Proof Romney was CEO Bain 2001

1. Romney CEO of Bain 2001 Boston Globe Story 2002
Found on Massachusetts AFL CIO website
http://www.massaflcio.org/workers-press-romney-layoffs-%2526%2523039%3B94,-bain-impact-issue
WORKERS PRESS ROMNEY ON LAYOFFS AS IN '94, BAIN IMPACT AT
ISSUE
Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff
29 October 2002
The Boston Globe
(Copyright 2002)
It worked in 1994. And supporters of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Shannon O'Brien, locked in the closest
of races, are hoping it will work again.
In the final stretch of this governor's race, Democrats are turning to a group of out-of-state workers who lost their
jobs and benefits after GOP nominee Mitt Romney's Bain Capital took over their companies. Yesterday, the AFL-
CIO brought some of those workers to Boston, just as they did during Romney's 1994 race against US Senator
Edward M. Kennedy, to make their point in person.
"Mr. Romney just devastated 220 families," said John Kaczorowski, president of the AFL-CIO chapter in Buffalo,
where an American Pad and Paper Co. plant closed in 1999 as part of a cost-cutting strategy. "No way could I
support a person like that. He doesn't understand the values of working people. If he does this in other places,
what will he do to the people of this state?"
And though O'Brien did not meet with the workers yesterday, they were joined by Kennedy at the news
conference.
"What we're hearing today are real facts," Kennedy said. "These campaigns should be about workers, and
workers' families. We don't want to see what happened to these workers happen in Massachusetts."
But Romney aides are betting the strategy will not work twice, particularly because this time, unlike in 1994, they
are launching an aggressive counterattack, accusing O'Brien of exploiting the workers and of distorting
Romney's role in the closings. Romney, who was CEO of Bain Capital until 2001, has repeatedly said he was
on leave from the company in 1994, when strikes erupted at Ampad's now- closed Indiana paper plant, and
again in 2001, when GST Steel, a Kansas City plant, laid off workers and closed.
Yesterday, his campaign released a letter from the former CEO of GST, absolving Romney of any responsibility
for the plant's closing. The campaign also produced a letter from Bain's lawyers, saying Romney was not actively
involved with Bain after Feb. 11, 1999, even though he was sometimes called on to sign Bain's SEC filings. "The
plant did not close because of Mitt Romney," said Mark Essig, the former CEO. "The plant closed because we
could not compete with the flood of cheap foreign steel pouring into the United States . . . It saddens me that the
pain and suffering of so many resulting from the closure of the plant have been twisted to serve someone's
political purpose."
To further his point, Romney produced his own workers outside the Democrats' event: three women who work
for Staples, another company in which Bain Capital is heavily invested.
"He has made a very big contribution to the company and to Massachusetts," said Sara Gammell, a facilities
manager for the company.
Romney accused O'Brien of "exploiting" workers who have lost their jobs and said she and her campaign aides
are "filling [the workers'] heads with things that are not true." Romney said he couldn't be blamed for the job
losses cited by the workers, since he was on leave from Bain Capital to help organize the Salt Lake Olympics
when the Ampad Buffalo and GST Steel closings occurred.

2. "It's wrong, it's dishonest, it's deceptive," Romney said, calling on O'Brien to withdraw the ads featuring the
workers. "She's exploiting their sorrow, their grief, and leading them to believe that I, in some way, was involved.
I had no involvement whatsoever. The suggestion that somehow I'm heartless, I'm this tough business guy who
doesn't care, could not be further from the truth."
But even as Essig and the Staples employees came to Romney's defense, another view was voiced by Charles
Hanson III, who was CEO of Ampad from 1992 until 1998, when Bain asked for his resignation. Hanson said that
though he had had no direct contact with Romney after Bain took over Ampad in 1992, it was clear to him that
"any significant direction we received would certainly have been authorized by him."
Bain Capital, he said, was interested from the start in a "rollup" of Ampad, a consolidation of its resources that
clearly involved the layoffs the workers decried yesterday. And Hanson said he had no doubt Romney approved
of that strategy. He added that, once unrest gripped the firm in 1994, during Romney's Senate campaign, "there
was a high level interest in not hurting his political aspirations."
The workers who gathered yesterday rejected Romney's claim they are being exploited. But they did concede
they were not familiar with the specifics of the Massachusetts governor's campaign, and had not met O'Brien.
And when pressed, they had difficulty saying how Romney was directly responsible for their fates.
"As for Mitt Romney, I wasn't even aware he was the CEO until this all came out," Mike Kaullen, a GST worker,
said in an interview. "I'm just here to tell a story, and the story is the same everywhere. He was the CEO.
Someone has to be responsible."
The workers were flown to Massachusetts from Kansas City, Buffalo, and Marion, Ind., by the AFL-CIO for one
day, to speak to reporters and to union workers in Fall River and Worcester.
"This is not about one or two closings," said Bob Haynes, president of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO. "This is
about disrespecting workers for the course of a full career. His business acumen is not good for working
families."
Appearing at a news conference yesterday, O'Brien defended her political ads, and said drawing the workers into
this political campaign was legitimate, given their experience at companies under Bain Capital's management.
"They may not be familiar with this governor's race, but they're familiar with what Mitt Romney has done to
them," O'Brien said.
Democratic analyst Dan Payne said yesterday that argument remained potent eight years after it was last used,
because of voters' uneasiness about the economy.
But Romney's deputy campaign manager, Eric Fehrnstrom, said it's unfair to highlight a few companies where
workers lost jobs, when overall, Bain's record is one of success and generating jobs.
"Bain Capital is not an operating company," Fehrnstrom said. "They make investments and they support
management, and most of the investments they have made have been successful."