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Romney Audience Calls Sensata Workers Communists for Trying to Keep Jobs in USA
Yes, this is real. Employees of the Sensata plant who had to train their Chinese replacements because Bain is shipping their jobs overseas went to a Romney rally in hopes of finally getting him to hear their pleas. Tom Gaulrapp explained, “(A)s we were being removed, his (Romney’s) supporters are scream—first they start a “U.S.A.” chant. And we’re like, “Yes, we agree.” And then they started calling us communists for trying to keep our jobs from going to China.”
Amy Goodman broadcasted from the tent city of Bainport on September 20 for Democracy Now!. She interviewed Tom Gaulrapp, who has worked at Sensata Technologies for 33 years, about their hopes of getting Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to help save their jobs:
TOM GAULRAPP: Yeah, we look at it that these—Bain Capital board has made their decision. The Sensata CEO has made his decision. So we believe that the only person in the world who can stop these jobs from being moved is Mitt Romney, because of his relationship with the Bain board, his financial investment in Bain Capital. And we also believe that if he would come and talk to us and see the impact that this kind of outsourcing has on not only the people who work there but, as the mayor has addressed, the community and the surrounding area, that he would see that this is absolutely the wrong thing to do because of the devastation it brings. But, you know, so far, we continue to receive no response from them. They continue to say they’re unaware of the situation, although at this point we certainly know they are aware of the situation, so…
AMY GOODMAN: So, you went to Iowa to try to talk to Mitt Romney?
TOM GAULRAPP: Yes. We—
AMY GOODMAN: [inaudible]
TOM GAULRAPP: They were having in event in Bettendorf, Iowa. And they—if you went online, you could get these free tickets, so we decided we would go. And I was seven rows from the podium that he stood behind. And I asked him, “Will you please come to Freeport, Illinois, and help Sensata employees save their jobs?” At that point, we were removed. And as we were being removed, his supporters are scream—first they start a “U.S.A.” chant. And we’re like, “Yes, we agree.” And then they started calling us communists for trying to keep our jobs from going to China. And I have never understood that yet.
End transcript.
Is Romney so afraid of confrontation that he can’t manage this kind of conflict without having security eject the American citizens? All they wanted was to meet with Romney.
Romney supporters yelled “Communist” at fellow Americans who are trying to save their jobs from being shipped overseas to China by Mitt Romney’s company. They yelled this as the Romney people have the Americans workers “removed” from a political rally for trying to get Romney’s ear on a pretty important subject.
Mitt Romney’s business practices, with the lack of transparency and top down power structure, are more in line with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) than the workers his supporters were yelling at. The New York Times exposed the fundamental hypocrisy in Romney’s tough China talk when Bain is touting China as a great investment because labor is 85% cheaper.
Tom Gaulrapp of Bainport doesn’t understand that his fellow citizens are being brainwashed by Fox News to turn on him and anyone eles who sticks up for their rights with rabid mob rage.
Perhaps patriotism is best put into practice by being willing to be educated and informed about what’s really going on. It’s just not patriotic to get your “news” from a propaganda outlet like Fox News. Romney supporters calling Americans Communists who are sticking up for keeping jobs in the USA! USA! USA! is proof that the propaganda experiment has gone too far.
Additional source: The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, by Richard McGregor
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43 Responses to Romney Audience Calls Sensata Workers Communists for Trying to Keep Jobs in USA
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Mary
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Sadly over the past 30 years millions of middle class people have been brain washed by the gop(gross old perverts.They truly believe that the lying pathological scumbags care about their so called “value issues”.
Nabil Al-Murabit
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 10:46 am
That’s some cold blooded shit isn’t it? That’s going on and he keeps glossing 44 as being soft on China. 44 maybe professorial, but the motherfucker ain’t soft. Ask all of the more radical of my coreligionists that he’s hellfire missiled if the dude is soft
TigerLily
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Whatever works for the right wing..whatever works. Such an incredibly shameful people the rw constituents. Just awful. They would justify something this awful just to get their man in the WH who would then leave them EQUALLY WITHOUT A JOB HOME OR FUTURE..How completely ignorant and hateful can people become for the GOP? I guess quite alot. They will do anything for their party. They are an uncivilized narrown minded ignorant people. That’s all there is to it. Call it what it is. Just like the women that are standing behind the GOP over the BLUNT AMENDMENT! Are you serious ladies? I mean really? WTH is wrong with you women THAT ANN ROMNEY JUST LOVES HER WOMEN? YOU CALL THAT LOVE OF WOMEN??? bunch of morons!
