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Does not matter that Mittens is the "ex-CEO". Bain Capital is continuing to implement the policies he put in place when he WAS CEO.
Sensata workers go ‘Bainport’ to protest Freeport outsourcing
170 jobs are expected to be moved to China by year's end
By Brian Leaf
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Sep 20, 2012 @ 07:01 PM
FREEPORT — The plywood stage in “Bainport” was empty Wednesday, a mere prop in the economic and political sketch playing near Sensata Technologies over outsourcing U.S. jobs.
By December, Sensata will have eliminated 170 jobs in Freeport, moving production of electronic automotive sensors to China. Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, of which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is former CEO.
Sensata activists say they’d love Romney to come to Freeport and get on that Bainport stage in the protest camp they set up Sept. 12 and will occupy until the end of October, when the Stephenson County Fairgrounds closes for the year. They want Romney to use his clout with his former company to save their jobs, which pay $12 to $18 an hour, plus benefits, and pay for mortgages, medical bills, groceries, tuition bills, gasoline, car loans and other expenses people incur.
And what are the odds of the Republican presidential hopeful stopping in?
“I don’t believe at all that Romney is coming to Freeport,” said Sensata employee Tom Gaulrapp, 54, no relation to Mayor George Gaulrapp.
Gaulrapp is one of a handful of workers who occupy the Bainport site when they’re not on the clock at the plant.
“But everyone says Mitt Romney is a nice guy,” he said. “I’d just like him to come, look 170 people in the face and say this is why this is being done.”
If the plot sounds familiar — worker seeks out CEO for an explanation of plant closures — you’ve seen “Roger & Me,” a 1989 film by Michael Moore. In it, Moore chases GM boss Roger Smith to confront him about auto plant closings that eliminated thousands of jobs and devastated Flint, Mich.
Sensata activists are on a chase, too. They went to Tampa for the Republican National Convention in an unsuccessful attempt to speak with Romney. They’ve asked for a presidential debate in Freeport between Romney and President Barack Obama.
Now they’ve got Bainport as a base for their cause, which has attracted support from the community and labor groups and attention from local, national and international media. A Chicago correspondent for Agence France-Presse, Mira Oberman, interviewed people Wednesday at the Bainport camp.
This weekend labor activists and employees at other Bain companies are expected to ride a bus to Freeport and a half-dozen other cities where the company owns businesses to protest outsourcing and show solidarity with non-union Sensata employees.
“This is our last-ditch effort,” said Mark Schreck, 36. “We’re desperate. They’re taking jobs from us.”
Bainport is across the street from the factory on rented ground, just east of the fairground’s hog barn. On Wednesday, it had 16 camping tents, the stage, a fire pit, gas grill and two banquet-style tents — although one was flattened by 50-mph gusts.
Dozens of hand-painted signs — “Romney Stand Up for America Not China,” “Freeport Families Over Profits” and “Mitt Romney Come to Freeport” — have been hung on fences along West Fairgrounds Road.
Cheryl Randecker, who worked 33 years at the plant that Bain Capital bought in 2011 from Honeywell for $140 million, insists that efforts to speak to a presidential candidate are apolitical and that Sensata workers just want to be heard.
“If Dave Cote, CEO of Honeywell, was running, we’d be doing the same things,” she said. “Somebody has to stand up for the American people. We have a voice in this.”
Some workers are angry.
“I’ve been there 43 years and they’re throwing me chump change — 26 weeks of severance,” said Dot Turner of Winnebago. “That’s like spitting in my face.
Turner said there were efforts to organize unions twice during her time at the plant, but both failed when the company threatened to move jobs out of community.
“I’ve had a good job, but now I will be relying on the government for the first time for that unemployment check,” she said.
In addition to severance pay and unemployment if they stay on until the plant closes, workers said, they’ll be eligible for retraining and bonuses if production hits certain goals.
So Sensata employees work one of the three shifts at the factory, then some settle in at Bainport to protest during off hours as they wait for December and the chance to remake themselves into someone else’s employee.
“I was pretty good in school,” said Bonnie Borman, who has worked 23 years at Sensata and is thinking about retraining opportunities, “but that was 34 years ago.”
Borman was among a half-dozen workers at Bainport after Wednesday’s first shift. She’s not sure what’s in store for her after the plant closes, but she’ll continue efforts to bring Romney to Freeport to raise awareness about outsourcing.
