Mitt Romney’s Garbageman Sounds Off In New Attack Ad [Video]

A labor union that supports President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign has released an attack ad against GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, featuring a rather curious talking head: Romney’s own garbageman.

“My name is Richard Hayes, and I pick up Mitt Romney’s trash,” says a sanitation worker who collects the garbage outside of Romney’s multimillion-dollar California mansion. “We’re kind of like the invisible people, you know. He doesn’t realize, you know, that the service we provide, you know, if it wasn’t for us, you know, it would be a big health issue, us not picking up trash.”

Interspersed with short clips of Romney speeches, Hayes talks about how the GOP candidate’s election would harm labor in the US. “Picking up 15, 16 tons by hand, you know that takes a toll on your body,” Hayes continued. “When I’m 55, 60 years old, I know my body’s going to be break down. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about that.”

The head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said that the ad is a direct rebuttal to Romney’s controversial “47 percent” remarks covertly taped at a fundraiser and published to the blog Mother Jones. Indeed, a clip from these tapes appears in the attack ad.

“Mitt Romney’s ’47 percent’ videotape revealed his contempt for tens of millions of Americans,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said in a blog post. “Romney seems only to be relaxed and at ease when he is surrounded by other millionaires and people willing to pay $50,000 to share a meal with him. And it is only those wealthy donors who get to know what is really on his mind. They spend more money than most Americans make in a year to ask Mitt Romney questions and listen to his reckless banter about Americans like Richard Hayes.”

The Romney campaign said it was unsurprised, and unimpressed, by the attack ad. “It’s not surprising that a liberal special interest group is trying to distract from President Obama’s failed agenda with dishonest political attacks,” Spokesman Ryan Williams said in a statement to Yahoo News.

Interestingly, Saunders has stated that AFSCME is completely non-partisan, and that the union does not answer to any political party. Still, he said that “We must work our hearts out to re-elect President Obama,” at the AFSCME’s meeting in June.

Here’s the AFSCME attack ad starring Mitt Romney’s garbageman:

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