Monday, December 15, 2014

RoJo Squared - Profiting At Taxpayers' Expense

The Milwaukee Business Journal did a story about Robin Vos' popcorn business with an interesting twist:
Probably the biggest surprise when Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos gave me a tour of his Burlington popcorn business was the female inmates working there.

I visited RoJo's Popcorn for a story on Rep. Vos' small businesses, which consist of the Burlington popcorn-processing and packaging plant and south side Milwaukee retail and online shop Knight's Popcorn.

At the time, Vos told me he used to oppose a corrections-system-to-work transitional jobs program, but in recent years had retained temporary workers from a women's correctional facility in Racine County at his Burlington business. He also employed a former inmate from the program at his retail shop.

I was reminded of my visit with Vos Friday when I read a Wisconsin State Journal article that Vos wants to expand prison work-release programs in Wisconsin. He told the State Journal that recent experiences at his factory changed his mind about "how we get people back to work."
It's not surprising that Boss Vos would support this. In his twisted worldview, it's a win-win-win scenario.

He gets to exploit prisoners who work for next to nothing, he gets to use taxpayer dollars for their healthcare and he has an operation to help cover his graft.

Coincidentally, another RoJo - US Senator Ron Johnson - had the same profiteering business scheme:
Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson, who has campaigned against government subsidies to business, employs up to nine prison inmates at his plastics factories whose health care costs are paid by the state, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.

Public records show that Pacur Inc. and Dynamic Drinkware LLC, two companies run by Johnson, employ up to nine inmates at a time through a state Corrections Department jobs program.

Johnson's companies offer private health insurance to the regular employees at the Oshkosh factories. But Melissa Roberts, an executive assistant with the Corrections Department, said the companies don't have to cover the inmate workers. "The benefit is that they don't have to pay health benefits," she said.
Isn't it quite convenient that these reprobates keep finding laws that are supposed to be for the good of the community but seem to be even better for their wallets?

14 comments:

  1. It is no coincidence that he employs prisoners from the women's correctional facility is it?

    Remember birth control is as important as water to him and he has a history of sleeping with people he has power over.

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  2. Also note that Knight's web page touts a study by Prof. Joe Vinson, who was responsible for the industry-paid junk science of green coffee extract. http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2014/09/green-coffee-bean-manufacturer-settles-ftc-charges-pushing-its

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the green coffee merchants in question where just forced to pay millions in fines for their junk science claims.

      Delete
  3. What a message for the rest of the employees in that corporate culture. The only thing that might make them feel even more like commodities --- replaceable cogs in the machinery ----would be to have the prison employees (in orange jumpsuits?) supplemented by a full-time, virtual work gang of foreign nationals, commuting to work via Skype every day. (Come to think of it, better make them all wear different color jumpsuits.... divide and conquer!)

    http://www.chaplin.pl/films/moderntimes/foto2big.jpg

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  4. Link to what the logo and packaging look like, so you know never to buy the stuff:

    https://knightsgourmetpopcorn.com/

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  5. Woidy supplies Mller Park and a wide variety of businesses.

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  6. Slave labor...is even more profitable than hiring illegals, and quiker to increase profits than Right to Work, aye Robin?

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  7. With his history of predatory behavior towards women- wife #1, wife #2, wife #3 and now LItjens- is anyone watching the hen house? Or does the fat fox get to 'guard' his prison chickens?

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    Replies
    1. Have to wonder if Litjens is acting as an unregistered lobbyist under the terms of that derangement. (sorry, arrangement).

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  8. And think of all the unpaid, uninsured, no unemployment costs, child labor involved when school-aged kids do fund-raising events for something like a class trip. Tons of popcorn out the door on the backs of children.

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  9. 2013 Act 36
    Treatment of services performed by prison inmates
    The bill provides that services performed
    for employers that are not government units, Indian tribes, or nonprofit organizations by inmates of state or federal prisons are also not covered employment under the UI law. As a consequence, wages paid by employers for those services are not subject to UI contribution requirements and those wages are not counted as base period wages for purposes of determining eligibility for Unemployment Insurance benefits.

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  10. His popcorn is used for fund raisers all over the state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 100 students from one school district in rural WI at $1,800 per for a trip to Washington DC for a week, or a "band," trip to Disney remover how much money from a struggling local economy. Meanwhile your county economic development group is promoting 'buy local,' in Kissimmee, FL?

      Have you attended a school board meeting, grass roots stuff people. More effective than door knocking to effect political change.

      Delete
  11. Kernel Vos, leader of popcorn politicians.

    ReplyDelete