Bernie Moreno’s Record “Could Prove To Be A Liability”
June 27, 2024
Mother Jones: “Bernie Moreno Built An Empire Selling Luxury Vehicles—And Stiffing Workers.”
Columbus, OH – A recent profile from Mother Jones showcases Bernie Moreno’s record “stiffing workers” “could prove to be a liability.” From the many lawsuits clouding his campaign to his taxpayer-funded luxury car joyride, it is clear Moreno only looks out for himself.
Mother Jones: He’s a Car Dealer With a Surprising Business Record. He’s Also Running for Senate in Ohio.
Abby Vesoulis
June 20, 2024
- But on a sunny day in November 2015, Bernie Moreno took a shiny new cherry-red Vulcan… for a spin outside Cleveland. At least three police cars escorted Moreno down usually busy suburban streets.
- Moreno’s campaign did not respond to questions about the legality of the joyride. Public records from North Olmsted, the suburb Moreno spun through, provide no indication Moreno ever paid it or its police for the escort or road closures.
- But Moreno’s record as a boss could prove to be a liability.
- “For him to come out now and say that he’s this champion of working-class people—he’s a liar, and we call out liars,” says Tony Totty, president of UAW Local 14, which represents about 1,400 General Motors employees in northwest Ohio.
- In November 2022, a judge ordered [former employee Omar Adem] and another employee be paid [by Moreno] $416,160 in damages after a jury found both the dealership and Moreno individually liable for shorting pay.
- In court, Moreno initially defended the pay practices, saying he acted in good faith and “committed no violation of law.” But during the trial, he was forced to admit to shredding overtime-payment records—documents the judge ruled he had been “required to preserve” and that he and his lawyers “knew or should have known [were] relevant.”
- Before launching his 2024 run, Moreno settled more than a dozen other Massachusetts wage theft cases, all for undisclosed amounts.
- “When you’re stiffing workers out of their well-earned overtime pay, you’re a fraud,” says Totty.
- While his campaign asserts that, “as a proud minority businessman,” Moreno has “always been committed to giving opportunities to all of his workers, regardless of race, color, gender, or creed,” several of his Ohio employees have alleged workplace bias and mistreatment.
- Cara Wilson, an Akron-area mother, sued Moreno for gender discrimination and wrongful termination… Moreno told her she was “a bad leader but a better mother,” Wilson alleged, and another time angrily told her to “put your kids in fucking daycare.”
- In June 2017, Ronell Thompson sued Moreno’s companies alleging “racially discriminatory pay practices” at an Infiniti dealership…
- Born into a politically powerful Bogotá family with what Cleveland.com called “lavish generational wealth,”
- Public filings show he’s currently worth between $25 million and $100 million, including a stake in Dryver, a chauffeuring app.
- As for the Vulcan, Moreno’s Aston Martin dealership put it up for sale in 2016 for $3.4 million—90 times what the average Ohio worker makes each year.
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