Ohio Coal Miners Condemn Obama: 'Absolute Lies'

The coal miners of Ohio, unlike some workers who are intimidated by their unions, are unafraid of standing tall and confronting the Obama Administration head-on. Last Wednesday, more than 500 coal miners who work at the Beallsville, Ohio Century Mine, operated by Murray Energy, held a rally to condemn the Obama Administration’s despicable ad claiming the miners were coerced into attending a rally for Mitt Romney on August 14.  They also charged Obama with waging a war on coal.

The Obama campaign had seized on rumors started by a local shock jock, David Bloomquist, who claimed the miners had been forced to attend the Romney rally. Mitch Miracle, speaking for the miners, read aloud the two letters they had written and signed.

The letter to Obama read like this:

Dear President Obama:.

We are writing as the employees of American Energy Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio. You have approved in a running television campaign ads about the Mitt Romney event that was held at our Century coal mine.  These ads state that we were forced to attend this rally and that is blatantly false. There are numerous false statements and absolute lies concerning our participation in this event, we, the employees, mostly started by a local shock jock host. Since your approval is attached to these ads, you may not wish to support these mistruths. Why would you lie about the 500 working miners who have signed this letter? We, the employees of Century Mine, would request you immediately stop these false ads. Thank you. Century Mine employees.

The letter to Bloomquist read:

Mr. Bloomquist;

We are writing to you regarding the Governor Mitt Romney event held on August 14, 2012 at the American Energy Corporation Century mine, and additionally what it meant to the hourly employees to host a presidential candidate that we believe in and endorse. We voluntarily and enthusiastically attended the event and take great offense to the disingenuous reporting of the event by you and other media outlets.

There are 5 points in particular that I want to make here: the following are a list of facts about the hourly employees’ involvement at that event and the corrections to the media’s inaccurate reporting:

One: we want to make it very clear that no employee was forced to attend the event. Secondly, there were no attendance records taken for hourly employees. Number three, there are absolutely no penalties or reprimands to those who did not attend- we voluntarily attended. Number 4, due to security reasons, the only list involved whatsoever was for transportation purposes, and this was thoroughly explained to us; this had to be done by the advance team of Mr. Romney. They had to have records of who was coming on the property. Number 5; it was an honor to host this important event for Governor Romney.

Your so-called sources have made accusations against our company yet remain unnamed. We have proudly signed our names to this statement. These so-called sources are likely discharged or disgruntled former employees. This was a great day, for the employees of American energy, and your negative one-sided reporting has created a disservice to our company and to us, the employees.

You see, Mr. Bloomquist, there is a war on coal and we do want to protect our jobs. Mining jobs are being eliminated and coal fired power plants are being shut down from the President Obama’s actions and policies. We, the undersigned, support Governor Romney and reject President Obama and those like Sherrod Brown who are job killers. In summary, we, the employees of AEC, these great men behind me, our spouses, our children, our parents and our grandparents thoroughly enjoyed this event, a once in a lifetime event, right here, in the Ohio Valley. This is our statement, our choices, and our signatures. Mr. Bloomquist, your shock-jock tactics offend the undersigned, and I have attached our employees and our signatures.

Miracle eloquently concluded:

In closing, standing behind me are proud Americans, proud coal miners proud citizens of this great country, proud members of the Ohio Valley, where we live in and I am damn proud of them. Proud Ohio Valley workers. As you all know the economy has been tough for all of us; this is a great profession, these are great workers and we are proud to be a part of it, part of Murray Energy and we support our owner 100 percent. We ask that the media, let’s embrace coal, embrace what it does for all of us. Let’s be together in what we do.

You don’t have to be a coal miner to stand up and cheer for these men fighting for the truth. You just have to be a real American.