A Walkaway
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
It’s getting more and more in-your-face obvious. Either you choose Romney and fascism, or Obama and the constitution (and freedom).
This reeks of the experiences I’ve read about, written by German and Italian dissenters before WWII.
Churchlady
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
We need to start moving into a different form of manufacturing and business ownership.
We have to end the “Oliver Twist” process of “PLease sir, can I have some more?”
ONLY way to do this is to encourage the spread of the union cooperative plan that was recently introduced in the US as an alliance between the United Steelworkers and the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain. Only when, in the best tradition of the US ‘ownership society’ to employees have legal control and authority over their business will we become economically secure.
Lest anyone doubt the efficacy of this move, consider that employee owned businesses are among the MOST profitable in the country, and employee owned AND managed are in the top. That would include Southwest Airlines.
In Spain where unemployment is rampant, Modragon with its 83,000 workers in 120 different cooperative businesses has ZERO unemployment. The foundational principle is the sovereignty of labor. This is NOT communist (the government has little to do with it all) but is a workable manifestation of the value of people, stability, and sustainability over profits for the few.
We have to stop begging for change. We have to create it.
Beverly
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Another wonderful and concise article.. thanks Sarah!
Kathy
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:30 pm
I saw a comment by Wolf Blitzer in response to Obama wanting to create manufacturing jobs that was, basically, “manufacturing? No one just graduating wants that, they want a higher level job.”
All those people working at McD’s or BK – they could work at manufacturing and make a better wage. And the snobby kids that Wolf talks about could manage them, I suppose.
The fact is that we in the US make NOTHING. An are near me was known for furniture manufacture…now there are a small handful of companies tha make furniture, everything else is made in China and WHY?
THe American people want cheap stuff. They don’t want to pay a higher price that would support an American’s worker’s wage and insurance. They would rather buy things made in Bangladesh by a 13 year old kid.
Americans are responsible for the mess we’re in as much as Romney as the stockholders of every company who insisted that costs stay down.
Elliott
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 8:23 am
… You do realize that the pricing of products hasn’t changed much when you consider inflation. The thing that has changed is the company’s overhead to make a product overseas, and the money they save in doing so goes into the pockets of the higher-ups. Just throwing that out there.
Sanke65
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 11:19 am
Great point, but I’d like add – the more people that make a livable wage, the more they can afford to purchase these, and other, products, so having them made here is beneficial all the way around for the society, while still leaving room for a perfectly respectable profit margin.
PSzymeczek
Oct. 25th, 2012 at 12:29 pm
As I recall, the Department of Labor during the GW Bush years tried to have making hamburgers reclassified as manufacturing.
www.cbsnews.com/2100-250_...
Syduck
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
To Kathy I agree with you
Sharon StClair
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 11:29 am
I did not mean to agree with you. I think Kathy is incorrect in her statement.
brigita Petrutis
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Thank you, Sarah. This does reek of pre-WW2 craziness. The displayed behavior is thinly disguised. Won’t there always be propaganda experimenting, though? It is part of consumerism, after all. Those poor deluded people who aren’t smart enough to understand what they were even doing, can they be brought up? (or around, or flipped back over — political doublespeak is so opposite dimension!)
The Other Mccain
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Liberals and communists, there are no differences.
UncaJoe
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Please explain. Are Liberals Communists, Socialists, Marxists or as the Tea-Partiers often claim, All-of-the-above-ists. While all these ideologies share some beliefs, their overall philosophies are hardly interchangeable.
Gross oversimplifications are generally reserved for those who tend to validate their opinions as facts with “because I said so”.
Sean Russell
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
How are they communist for wanting to keep their jobs? How are they liberal? They were stupid enough to think Romney would help.
