Mitt Romney Haters Picket Bain's Manhattan Office. Confusion Ensues.

James King

About 50 Mitt Romney haters gathered in front of the midtown offices of Bain Capital -- the controversial private equity firm co-founded by the presidential candidate -- to protest "the Bain way of outsourcing jobs" this afternoon.

Specifically, they were protesting the moving of Bain-owned Sensata Technologies' headquarters from Illinois to China, which will likely lead the the firing of 170 Sensata employees.

So it was a bit confusing when the protesters started chanting, "Jobs for America, not for Japan."

After about five minutes of protesting the nonexistent outsourcing of Sensata jobs to Japan, one of the organizers told the woman leading the chant that, "I think it's China, not Japan."

"Oh, that's right," she responded.

Oops.

Regardless, those in attendance are using the potential relocation of Sensata to bash Romney -- regardless of where the jobs in question are going.

"I've worked at Sensata Technologies for six years, and next month my job is being outsourced to China," Mary Jo Kerr says. "Knowing that co-workers and I will be jobless, while the Chinese economy and its people will benefit from Bain Capital's selfish business practices makes me angry. Mitt Romney likes to call himself a 'job creator,' but what I'm living right now speaks to the contrary. He could step in and prevent the outsourcing if he wanted to, but he'd prefer to make a profit at our expense."

James King

The Bain Man Cometh

Romney, however, has nothing to do with the outsourcing -- he was gone from Bain long before the decision to move Sensata was made. In fact, Bain didn't even buy Sensata until about seven years after Romney had left the company. However, he still cleans up when Sensata makes a profit

According to a July editorial in the New York Times, Romney's "generous retirement agreement [with Bain] 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."

As even the Times points out, though, it's unlikely Romney has enough pull at Bain to prevent the firm from moving Sensata.

Protestors included other employees of Bain-owned companies, as well as representatives from United NY and LaFuente.

Organizers say they plan another protest outside of Hofstra University -- the site of tomorrow night's presidential debate -- tomorrow at about 4 p.m.

James King

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