The situation is reaching fever pitch at the Sensata factory in Freeport, Illinois. Not only is Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital shipping 170 American jobs to China, as we've reported on The Ed Show, but they’re now trying to crush the workers’ free speech rights.
The plant is slated to be closed in December, but top Bain Capital executives came to Freeport on Tuesday and threatened to close the plant immediately if workers continued to protest their jobs being outsourced.
The threat only strengthened the workers. They immediately filed charges against Sensata with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing the company of illegally punishing employees engaged in legal protests. And they are planning to walk off the job tonight in protest of what they termed “repeated threats against and harassment of employees by Sensata management.”
“It absolutely is crossing the line,” Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers, said on Wednesday's The Ed Show. “Let`s not forget, this isn't the Bain model. This is the Mitt Romney model, to try to bully people, to put your hand up and say, let me finish, to try to have their own way.”
Bainport—the tent city Sensata workers have set up across the road from the Sensata factory in Freeport, Illinois—is still up and running even though 14 protesters, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, were arrested Wednesday at the Sensata factory for demanding to meet with management. The company said Thursday it plans to drop the charges, according to Bainport.com, a website organized by workers at Sensata.
On Tuesday, Sensata released the company's third quarter financial statement. The company made $471.9 million in net revenue during the third quarter of this year, 2012. Unfortunately, this number isn't good enough for the vultures over at Bain Capital. They're still shipping the Sensata jobs to China so they can pay workers 99 cents an hour.