Michael Bloomberg only entered the presidential race about a month ago.
While he was hoping to get traction, I doubt he wanted it for the reason that was recently blasted all over the media.
A recent report revealed that Bloomberg was using prison labor to operate his robocalling campaign.
Can’t Do That
Running for the Democrat party, which lives and dies with the unions, it is hard to justify cutting a few corners by using a contractor that makes their money from the labor of prisoners.
Additionally, using the excuse you did not know how these companies conducted business does not exactly generate a lot of faith in one’s ability to entrust the everyday happenings of our government to a man that is not even vetting the companies doing his campaign work for him.
However, that is exactly what Bloomberg was doing.
The report stated that a Bloomberg contractor had subcontracted to a company called ProCom to handle its robocalls.
At least two of the call centers operated by ProCom are run out of Oklahoma state-run prisons.
Bloomberg’s campaign stated it was unaware this was the company’s practice.
Julia Wood, Bloomberg’s campaign spokesperson, stated, “We didn’t know about this and we never would have allowed it if we had.
“We don’t believe in this practice and we’ve now ended our relationship with the subcontractor in question.”
Big Problems
The fact his campaign was using prison workers is a much bigger problem than not using a union company because this is, in essence, slave labor or at the very least, sweatshop labor.
ProCom reportedly pays the correctional facility $7.25/hour for the inmates’ work.
The prisoners then receive a whopping $1.45/hour for working the call centers.
Depending upon their position, some inmates will qualify for a bonus.
Regardless, people will not see the $7.25 per hour and will latch onto the fact Bloomberg is paying what are probably mostly African American men $1.45/hour to make his calls.
That is not exactly a good look for an old, white, rich businessman running for president in the Democrat party.