BTW, China is a COMMUNIST country. If you’re going to reply to articles; at least know what you’re talking about.
Judith A Cartisano
Oct. 26th, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Since the Chinese ARE COMMUNISTS, wouldn’t that make Romney a Communist sympathizer because he’s sending our jobs over to China? Why would people opposed to sending our jobs to a COMMUNIST country be called Communists?
Shiva (Moderator)
Oct. 26th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
Exactly
Colleen
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Are you stupid or is it an act. I consider myself a liberal but I guess you could call some of our most forward thinking presidents Communists since you don’t seem to have any sense yourself.
DixiePixie
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:58 pm
You sound just like that woman that said Obama is a communist but couldn’t explain herself when pressed by Chris Matthews – hey wait a minute..are YOU that woman? Girl, you looked good but you sure sounded stupid.
average joe
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 11:14 am
Please explain to me how American workers wanting to be heard by an American presidential candidate concerning the outsourcing of their jobs to Communist China are somehow also communists?
Or even liberals? Does somebody go around and check off their political affiliation? Or is it that anyone who now questions Mitt at all suddenly become a liberal…or a communist?
Protoguy
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 11:38 am
Stupid is as stupid posts.
Try defining any of those terms, redneck.
chuck
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
Morons and Republicans, there is no difference. Especially middle class republicans who are no more than dogs begging for a scrap from their masters table!
Dawn
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 2:26 pm
Just another huge contradiction from the right. They warn about communism but have no problem with American jobs going to a communist country. It is just like with the GOP in Florida who are warning people that President Obama is going to get rid of Medicare while warning them President Obama is a socialist.
Kimbutgar
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:05 pm
I wonder how many of them in the audience perhaps had a job outsourced by Bain and don’t realizeit? I remember seeing a video of a guy at a tea bag event and he screamed how his job was sent to India. Little does he know it was probably because the people he supports sent his job overseas and lied to him about it on Fox and hate radio.
Maranon
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
It is a shame that citizens can not voice their concerns to the representatives without being repressed. It is the Bush’s policy of “with us or against us”. The corporations want the US workers be at the Chinese pay scale and dismiss all the gains that the Unions have made in the last 100 years. Walmart hires only partime workers so they will never qualify for any benefits, even the 24/7 stores, their savings are huge, yet their payment to the communities are limited by the tax breaks they get. WE have welfare for the corporations,and they want more, they call it free market (subsidized by the citizens) while the free breakfast for the school kids has disappeared, and they call that socialism. More spins coming your way…watch out!
Suzanne Longo
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
I have been following the story of Bainport. I am shocked that Romney’s campaign made those people leave. They are an example of what Americans all across the country face. He could do something, he still has the influence to step in. Mitt Romney stood in front of the camera last night and said he cared about 100% of this country. No he doesn’ t. He cares about one person – himself.
Phil Arthur
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 11:21 pm
I would like to know more details about how and why these workers trained their Chinese counterparts.
Elliott
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 8:29 am
Well, I would assume that if they didn’t, someone else would and then that would be them losing out of some much needed pay. They probably figure it is better to do it, get payed, and get their severance than to not…
Deb
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 10:32 am
I worked for Ingersoll-Rand and our jobs were transferred to Whitehouse, TN back in June 2009. For a few months we had to train the people there to do our jobs, knowing full well they were taking them away from us. The only choice we had was to quit right away without the severence and any due vacation pay. Plus if we quit we would not have been entitled to unemployment. The only thing we tried to be positive about was the fact the jobs weren’t being sent overseas. But it still hurt alot of people and upper mgt didn’t give a shit. I’m now making $3.00 less/hour than I was back then but I say to myself, “at least I have a job”. Hard to keep head above water though with everything getting more expensive all the time.
jillyjolly
Oct. 17th, 2012 at 11:46 pm
these ‘supporters’ are most likely bused in paid groups, who in another life wouldn’t support this scumbag and the repuke/teabaggers. Times are tough, so scumbags handlers find out of work groups who’ll attend anything they’re told to and shout whatever they’re paid to shout.
