by n0madic, posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
This short video clip features a comment made by Ed Schultz on Friday while in Freeport, Illinois, broadcasting live from Bainport, the site of the protest by Sensata workers and their allies over the closing of the profitable plant by Bain Capital in order to move it to China.
Ed’s comment was a simple and straightforward one: “I’m a capitalist, but I think you can cross the line between being being a capitalist and being a greedy son of a gun that hurts middle class families across America.”
The video was shot, however, by a tea party activist by the name of Ulysses S. Arn, who describes himself as “the conservative movements warrior poet.” He labeled it: “Laugher of the Week: MSNBC’s Ed Schultz ‘I’m a Capitalist'”.
Apparently conservatives like Arn think it’s laughable for a capitalist to believe that any such lines can be crossed. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that Mitt Romney thinks the rules don’t apply to people like him, either.
Perhaps it’s time for us to start calling “free market” ideologues “laissez-faire capitalists” once again, and remind ourselves why we came to the conclusion that a regulated marketplace was needed in the first place.
Michael Shure talks to Dave Johnson about Sensata Technologies, a Bain Capital-owned Illinois auto parts factory scheduled to have all its work exported to China.
We turn now to Freeport, Illinois, where more people have been arrested protesting plans by Mitt Romney’s former company, Bain Capital, to shut the Sensata Technologies plant and move operations to China — a loss of 170 American jobs. On Wednesday, six people were arrested in the lobby of the plant during a sit-in demanding full severance pay for those who will lose their jobs. Last month, Senata workers set up an encampment called “Bainport” across the street from the facility to protest the company’s plan to close the plant. Last week, three protesters were arrested for blocking the path of trucks leaving the plant in an effort to stop the removal of equipment from their workplace. To find out more about the “Bainport” protest, we speak to Tom Gaulrapp, who has worked at the Sensata Technologies plant for 33 years. His last day of work at Sensata is November 5, one day before the election. The protesters have invited Romney to visit “Bainport” to address their situation.
Debi Kempel of Freeport joins Thom Hartmann. In just over a month – Sensata Technologies in Freeport, Illinois will shut its doors – thanks to Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital and it’s love of outsourcing. But workers at Sensata aren’t going quietly – and are doing all they can to bring attention to Bain Capital’s all out attack on American jobs.
Police have arrested three people for blocking the removal of equipment from the Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Illinois, to protest a plan by Bain Capital to close the factory and ship their jobs to China. Workers at Sensata have set up an encampment called “Bainport” across the street from the facility to protest plans to close the plant and move operations to China, taking 170 jobs with it. Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm co-founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. We hear from two of the detained protesters: Karri Penniston, 16, whose mother works at Sensata; and Debi Kempel, a Bainport supporter from nearby Pearl City.
Democracy Now! broadcasts from just outside a Freeport, Illinois, factory owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Workers at Sensata Technologies have set up an encampment called “Bainport” across the street from the facility to protest the company’s plan to close the plant and move it to China, taking 170 jobs with it. The workers have been trying to get Romney to save their jobs. We’re joined by two Sensata workers, Mark Schreck and Tom Gaulrapp; and Freeport Mayor George Gaulrapp, who has supported the encampment and fended off calls for it to be shut down.
“Welcome to Bainport, a taste of the Romney economy” — that’s the message on one of the banners that greets you at the tent city where we broadcast from in Freeport, Illinois. “Bainport” is an encampment set up by workers who face losing their livelihoods when their workplace closes its doors in November and moves to China, taking 170 jobs with it. The workers’ plant, Sensata Technologies, is owned by Bain Capital, the firm co-founded by Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Democracy Now! first spoke to the Sensata workers when we met them at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, where they unsuccessfully tried to meet with Romney. Now, they have returned to Freeport and set up a protest camp in a bid to save their jobs. We speak to “Bainport” workers Dot Turner and Cheryl Randecker.
Cheryl Randecker, Sensata worker whose job is being outsourced. Aside from his offshore tax havens – Romney also wants people to ignore what’s happening at a factory in Freeport, Illinois. That factory belongs to Sensata Technologies – or at least it did – until Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital took it over. And with Bain Capital in charge – all 170 workers at that factory are about to lose their jobs. Over the last few months – Sensata workers have been watching chunks of their factory packaged up and shipped off to China – and all their jobs will be following suit by the end of the year thanks to a decision made by Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital. Romney doesn’t want you to know this is happening – especially since he’s running as the guy who will create 12 million AMERICAN jobs in his first term. But those workers at Sensata do want you to know what’s going on.
by n0madic, posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
from Democracy Now!
… the old-school industrialists, like Mitt Romney’s father, they were men and women who built communities. They had factory towns. They were very anxious to leave, you know, hard legacies that people could see: hospitals, churches, schools—you know, the Hersheys of the world, the Kelloggs. But these new owners have absolutely no allegiance to American workers, American places, American communities. Their only allegiance is to the investors and to themselves. And so, it’s not at all uncharacteristic to have these situations where people are pleading for their jobs or they’re saying, you know, “We’ll tighten our belts, if you just make this concession and keep us.” That’s irrelevant to the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital/Carlyle Groups of the world. They’re entirely about making profits. And if that means shipping jobs to China or eliminating jobs, that’s what they’re going to do. And that’s the new generation of corporate owners in this country. — Matt Taibbi
A new article by reporter Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone sheds new light on the origin of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s fortune, revealing how Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, used private equity to raise money to conduct corporate raids. Taibbi writes: “What most voters don’t know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: By borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America’s top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.”
After repeatedly touting his business experience as an asset towards reviving the U.S. economy, Mitt Romney has been put on the defensive by Bain Capital workers who are fighting back against the outsourcing of their jobs. One hundred and seventy workers at a Sensata Technologies plant in Freeport, Illinois — of which Bain is the majority owner — are calling on Romney to help save their jobs from being shipped to China. The factory manufactures sensors and controls that are used in aircraft and automobiles, but has been dismantling and shipping the plant to China piece-by-piece — even as it requires the workers to train personally their Chinese replacements, who have been flown in by management. We’re joined by two workers from the Sensata plant in Freeport, Illinois: Tom Gaulrapp and Cheryl Randecker. Both worked at Sensata for 33 years and were told their jobs would be terminated by the year’s end.