Forum Post: sensata

You Should Know About Sensata - It’s What the Election is About

By Dave Johnson

Workers facing outsourcing by Bain Capital are camping outside the Sensata factory in Freeport, Ill. They are asking Mitt Romney to show up and help save their jobs. They say they will stay camped there until Romney shows up and stands with them – or with Bain.

Mitt Romney can can use this to show us if he wants to be president of the whole United States, or just president of, by and for the outsourcing 1 percenters.

The private equity firm Bain Capital put together Sensata Technologies in 2006 to make and sell sensors and controls to car makers and other manufacturers. The company is closing the Freeport, Ill. plant and outsourcing the 165 jobs to China. The workers have to train their Chinese replacements before they are laid off.

Sensata is making plenty of money. According to the company's website:

Second quarter 2012 net revenue was a record $504.6 million, an increase of 10.9% from the second quarter 2011 net revenue of $455.0 million. Second quarter 2012 net income was $26.1 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, versus second quarter 2011 net (loss) of $(34.6) million, or $(0.20) per diluted share. Second quarter 2012 Adjusted net income1 was a record $97.5 million, or $0.54 per diluted share, versus second quarter 2011 Adjusted net income1 of $92.2 million, or $0.51 per diluted share.

Sensata explains that Chinese workers cost less.

Mitt Romney started Bain Capital in 1984. He left the company in 1999, or 2000, or 2001, or 2002, or later, or earlier, depending on which year is best. In 2012 he is clearly no longer with Bain, while receiving only approximately $440,000 a weekfrom the company.
Efforts To Get Sensata To Reconsider
The Freeport, Ill., City Council unanimously passed a resolution on July 16 asking Romney to come and help save the workers' jobs.

Two Republican members of Congress, Don Manzullo, R-Ill., and Bobby Schilling, R-Ill., sent a letter to Sensata's CEO asking him to keep the jobs in Freeport. Manzullo is a co-sponsor of the House "currency" bill, the Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act (H.R. 639) that would crack down on China's currency manipulation. Though he is a co-sponsor, Manzullo refuses to sign a discharge petition that would bring the bill to the floor for an actual vote.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Evanston) has joined workers in asking Romney to show up and help.

Illinois' Governor Pat Quinn has visited the workers in Freeport, and asks Congress to pass the Bring Jobs Home Act. The Bring Jobs Home Act would eliminate the tax breaks that encourage companies like Bain and Sensata to close factories here and send the jobs and the work to countries like China, with the cash stopping off in the Cayman Islands for a quick tax cleansing. The Bring Jobs Home Act was recently filibustered by Senate Republicans.

Sensata workers collected 35,000 petition signatures, asking Romney to come to Freeport to help save the workers' jobs. This video shows what happened when they tried to deliver these petitions and a letter at a Romney campaign office in Madison. Instead of accepting the letter and petitions, the campaign locked them out and called the police. President Of All Of US Or President Of 1 Percent?

Many Americans are asking, if elected, will Romney be the president of the United States or really just the president of, by and for the 1 percent? Visiting the camp at "Bainport" and helping the workers keep their jobs would give Romney a chance to distance himself from the outsourcing and "vulture capitalism" practices of his former company, making a break and standing with the rest of the country, by asking Sensata not to ship these jobs to China.

Appearing to support manufacturing workers like those at Sensata, Romney is running a new ad saying President Obama is killing manufacturing jobs.

But if you watch the ad, it is actually describing conditions under President Bush, and trying to make viewers think this happened under President Obama. Visiting the Sensata workers and helping them in their struggle with the company and Bain would give Romney an opportunity to clear this up.

The ad criticized President Obama for not cracking down in Chinese currency manipulation. Like Rep. Manzullo, Romney also says he supports cracking down on Chinese currency manipulation but has not called on House Republicans to bring this bill to the floor for an actual vote. See previous posts on this, Romney Etch-A-Sketching On China Currency, Romney On China: Talks The Talk, Will He Walk The Walk? and China Currency Fight In Congress.

Greetings From Bainport, Illinois

The workers campaign in Freeport, Ill., are calling their camp "Bainport." They have a website, Greetings from Bainport, Illinois. Take a look, there are lots of great pictures.

From the website:
We're workers at Bain Capital-owned Sensata in Freeport, Illinois. We're fighting to save our jobs from being shipped to China by the end of this year. Sign our petition here. I support the Sensata workers and their call on Mitt Romney to come and save their jobs from being shipped to China. I commend and support their efforts to save their jobs and encourage them to keep it up the fight until Mitt Romney visits the workers in Freeport, Illinois.
Let's see of we can get Mitt Romney to show up at Freeport, Ill. and help these workers.

You can stand with the Senstata workers fighting outsourcing by sending them a pizza. Call Logan's Bar & Grill at (815) 232-4592. Tell them it's for the Senstata workers camping out and they'll make sure the food gets to them.