Fitz camp hits Raja on wages, outsourcing

In response to D. Raja's jobs plan, the campaign manager for Democratic county executive candidate Rich Fitzgerald says the Republican's record is better known for exploiting workers.

“Despite Raja’s use of buzz words like ‘innovation’ and ‘benchmarks’ straight out of a Tony Robbins infomercial, the facts are that he got rich outsourcing American jobs overseas and by exploiting workers by refusing to pay the minimum wage and denying workers overtime pay they earned,” campaign manager Mike Mikus said in a prepared statement. “Raja’s company website says that they strive to be number one in outsourcing which does nothing but kill American jobs and lines Raja’s pockets.”

(UPDATE: Raja replied with a statement saying, "Personal and misleading attacks are what politicians level when they do not have any solutions. Rich’s support of higher taxes, increased spending and debt, and politics as usual (evidenced by the Shale Shakedown) crushes jobs. What Rich Fitzgerald doesn’t understand is that you cannot have workers without having jobs.") 

The Fitzgerald campaign's full statement is after the jump. It also sent along a 2002 Department of Labor document on back pay owed by Raja's tech firm CEI.

PITTSBURGH – Republican candidate D. Raja today announced his alleged “plan” to create jobs for Allegheny County despite the fact that he has waged a war on workers over the years as CEO of CEI America.  In fact, Raja’s company was forced to pay more than $133,000 in back wages for refusing to pay the minimum wage and overtime owed to his employees.

“Despite Raja’s use of buzz words like ‘innovation’ and ‘benchmarks’ straight out of a Tony Robbins infomercial, the facts are that he got rich outsourcing American jobs overseas and by exploiting workers by refusing to pay the minimum wage and denying workers overtime pay they earned,” Fitzgerald campaign manager Mike Mikus said.  “Raja’s company website says that they strive to be number one in outsourcing which does nothing but kill American jobs and lines Raja’s pockets.”

Raja’s so-called plan also calls into question his ability to get things done in government.  When he ran for Mt. Lebanon Commissioner, Raja pledged to create the “Washington/Beverly Road Technology Corridor.”  After his time on the commission, no such corridor exists.

“Raja says he wants to use the County Executive position as a bully pulpit but his record on jobs is just plain bull,” Mikus said.  “Rich Fitzgerald knows that it takes action and not words to streamline government services and keep taxes low in order to create jobs.  That’s what he’s done on council and it’s what he will do as county executive.”

As result of Fitzgerald’s efforts, Allegheny County’s unemployment rate has been lower than the national average since 2007 and is currently more than 2% lower than the national average.

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