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Featured Workers Call Bain Film Inaccurate - WSJ.com
Three former factory workers featured in a film about layoffs at companies bought by Mitt Romney's Bain Capital say they weren't laid off by Bain, as the film implied, but got promotions and raises after Bain bought the plant they worked in.
The workers' charges of inaccuracy involve "When Mitt Romney Came to Town," a 28-minute film also known as "King of Bain." The film has become a focal point of the Republican presidential race in the past week. It was cited by rival Newt Gingrich at a televised debate last weekend and has been posted online by Winning Our Future, a group supporting Mr. Gingrich's candidacy. The group is also airing ads in South Carolina cut from the film. ...
Mike Baxley and Tracy and Tommy Jones worked at UniMac, a washing-machine plant in Marianna, Fla., that Bain purchased in 1998. They are three of the seven workers named in the film and the only ones mentioned in the Marianna segment.
The film presents the workers as saying that after Bain bought the plant, the company cut costs at the expense of product quality and worker welfare, and that they lost their jobs.
In fact, the company was sold by Bain to Teachers' Private Capital, the private-equity arm of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, in 2005. It was the Canadian purchaser that oversaw the Florida plant's closure and the shift of its operations to Ripon, Wis., in 2006.
During Bain's ownership, the three employees each received multiple promotions, they said. After the plant closed, Mr. Jones said, he landed a consulting contract with UniMac's parent company, helping to coordinate the move of that plant and another in Florida. He, his wife, Tracy, and Mr. Baxley parlayed that work into Washers-R-Us, a commercial washing-machine sales-and-service business in Marianna.
"I guess I have to apologize to Mitt by voting for him. I certainly won't vote for Gingrich," said Mr. Baxley. He said he had received two promotions and a 30% pay increase while Bain owned the UniMac plant, a unit of Alliance Laundry Systems LLC.
Featured Workers Call Bain Film Inaccurate - WSJ.com