it was like building my own coffin...

[HipChick]

The pro-President Obama Priorities USA Action is up with its fourth ad in a five-state buy that targets Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, this one featuring Mike Earnest, who worked at the firm Ampad in Marion, Indiana, acquired by Bain and later closed

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/06/new-antibain-ad-my-own-coffin-127072.html

Out of the blue one day, we were told to build a 30-foot stage. Gathered the guys, and we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for. Just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse.

A group of people walked out on that stage, and told us that the plant is now closed, and all of you are fired. I looked both ways, I looked at the crowd, and we all just lost our jobs. We don’t have an income.

Mitt Romney made over a hundred million dollars by shutting down our plant, and devastated our lives.

"Turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin. And it just made me sick.

[dkf]

1. The union was on strike.

"Dismayed to see their old union contract torn up, the Marion workers negotiated with Ampad management for several months, then called a risky strike. In early 1995, Ampad called the union’s bluff, closed the plant, and laid off the remaining workers."

http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-21/mitt-romneys-private-equity-nightmare

[FreakinDJ]

2. So you are saying its all the Union's fault ?????

When you have nothing left to loose, why not strike in an attempt to bring in Federal negotiators and media attention to the problem.

Back in 1992, Bain acquired a manufacturer called American Pad & Paper, or Ampad. Bain then used Ampad as a vehicle to buy and restructure similar companies. Following standard “roll-up” strategy, Bain closed factories and laid off workers in anticipation of selling off a leaner, more profitable company via an initial public stock offering.

http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-05-21/mitt-romneys-private-equity-nightmare

[dkf]

4. I just found it interesting that Romney might have a history like this with unions.

It's also the first time I realized the impact of the big box sellers on suppliers. Old style mom and pops never had the leverage or the access to data to compare all suppliers but huge firms do. What role did they play in making it impossible for US companies paying decent wages to survive?

I also now see the role of private equity in making companies "more efficient". Basically it has become a world where lowest cost wins. My question is if the companies could have survived much longer given their higher costs and you would think higher prices. Does making a company more lean only result in lost wages or does it enable a more competitive firm to survive?

[Life Long Dem]

3. The point is

Romney could have saved these jobs and didn't. Instead he was out to make a buck for Bain.

[dkf]

7. Can you save the jobs of a company that can't compete on pricing?

Maybe for today. But for tomorrow who knows.

I'm guessing if Bain thought the plant could be in the ballpark on pricing they would have kept both businesses running but who knows.

[FreakinDJ]

9. I think you are ALL missing the point for outsourcing

If you don't Off Shore your production then you can not take advantage of the numerous Corporate Tax Avoidance schemes currently being used.

Take Robbme's own personal taxers for example - He not only preached these schemes to the companies he Raided and off shored their production - he included those same schemes in his own personal taxes

"If you don't close the Loop Holes - you will NOT have a productive economy for 99% of Americans"

[Life Long Dem]

5. "We really thought you might help," Johnson said

In early 1995, as the Ampad paper plant in Marion, Ind., neared its shutdown following a bitter strike, Randy Johnson, a worker and union official, scrawled a personal letter to Mitt Romney, pouring out his disappointment that Romney, then chief executive of the investment firm that controlled Ampad, had not done enough to settle the strike and save some 200 jobs.

"We really thought you might help," Johnson said in the handwritten note, "but instead we heard excuses that were unacceptable from a man of your prominent position."

Romney, who had recently lost a Senate race in which the strike became a flashpoint, responded that he had "privately" urged a settlement, but was advised by lawyers not to intervene directly.

Now, Romney's decision to stay on the sidelines as his firm, Bain Capital, slashed jobs at the office supply manufacturer stands in marked contrast to his recent pledges to beleaguered auto workers in Michigan and textile workers in South Carolina to "fight to save every job."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/as_bain_slashed_jobs_romney_stayed_to_side/?page=full

"he had "privately" urged a settlement, but was advised by lawyers not to intervene directly." Sure he did.
We all know how much Romney lies.

[Romulox]

6. You know what might help these workers? A vast new "free trade" agreement! nt

[JDPriestly]

8. Best Obama ad ever.

The Republicans must have known it was coming, because this Fast and Furious nonsense has caught people's imaginations.

I hope they pay the digging your own grave ad over and over and over until the election. This has to be drilled into our heads.

It has to be repeated so many times that no one will be able to press a button or check a square or push a lever or write a Romney's name in November without thinking of that phrase.

[Life Long Dem]

10. I agree

The ad grabs your attention, and it's easy to understand. This ad is a keeper until November.

[CTyankee]

11. That last line is a killer. All I could think of was a scene of prisoners

digging a trench then being lined up and shot in front of it. Like something out of a holocaust movie.