Interview by Meagan Day

During the 2012 campaign, Mitt Romney stopped at a coal mine outside of Beallsville, Ohio and delivered a speech surrounded by workers in hardhats, their faces dusted with coal from the shift that had just ended. It made for a striking visual — but not all the workers who were present for the photo-op were Romney supporters. Their employer Murray Energy had told them that attendance at the rally was mandatory.

Murray Energy coupled its directive to attend the Romney event with strong internal messages to employees stating that if Obama won the election, the company would have no choice but layoffs. When Obama did win, Murray Energy followed through on its threat and fired a hundred workers. Its CEO lamented that the “American people have made their choice” and “will pay the price in their reduced standard of living.”

Murray Energy’s coercion of its workers was an example of what political scientist Alexander Hertel-Fernandez calls “employer mobilizations.” His new book Politics at Work: How Companies Turn Their Workers Into Lobbyists explores the many ways corporations seek to influence the political preferences and behavior of workers, from outright threats like Murray Energy’s to softer forms of propaganda and the long-term construction of workers’ political outlook.

Employer mobilization has spawned a cottage industry, with experts and consultants emerging to help businesses deploy their own workers to influence policy decisions and elections. They’re not shy about their mission; as one consultant wrote in a guide to CEOs:

Corporations don’t vote. Environmentalists vote. Union members vote. Senior citizens vote — big time. But many legislators look upon corporations as piles of bricks that don’t vote and thus pose no political perils. Grassroots action by corporate stakeholders lends living, breathing, voting faces to your otherwise faceless corporation. With effective grassroots action, your corporation (and thus you) quickly becomes a player to be reckoned with instead of a punching bag.

Jacobin writer Meagan Day spoke with Hertel-Fernandez about this new trend in corporate “grassroots action” and its implications for American political life.