Bainport.com reports that in response to Friday’s live broadcast of The Ed Show on msnbc, Sensata sent workers in Freeport, Illinois, home (with pay) today and closed the auto sensor plant for the entire weekend, barricading the entrances and telling second shift workers not to report.
The Ed Show announced earlier this week that it was going to broadcast from Freeport, Illinois, on Friday to cover Sensata’s planned plant closure and to examine whether workers were getting a fair severance package.
Despite a record profit last year, 170 Sensata Technologies workers are losing their jobs in December to China thanks to the greedy bullies at Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital.
The move pits American workers against young women in China who are paid 99 cents an hour and work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, according to Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights.
Bainport.com, a website organized by workers at Sensata, responded to today’s closure, calling it “an incredibly clear expression of the needless fear coming from Sensata about the worker movement for a just severance package. Mitt must be getting ready to pick up the phone to call his friends at Bain Capital ‘Please Make It Stop.’ Do it, Mitt.”
Workers in Freeport were reportedly told the plant will resume operations on Monday.
Romney’s campaign says he’s no longer responsible for Bain’s management decisions. However, The New York Times reports “it’s possible for Romney to profit from the outsourcing because he still owns eight million dollars worth of Bain funds.”
Ed will broadcast live from Bainport, the tent city Sensata workers have set up across the road from the Sensata factory in Freeport, Illinois, tonight at 8pET on msnbc!
“The story is important because I think it paints a clear picture of who and what Mitt Romney’s economy is all about and what he really cares about,” said Ed Schultz on Monday’s The Ed Show when announcing that he’d broadcasting from Freeport on Friday. “What’s happening in Freeport, Illinois, is about greed. It`s about turning a profit at the expense of hard working Americans and families who are really suffering because of this decision.”
Ed continued, “Mitt Romney has done this his entire life. And now it’s catching up with him. No matter how hard Romney tries to spin the facts, this is who he really is. What`s happening to these workers in Illinois is the economic model Mitt Romney believes in.” Sensata worker Mary Jo Kerr, who is not only facing unemployment but was also forced to train Chinese workers to do her job, said she was leaning towards voting for Romney, until… “When I found out that he owned Bain Capital and Bain Capital owned Sensata, and they were shipping our jobs to China, I was furious,” Kerr told Ed on Monday’s show. Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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