Bain-owned Sensata threatened to retaliate and immediately close their Freeport, Ill plant if workers there don’t stop protesting the outsourcing of their jobs to China. Retaliation threats happen to be illegal. The workers have filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Threats Of Retaliation
The story is up at Bainport.com. For some background, Bainport is named for Bain Capital which owns Sensata, and Freeport, Ill, the town where Sensata is closing a factory and sending all the equipment and jobs to China. The workers and supporters have set up a tent camp across from the factory and are asking Bain’s former owner Mitt Romney to come and help. Bain Capital + laying off workers in Freeport = Bainport.
Monday: Rally and march on Sensata: Freeport Journal-Standard, Jesse Jackson speaks to Sensata protesters,
Civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Jackson spoke to a spirited crowd at the “Bainport” encampment in Freeport on Monday. Jackson stressed to the workers that Sensata is “foreign policy for the greedy” and told workers that they deserved a full severance package from the plant.
After Jackson’s speech he led protestors across the street to the lobby of Sensata, where in recent weeks nine protestors had been arrested. The crowd chanted “full severance now” and “save our plants, save our jobs” as they converged on the lobby.
Once inside the lobby, Jackson spoke by phone with security asking for entry and full severance for the workers. After being denied access to the building, police arrived on the scene and asked protesters to leave the grounds. No arrests were made.
Posted last night: Breaking News! Sensata Threatens to Close Plant Immediately
Sensata has sent word that if we continue fighting to save our jobs they will close the plant.
Mayor George Gaulrapp and the Freeport Chief of Police have passed along news from Sensata management — who were in town today from their headquarters in Attleboro, Massachusetts — that if anyone else stands up and commits any further civil disobedience, the Sensata plant in Freeport, Illinois will close the plant immediately and for good.
… It is disgraceful that Sensata would threaten and intimidate us with plant closure in response to our request for fair treatment. This is a clear example of the cutthroat nature of the Bain economic model. Not only will Bain outsource your jobs, they want you to smile and thank them for it.
Reaction. From a press release posted at Bainport.com:
Bain-owned Sensata Charged with Labor Violations for Threatening, Retaliating Against Employees
NLRB Charges Filed as Company Threatens to Shut Down Plant Early if Protests Continue
Unfair labor practice charges against Sensata Technologies were filed with the National Labor Relations Board this morning after the Bain-owned company threatened to shut their Freeport plant down immediately if its employees continued to organize to stop the outsourcing of their jobs to China.
The Sensata workers were shocked to hear yesterday that Sensata management asked the Freeport Police to relay a message to employees that they would close the factory earlier than planned if employees continued to protest at the plant. The plant is scheduled to be shut down in December, with the jobs and equipment shipped to a new plant in China.
“Not only are they shipping our jobs to China, they are also trying to take away our rights as American workers,” said Joanne Penniston. “We are not going to be intimidated. We are going to stand up for our rights and our jobs.”
Nine people have been arrested for protesting at the plant so far, and the protests show no sign of slowing down. Rev. Jesse Jackson will be joined by religious and labor leaders for another protest at the plant later today.
The Sensata Story Is Our Story
The Sensata story is the story of the devastation that the WalMart and Bain Capital business models have done to our wages & benefits, economy and entire regions of our country. Just drive around Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and other manufacturing regions and you see the boarded up houses, the wiped-out downtowns…
The WalMart/Bain Capital business model is to use “trade” treaties to escape the borders of democracy. When people have a say they say they want good wages, benefits, a clean environment, safety on the job — things like that. And we make laws that say if you have a business here you have to meet certain standards, not commit fraud, not harm workers, not pollute, etc.
In places where people don’t have a say they are told they can’t have good jobs, benefits, safety standards, etc. That makes them “business-friendly.” The Bains and WalMarts take advantage of this, and move our jobs and factories there.
And then the WalMarts and Bains use the money they make from this to undermine our democracy here at home. They say the solution is for us to become more “business-friendly” by lowering the taxes that support our schools and services, breaking unions, allowing pollution and otherwise undermining our rights and paths to prosperity.
We must stop allowing the Bains and WalMarts to become fabulously wealthy from sending our jobs to China and using that money they make to undermine our own way of life here at home — our home.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy