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Christian
Science Monitor...
Is
Mitt
Romney really a job creator? What his Bain Capital record shows.
By Ron
Scherer & Leigh Montgomery
January 19,
2012
Editor’s
Note: On Friday, we published the “right” side of the debate over Mitt
Romney
and Marion, Ind. This is the other side...
Mitt Romney
is running for president on his business acumen, saying he knows what
it takes
to create jobs. He puts less emphasis on what he knows about
eliminating jobs.
Marion, Ind., has experienced both via Romney and Bain Capital.
Before Mitt
Romney’s Bain Capital bought the rambling SCM factory in Marion, Ind.,
it was
running three shifts a day, making hanging file folders and other
office
supplies. But on July 5, 1994, everything changed.
The new
owner, American Pad & Paper, owned in turn by Bain Capital,
told all 258
union workers they were fired, in a cost-cutting move. Security guards
hustled
them out of the building. They would be able to reapply for their jobs,
at
lesser wages and benefits, but not all would be rehired.
“We were
told they bought the assets, not the union or the [labor] contract,”
recalls
Randy Johnson, who at the time worked as a machine operator and was a
union
shop steward. The workers – some the third generation in their families
to have
jobs there – eventually went on strike, and Bain closed the factory
5-1/2
months after acquiring it.
Not far
from the former plant is a Staples office supply company – the typical
store
employs 20 to 30 people – and a Domino’s Pizza franchise, which
typically has
about 15 workers. Both outlets can point to contributions from Bain
Capital,
which provided seed money for the parent company to grow, eventually
adding
thousands of jobs across the US.
Bain
Capital’s activities while Mr. Romney ran it from its founding in 1984
until he
left in 1999 are being scrutinized now that he is front-runner in the
Republican presidential race. Romney says that he knows business and
that his
work at Boston-based Bain led to the creation of 100,000 jobs. His
business
record and management prowess could be deciding factors if he’s the GOP
nominee, because credibility on the issue of jobs is likely to
determine who
resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue next January.
“When we
ask people what worries them most, jobs is the most important, the top
issue,”
says Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. In its November
poll,
Gallup found that only 30 percent of the public approved of the way Mr.
Obama
is handling the economy.
But
Romney’s GOP rivals are endeavoring to take the polish off his
job-creation
credentials. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who dropped out of the GOP contest
Jan. 19,
had referred to Romney’s record at Bain Capital as “vulture
capitalism.” And
leading up to the South Carolina primary, a group backing Newt Gingrich
for
president let loose with a 28-minute TV ad (containing inaccuracies and
unsubstantiated claims, including about the AmPad episode) that sought
to
portray Romney and Bain Capital as ruthless job-killers. The Obama
campaign would
likewise be expected to assail Romney’s jobs record...
Read the
rest of the article, and others, at the Christian Science Monitor
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