This is a F#@king FLSA Violation

I cannot quite believe this, although I don't know why.

I don't think that you can both compel workers to attend an event as a condition of employment and then not pay them.  Although I hardly think of myself as an expert in this field, I've won a couple of Fair Labor Standards Act suits in courts of appeals and I would love to take a shot at this one. 

This should be a wake up call to the white working class.  You're props and pawns in the great Republican/corporate game.  Nothing more.

Comments

[Davis X. Machina]

I'm guessing a third or more of that lot don't vote at all, and of the rest, it's 80-20 Republican.

The CSA didn't hold off the North for four years employing only slave-owners in the ranks of their army.

Economic self-interest and a (dollar and a ) quarter will get you a ride on the T.

[kathy a.]

really is appalling. what is confusing about the word "mandatory" when that word is said by the boss?

[oddjob]

God in heaven........

[jeanne marie]

What the fuck is this "us" business, Andrew?

[jeanne marie]

a> href="http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/08/the-myth-of-an-affirmative-action-president/261697/#disqus_thread"> TNC: The Myth of an Affirmative-Action President".

[jeanne marie]

Oopsie (should have previewed before posting). TNC: The Myth of an Affirmative-Action President".

[Joe S]

Still, I'll make a bet Romney wins West Virginia by at least 7 points; and that section of Ohio by at least 10.

[low-tech cyclist]

Thanks for posting this, SC - I was fuming about that last night.

The whole "we told them it was mandatory, but nobody forced them to come" bit is just unbelievable. The coal mine management is clearly used to having it both ways anytime they feel like it.

I hope somebody sues the bastards' asses off. Surely the UMW has lawyers to tackle this sort of thing.

[Sir Charles]

Joe S.,

I fear you are right. Indeed, I expect Obama to lose West Virginia by ten points or more. (It's not close enough to prompt a lot of polling, but the last poll I saw there showed Romney up by 13%.)

l-t c,

Sadly, there are non-union miners, so I doubt that UMWA would provide counsel for them. (Although we have clients who have done precisely that for non-union workers in FLSA cases.)

[kathy a.]

thanks for the TNC link, JM. coates is absolutely correct that "the frame of skepticism is, as always, framed around Obama, not around Romney. No one wonders what advantages accrued to Mitt Romney.... No one is skeptical of Mitt Romney because of the broader systemic advantages he enjoyed, advantages erected largely to ensure that this country would ever be run by men who looked like him." (ha ha -- nobody ever asked for mitt's birth certificate!)

TNC points out that obama is a "formidable politician." he's also a very bright guy -- even assuming he was afforded an opportunity because of his race and modest background, he did not succeed in college and law school, and go on to become a constitutional law professor, without pouring his own work and talent into any opportunity he could. (and doing so without the kinds of financial advantages that romney always had.)

[Sir Charles]

JM,

TNC has written some excellent stuff lately and seems to be getting some well deserved airtime. I heard him on npr this morning.

The notion that Obama is some sort of "affirmative action" hire is so transparently racist that it boggles the mind.

[paula]

SC--What an abomination! From what I hear from WV relatives, they hate Obama because 1/he's black, educated and powerful and 2/they've been told he'll take away their guns. I can't emphasize enough that blackness in and of itself is not an issue. It's that he's black but better educated, richer and the most powerful man in the US, and they're not.

It seems Romney's heavy hitters had a very exclusive post-convention party with some of the inner circle, on a very fancy yacht tied up nearby, and it was one waving a Cayman Island flag. Does the word nincompoop come to mind? Sure to lead tonight's news, after Isaac.
http://abcn.ws/RsDr3j

[oddjob]

he did not succeed in college and law school

I've never been to law school, but somehow I can't imagine Harvard Law students deciding to vote for someone to be editor in chief of the Harvard Law Review simply because he's black and there's never been a black editor in chief for the Review, and so, well to hell with whether he's qualified or not.....

I just can't see that happening at a school brimming with hyper-competitive students.

[kathy a.]

lost a comment. grr.

oddjob, it didn't and couldn't have happened that way. law school is cutthroat, and harvard is more demanding than ordinary law schools. my first day of law school, a professor seriously told us "look to your left; look to your right; one of you won't be here at the end of the year." minor law journals at lesser schools are still quite competitive.

i've always been impressed that obama -- with his talents and accomplishments, he would have been welcome at any number of big-money law firms (despite lacking the rich white family + connections thing that worked for shrub and romney) -- decided to go work for poor and powerless people, and to teach. he's impressive on all sorts of levels.

[nancy]

The President spent part of the day today answering questions [AMA, Ask Me Anything} on reddit. The site was so overloaded it crashed for a while. This was absolutely what has been required to speak to young people, in their mother tongue, and long overdue. Apparently, a smashing success, and unsurprisingly charming. And cool of course. He urged them to take the long view. One responder: "yeah, he's always so good with words." As in, how much longer.

Meanwhile, at the moment, Eric Cantor is being interviewed on the floor at RNC by Luke Russert. Now Jan Brewer. Tweety asking questions and she's claiming static -- can't hear his question. Remember Ronnie with the hand-ear-cup exit? It's cocktail time I believe.

[nancy]

Sorry, meant that for the open thread.

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

That's fine. You can consider this an open thread as well.

I was watching when Little Luke was starting to interview Cantor. I decided to plug in the head phones and listen to some youtube videos.