From Mass aflcio file: the workers who disrupted Romney's plans for Massachusetts Senate seat. Bursting his bubble as a job creator

Strike-bound factory tied to Romney during US Senate race is set to close

By Frank Phillips

The Boston Globe
January 5, 1995, Thursday, City Edition

The paper factory in Marion, Ind., that played a crucial role in Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's reelection campaign last fall is permanently closing after striking workers and the owners failed to agree on a contract.

Ampad Corp., in which Republican Senate candidate Mitt Romney's venture capital firm holds a controlling interest, said it would shut down the factory on Feb. 15 and move the operations to other Ampad facilities.

"They've slapped the community pretty hard," said Randy Johnson, president of the local United Paperworkers International Union. He said more than 100 of the union's workers will lose their jobs.

Charles Hanson, Ampad's president, said the Dallas-based firm "regretted" its decision but said it was necessary because the company "has sustained severe economic damage as a result of our inability to manufacture products at our Marion plant."

But the local labor dispute, which began last July when Ampad bought the facility, sparked another burst of union anger aimed at Romney, who lost in his bid to unseat Kennedy in the Nov. 8 election.
Romney heads Bain Capital, which last summer bought a controlling interest in Ampad when he was on a leave of absence.
"Romney never intended to give the Ampad workers a fair deal," said Joseph Faherty, the president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. "This looks like the robber baron's revenge."
During the campaign, Kennedy and his union allies used the Marion strike to try to paint Romney as an uncaring businessman, often referring to him as a "robber baron." The Marion strikers also took aim yesterday at Romney, blaming him for the plant closing and vowing to hound him in any future political campaigns.
"Romney is the main man at Bain. Bain owns Ampad and Ampad says it will close our plant," Johnson said. "If he thinks we're going to forget those facts over the next two years just because Ampad wants to shut us down, he ought to think again. We won't forget."
In a statement released last night, Romney said he feels "very sorry for the workers and their families" but again distanced himself from the strike, saying he was on leave from Bain Capital when the strike started, and that the firm's lawyers has told him not to get involved.
"No one wishes more than I do that this dispute could have been settled," Romney said.
His political consultant, Charles Manning, accused the unions of "still playing the political games of the last election."
"Faherty is even using the same rhetoric the Kennedy campaign used. They helped their pro-union buddy Teddy Kennedy but they have really let the workers of Indiana down, and that's a shame," Manning said.
Romney, who returned to Bain after the election, based much of his campaign on his ability to create more than 10,000 jobs through his venture capital investments over the past 10 years.
A team of Marion strikers traveled to Massachusetts and stalked Romney during the fall campaign. Kennedy aired a series of ads featuring the factory workers talking about the dispute and blaming Romney for management decisions that led to the strike