TAMPA, Fla. -- Robert Murray, the coal mine owner who hosted GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently in eastern Ohio, is at this morning's Ohio delegation breakfast in advance of today's Republican National Convention sessions.

And he's not happy about news reports that his company told workers to attend the Romney rally at the Century Mine on Aug. 14, a day they could not work because the mine was closed during their morning shift -- and were not paid. The Plain Dealer wrote about the issue today, crediting radio station WWVA with its initial report that said workers feared they'd be fired if they didn't attend.

When Rob Moore, chief financial officer of Pepper Pike-based Murray Energy, discussed this with WWVA, he said that managers "communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend." He said the company did not penalize no-shows.

We caught up with Murray Energy CEO Robert Murray a little while ago, after he exchanged pleasantries and small talk with Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine before breakfast was served. Murray is a substantial Republican donor. Asked about the claim that workers feared for their jobs if they didn't attend, a claim that President Barack Obama's reelection campaign has seized on, Murray said, “I think that is a lot of ridiculous nonsense."

He added:

"What you people are suggesting is that I pay somebody to attend a political function that they attended voluntarily. You don’t pay somebody to attend a political function, and that is what you are advocating by making an issue out of this.

"I had 3,000 coal miners there – wives, children. They enjoyed it very much. It was a great day. And you people in the media are trying to make something negative out of it because some radio personality tried to make an issue out of it. Would you rather I paid people to attend a political event, because that is what you are saying. The answer is you don’t.

"My people have their own minds. They have their own desires. Nobody was ordered to attend. Nobody knows who attended and who didn’t. But I can tell you this: We had 3,000 people there, it was a great day, our people enjoyed it. Barack Obama is destroying their lives, their livelihoods. These people ae scared, and they came out in droves to see Mitt Romney and that’s what it was all about. A great day."

Asked about the closing of the mine that day, he said, “We had to close it for security reasons. The Secret Service would not allow us to be conducting a mining operation underground when we had people there. Now what is so newsworthy about that that? The Plain Dealer has to make a news issue about it? It’s a security issue. Yes, we closed the mine for one shift. We did not have the mine closed for more than the one shift that Gov. Romney was there.”

Asked if the Secret Service had ordered the mine closed, Murray said, "We discussed it together and knew we had to close the mine. We could not have men working underground at the same time we had all this security going on outside. It was a security issue.”