Employees at Milwaukee manufacturer Rite-Hite better watch out if they vote for President Barack Obama.
The company’s owner and chairman Mike White sent an email to employees this week warning workers of the “personal consequences” they’ll face if Obama is reelected, according to Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel website.
The email told workers that they “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.”
Have you been pressured at work to vote a certain way? Email us about it. You can remain anonymous if you prefer.
White is the latest in a series of business heads that have made sure their employees understand the benefits of a Mitt Romney presidency. In June, Romney told business owners on a conference call to tell their employees who they plan to vote for and what the election’s outcome will mean for their business.
Though for the most part the communications have stopped short of directly telling employees who to vote for, they’ve not-so-subtly urged workers to support Romney.
David Seigel, the CEO of Westgate Resorts one of the biggest timeshare companies in America, wrote in an email to employees earlier this month that Obama’s reelection would “threaten your job.” Seigel, who believes himself to be personally responsible for George W. Bush’s election, said in interviews following the email that he didn’t “try to intimidate” employees he just wanted to tell his workers “what their future would hold if they make the wrong decision.”
David and Charles Koch, sent a mailing to 50,000 of their employees at Koch Industries warning that if candidates “who want to spend hundreds of billions in borrowed money” win the election then many of their workers “may suffer the consequences,” In These Times reported earlier this month. The Koch Brothers are famous supporters of conservative causes; Koch-linked organizations' political spending will likely top $400 million by the time the election is over, according to a May Politico report.
But lesser-known CEOs have also pushed their workers to support Romney. Arthur Allen, the CEO of software company ASG, sent an email earlier this month to employees asking them to donate to Romney to “help ASG and yourself.” The CEO of Michigan car part manufacturer Lacks Enterprises also told his employees to vote for Romney, warning that not doing so could lead to lower pay and higher taxes.
Mitt Romney raised $111.8 million in the first half of October, The Huffington Post reported on Thursday.