Anne
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 1:42 am
The fact that people trying to save their very livelihoods are being reviled by Romney supporters says every bit as much about Romney supporters as it does about Romney himself. They have revealed themselves as ethically challenged, morally bankrupt, and short-sighted in their utter selfishness. While there are those Romney supporters who would not stoop that low, the fact that they are supporting such a ruthless, dishonest candidate who doesn’t care about them either makes them complicit with Willard in all his unethical actions.
Marvin Lephew
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 4:00 am
Last time I checked China is a communist country. Are the american citizens that stupid to not see what the Foxturd network is putting forth with the everybody is a communist who does not support the master thieves like Bain. These kill a commie for christ extreme right wing teabiily racists can in my opinion go to China with the jobs and stay there, they don’t belong in america. Remember “love it or leave it” to all you communist and socialist label morons that is what I say to you.
Protoguy
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
Video of the incident.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z...
Lily Lorber
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 2:16 pm
Mitt Romney’s supporters did what Mitt Romney wants. Mitt Romney stands to gain a profit. Mitt Romney would rather that Americans roll over and die before giving up a dollar. – - – -According to The New York Times, Romney could stand to profit off of the Sensata outsourcing of jobs to China: “In addition, Mr. Romney’s generous retirement agreement ensures that he continues to profit from the deals and decisions that Bain makes. He owns about $8 million worth of Bain funds that hold 51 percent of Sensata’s shares. If Sensata saves money by closing the Freeport plant, that could add money to Mr. Romney’s trust accounts, now or after the election.” DO NOT BELIEVE THAT ROMNEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO BRING JOBS BACK TO AMERICA.
Lily Lorber
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 2:27 pm
Romney has even said he was hoping MORE Americans might be killed or attacked in the Mid-East so HE COULD PROFIT FROM IT. So how can anyone possibly believe that Mitt Romney cares about them ? ? Click on this link to hear ROMNEY speaking. www.addictinginfo.org/201...
Saiorse
Oct. 18th, 2012 at 6:55 pm
It is unAmerican to send jobs overseas.
Donna
Oct. 19th, 2012 at 2:30 am
The idiocy that is now the GOP knows no bounds. American WORKERS are communists? Once upon a time that party was aware that China was a communist country and called THEM “evil”. One generation and they have forgotten that little fact. Khrushchev once said we would sell them ( USSR) the rope to hang us. It looks like some us would sell a lot more than that to anyone buying. Unbelievable irony.
maranon
Oct. 19th, 2012 at 4:13 pm
I went to a baseball tournament. There were vendors offering bats, hats, and baseballs. All the stuff made (where else) in China. The Lady tells me: “Of course the balls are made in China, Americans do not know how to make baseballs and sew the seams well like the Chinese do”.
Was not base ball invented in the USA?
Nonya bidness
Oct. 25th, 2012 at 12:47 am
Um, the other McCain, how in the hell are these ppl communists because they wana keep their jobs from going to a communist country? They’re being fucked over by Bain, which Robme owns 51% stock in n is going to make $8 mill off this deal. So, fuck off other mccain, you’re a typical brain washed by fox news sheeple rethugliKKKan. These ppl want to keep their jobs here n only wanted Robme to listen to them to try to stop their jobs from going to crappy, low wage china. Ppl like you are fucked in the head.
DW
Oct. 25th, 2012 at 7:48 pm
“USA, USA, USA” = The new “Four legs good, two legs bad”
TLW
Oct. 25th, 2012 at 8:53 pm
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Shipping jobs overseas and/or bankrupting companies (after mortgaging them to the hilt to ensure Bain’s own profit) is how Romney built his fortune. As he said himself: he is not concerned about the 47%. (BTW — my family paid nearly 20% in federal taxes last year, unlike the Romney’s — who paid less than 14%.)
Jay
Oct. 26th, 2012 at 9:21 pm
As a non American but someone who is following your election, something about this article just doesn’t ring true. It has a strong hint of anti Romney propaganda that has been manipulated.
All the name calling in the American election and the lying and half truths makes the rest of the world very hesitant to trust any of your politicians.