How the Koch Brothers Indoctrinate Their Employees with Right-Wing Anti-Worker Propaganda

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150681/how_the_koch_brothers_indoctrinate_their_employees_with_right-wing_anti-worker_propaganda/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

The Nation / By Mark Ames and Mike Elk

Before the landmark Citizens' United ruling, the kind of corporate propaganda Koch Industries is using wouldn't have been legal.
April 23, 2011 | The following article first appeared on the Nation.com.

On the eve of the November midterm elections, Koch Industries sent an urgent letter to most of its 50,000 employees advising them whom to vote for and warning them about the dire consequences to their families, their jobs and their country should they choose to vote otherwise.

The Nation obtained the Koch Industries election packet for Washington State—which included a cover letter from its president and COO, David Robertson; a list of Koch-endorsed state and federal candidates; and an issue of the company newsletter, Discovery, full of alarmist right-wing propaganda.

Legal experts interviewed for this story called the blatant corporate politicking highly unusual, although no longer skirting the edge of legality, thanks to last year’s Citizens UnitedSupreme Court decision, which granted free speech rights to corporations.

“Before Citizens United, federal election law allowed a company like Koch Industries to talk to officers and shareholders about whom to vote for, but not to talk with employees about whom to vote for,” explains Paul M. Secunda, associate professor of law at Marquette University. But according to Secunda, who recently wrote in The Yale Law Journal Online about the effects of Citizens United on political coercion in the workplace, the decision knocked down those regulations. “Now, companies like Koch Industries are free to send out newsletters persuading their employees how to vote. They can even intimidate their employees into voting for their candidates.” Secunda adds, “It’s a very troubling situation.”

The Kochs were major supporters of the Citizens United case; they were also chief sponsors of the Tea Party and major backers of the anti-“Obamacare” campaign. Through their network of libertarian think tanks and policy institutes, they have been major drivers of unionbusting campaigns in Wisconsin, Michigan and elsewhere.

FULL 4 page feature story at link.

[Brickbat]

1. Fortunately, if the employees' unions are anything like ours, they get sample ballots from them as

well.

[Cleita]

2. Are you threatened with being dumped by the union if

you don't vote the way they suggest? I don't think so, yet corporations will threaten your job security if you don't vote the way they want you to. I have seen it done in my work places in the past even without the Citizen's United decision.