pay in order to attend the rally. In the past, Murray has also forced his workers to make campaign donations to Republicans.
Many CEOs threatened their workers with layoffs if Obama won the election. One of the most prominent, Florida timeshare mogul David Siegel, instead gave his workers a raise after Election Day.
But Fox is not only blaming Obama for layoffs. Earlier this week, Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney repeatedly blamed Obama for stock market losses.
UPDATE: One of the laid off workers took to Reddit today to answer questions. He said, “Despite the fact that nothing has changed in the two days since the election they decide to lay off employees. I’ve seen how corrupt the company can be over the years and am fairly certain the layoffs are just a way to make the President look bad.”
Source
OP: I have this. I really do. It feels like we're being held as hostages and the officers who are meant to protect us don't give a damn.
According to Fox News’ Fox Nation website, the re-election of President Obama has triggered a wave of layoffs across the country. Fox Nation is featuring the claim prominently on its website (screenshot above). The evidence? One Utah company owned by a prominent Romney supporter has decided to lay off workers in the wake of election day:
A Utah coal company owned by a vocal critic of President Barack Obama has laid off 102 miners.
The layoffs at the West Ridge Mine are effective immediately, according to UtahAmerican Energy Inc., a subsidiary of Murray Energy Corp. They were announced in a short statement made public Thursday, two days after Obama won re-election.
The layoffs are necessary because of the president’s “war on coal,” the statement said. The slogan is one used frequently during the election by Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray, who was an ardent supporter of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Fox also linked to a series of other unrelated layoff stories, including those announcing layoffs in other countries, as if they proved the point. There are hiring and firings at firms all the time, and Fox presented no evidence that these layoffs were either related to the election or unusual in any sense.
Also, the claim that Obama has launched a “war on coal” is nonsense: coal employment hit a 15 year high last November, and coal jobs are either higher or at the same level as four years ago in West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio.
The coal CEO laying off workers is the same one who forced his workers to attend a Romney rally in August. Those workers had to forgo a day of pay in order to attend the rally. In the past, Murray has also forced his workers to make campaign donations to Republicans.
Many CEOs threatened their workers with layoffs if Obama won the election. One of the most prominent, Florida timeshare mogul David Siegel, instead gave his workers a raise after Election Day.
But Fox is not only blaming Obama for layoffs. Earlier this week, Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney repeatedly blamed Obama for stock market losses.
UPDATE: One of the laid off workers took to Reddit today to answer questions. He said, “Despite the fact that nothing has changed in the two days since the election they decide to lay off employees. I’ve seen how corrupt the company can be over the years and am fairly certain the layoffs are just a way to make the President look bad.”
Source
OP: I have this. I really do. It feels like we're being held as hostages and the officers who are meant to protect us don't give a damn.
also, wow, that conversation on reddit is surprisingly informative and intellectual. I only ever hear about the asshole of reddit so cue my surprise. XD
UGH...
This attitude is utterly beyond me. I've always sat back and just wondered what they're thinking. His next term starts in Jan, right? It's not even in the second term and they're laying people off. People can't say it's for any other reason than to be asshats.
The idea that CEOs can tell you who to vote for is fucking scary. Saying that is all but announcing their plutocracy. Don't these people have children or other loved ones? It's hard enough to make ends meat now and they try to pull this kind of shit? I have a hard time believing people who tsktsk at this sort of behavior actually love their families. This is the legacy we're handing the next generation: horrible work conditions, no healthcare (if they repeal), and no rights.
I feel the same with healthcare when people moan "but I'm already stretched to the limit! I don't want to pay for some lazy ass!" That's not the point. With how little wages are increasing and the unprecedented profits that drive up the HC costs, will anyone save the ubber rich be able to day for it in ten or twenty years?
Sometimes I wonder why I continue living in this state, despite my intention on staying and turning Texas blue (or swing state, at least)
"Two Murray Energy Co. subsidiaries will pay the third-largest penalty in the history of U.S. coal-mining disasters — almost $950,000 — to settle safety violations that federal regulators said contributed to nine deaths at Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine in August 2007," Mike Gorrell reports for The Salt Lake Tribune. The company has already paid a $500,000 criminal fine.
Murray accepted 17 of the 20 citations that the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration issued after its investigation in July 2008. MSHA levied fines of $1.64 million, and Murray will pay less than 58 percent of that amount. The company said it made the settlement to avoid "a contentious trial" and said evidence at trial would have shown that the violations didn't contribute to the disaster. But Labor Department Solicitor Patricia Smith told Gorrell the firm "acknowledged responsibility for the failures that led to the tragedy at Crandall Canyon. These failures resulted in the needless deaths of nine members of the mining community," including two miners killed in a failed rescue/recovery attempt. "We settled for what we thought we’d have gotten if we tried the case."
MSHA Director Joe Main told the Tribune that Murray admitted to three flagrant violations, the most serious type of infraction. "Two of those involved violations that resulted in the company pleading guilty in March in U.S. District Court to two misdemeanors for willfully violating mine-safety laws," Gorrell notes. "It paid a $500,000 fine to end that criminal case."
peons, ersurfs, er workers. Am I right or what?Ahhh... the same companies that make their USA employees train the offshore employee's before laying everyone off? The same companies that go to congress and try to get out of their retirement programs for their employee's? The same companies who fire a father because his daughter has cancer and it cost too much? The companies that ask the gov'n to put a freeze on employee wages while giving the CEO and other top employees HUGE pay increases?
The flaw in your theory here is to assume that we aren't in a recession. A company willing to law off 100 employees in spit doesn't have 100 extra employees. Ah, we're still in that recession. Hundreds of people are applying for jobs *still*. I wouldn't be surprised if he offers their jobs back but at a much lower wage.
Not really. We've been in a recession for sometime and yet that company still kept 100 extra workers? Why didn't they lay them off earlier? I still say they were planning to lay them off no matter who won and waited until after the election to blame it on Obama.
It's common practice to fire than re-hire at a lower wage (with the threat if you don't like it then you're permanently out of that job.) My own job was classified as a permanent temp to get around healthcare and bennies for a long time. I was officially fired each year for five days than rehired.
To fire and re-hire is very, very common here. Hell, companies will fire their employees and "import" workers from India or the likes than complain that they had to do it because no one here knows computers (which then people go to school and graduate to find those companies were just giving excuses to have cheaper green-card labor.)
Or something like that logic. :/
It doesn't have to make sense. It just has to make assholes feel like they've been victimized by the great Obama evil.
Edited at 2012-11-09 11:20 pm (UTC)
Somehow I don't think the best way to prove your point about Obama not generating more jobs is by deliberately fire people out of spite.
Then again, like you said, probably not much logic/sense going on here.
Edited at 2012-11-09 11:22 pm (UTC)
Aie! Sprinting towards Hell, yea verily.
"Party of Personal Responsibilty" my ass.
Punch a damn pillow. Don't take out your petty anger on innocent people.
Like I would trust a word that came out of their mouths.
Of course these layoffs are for political gain. The Republicans think everyone is essentially cannon fodder for the next election. We have to stand up to them.