“If we don’t say anything about what’s going on, then we’re telling people it’s OK to take our jobs to China,” she said.
170 jobs are expected to be moved to China by year's end
By Brian Leaf
RRSTAR.COM
Posted Sep 20, 2012 @ 07:01 PM
FREEPORT — The plywood stage in “Bainport” was empty Wednesday, a mere prop in the economic and political sketch playing near Sensata Technologies over outsourcing U.S. jobs.
By December, Sensata will have eliminated 170 jobs in Freeport, moving production of electronic automotive sensors to China. Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, of which GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is former CEO.
Sensata activists say they’d love Romney to come to Freeport and get on that Bainport stage in the protest camp they set up Sept. 12 and will occupy until the end of October, when the Stephenson County Fairgrounds closes for the year. They want Romney to use his clout with his former company to save their jobs, which pay $12 to $18 an hour, plus benefits, and pay for mortgages, medical bills, groceries, tuition bills, gasoline, car loans and other expenses people incur.
And what are the odds of the Republican presidential hopeful stopping in?
“I don’t believe at all that Romney is coming to Freeport,” said Sensata employee Tom Gaulrapp, 54, no relation to Mayor George Gaulrapp.
Gaulrapp is one of a handful of workers who occupy the Bainport site when they’re not on the clock at the plant.
“But everyone says Mitt Romney is a nice guy,” he said. “I’d just like him to come, look 170 people in the face and say this is why this is being done.”
If the plot sounds familiar — worker seeks out CEO for an explanation of plant closures — you’ve seen “Roger & Me,” a 1989 film by Michael Moore. In it, Moore chases GM boss Roger Smith to confront him about auto plant closings that eliminated thousands of jobs and devastated Flint, Mich.
Sensata activists are on a chase, too. They went to Tampa for the Republican National Convention in an unsuccessful attempt to speak with Romney. They’ve asked for a presidential debate in Freeport between Romney and President Barack Obama.
Now they’ve got Bainport as a base for their cause, which has attracted support from the community and labor groups and attention from local, national and international media. A Chicago correspondent for Agence France-Presse, Mira Oberman, interviewed people Wednesday at the Bainport camp.
This weekend labor activists and employees at other Bain companies are expected to ride a bus to Freeport and a half-dozen other cities where the company owns businesses to protest outsourcing and show solidarity with non-union Sensata employees.
“This is our last-ditch effort,” said Mark Schreck, 36. “We’re desperate. They’re taking jobs from us.”
Bainport is across the street from the factory on rented ground, just east of the fairground’s hog barn. On Wednesday, it had 16 camping tents, the stage, a fire pit, gas grill and two banquet-style tents — although one was flattened by 50-mph gusts.
Dozens of hand-painted signs — “Romney Stand Up for America Not China,” “Freeport Families Over Profits” and “Mitt Romney Come to Freeport” — have been hung on fences along West Fairgrounds Road.
Cheryl Randecker, who worked 33 years at the plant that Bain Capital bought in 2011 from Honeywell for $140 million, insists that efforts to speak to a presidential candidate are apolitical and that Sensata workers just want to be heard.
“If Dave Cote, CEO of Honeywell, was running, we’d be doing the same things,” she said. “Somebody has to stand up for the American people. We have a voice in this.”
Some workers are angry.
“I’ve been there 43 years and they’re throwing me chump change — 26 weeks of severance,” said Dot Turner of Winnebago. “That’s like spitting in my face.
Turner said there were efforts to organize unions twice during her time at the plant, but both failed when the company threatened to move jobs out of community.
“I’ve had a good job, but now I will be relying on the government for the first time for that unemployment check,” she said.
In addition to severance pay and unemployment if they stay on until the plant closes, workers said, they’ll be eligible for retraining and bonuses if production hits certain goals.
So Sensata employees work one of the three shifts at the factory, then some settle in at Bainport to protest during off hours as they wait for December and the chance to remake themselves into someone else’s employee.
“I was pretty good in school,” said Bonnie Borman, who has worked 23 years at Sensata and is thinking about retraining opportunities, “but that was 34 years ago.”
Borman was among a half-dozen workers at Bainport after Wednesday’s first shift. She’s not sure what’s in store for her after the plant closes, but she’ll continue efforts to bring Romney to Freeport to raise awareness about outsourcing.
“If we don’t say anything about what’s going on, then we’re telling people it’s OK to take our jobs to China,” she said.