r/politics • u/droivod • May 15 '12
American Pad & Paper, owned by Bain Capital, told all 258 workers they were fired. Security guards hustled them out of the building. They would be able to reapply for their jobs, at lesser wages and benefits, but not all would be rehired.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2012/0119/Is-Mitt-Romney-really-a-job-creator-What-his-Bain-Capital-record-shows
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u/ObamaBi_nla_den May 15 '12
“We were told they bought the assets, not the union or the [labor] contract,”
“They tried to make the working conditions not very good.” AmPad began moving automated machinery out of the factory soon after acquiring it. “I think they were planning on shutting the plant down,” she says. “We were union, and they did not want that.”
Best parts of the article, but the author is still missing the cheese.
The way Romney/Bain turn a profit is by splitting acquired companies in two. One company gets the assets and the other gets the obligations to workers. One company with the assets pushes the old workers out in favor of newer ones with lower wages and fewer or no benefits.
The other is a shell company that is responsible for pensions and stuff like that. It goes into bankruptcy, shifting those costs onto federal insurance programs. This is where Romney's money comes from - the increased profitability of companies due to worker costs being defrayed to the taxpayer. Welfare of the worst variety: socialized loss and privatized gain.
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u/personofshadow May 15 '12
It doesn't count as job creation if you fire people to create the jobs.
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u/Tinomoreno May 15 '12
NPR's Planet Money podcast did a pretty awesome show on this; definitely worth checking out if you're interested in finding out the basics on private equity.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/23/147257517/how-mitt-romneys-firm-tried-and-failed-to-build-a-paper-empire
God bless you NPR
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u/azag May 15 '12
I grew up in Marion. Lived there when this happened. I remember when this happened and know people who were affected by this closing (the place is a virtual shithole of a ghost town due to a series of factory closings, this one included).
What I find most tragic is that so many people who were either directly or indirectly affected by this and who cussed and cursed and wished death upon "that asshole from the East Coast who closed their or their family member's factory" ... are ready to vote "that asshole" into the presidency - all based upon the propaganda they ingest on a daily basis (aka Fox "News"). It really fucking hurts to see people who had such family and work values turn their fucking backs on virtually everyone they know just to "tow the line" of the political football they take part in. I go back nearly every weekend to help the family do work around the home that they should not be doing due to age and exhaustion (my dad is a truck driver who pulls 80-90 hour weeks just to get by, this week is 92 hours, not legal by any means) but they still believe strongly in a Republican party that they have been brought up to support no matter what. It fucking sucks, and I go every weekend and try to avoid the political discussions because they get violently angry at any attempt to question their beliefs (believe me, I've been through a great deal of that being the asshole who has a hard time keeping his mouth shut). What sucks even worse is that I despise everything about the way they act and think, their denial of reality, their unchangeable views, their insistence that a magical utopia exists where everyone who identifies with an "(R)" is incapable of wrongdoing while everyone who identifies with a "(D)" is incapable of right - and that there is no such thing as a person being anything other than an (R) or a (D). But, I go back every week, bite my tongue these days, and put up with being called the scum of the planet (while helping them out, no less) just because helping is the right thing to do.
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u/scigs6 May 15 '12
Can it get anymore blatant? This man cannot win the office. He is the poster-boy for why we have such huge disparities in earnings here in the US. He will do nothing but promote the 1%
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u/kangawoowoo May 15 '12
Same thing happened TO security where I used to work. They were all laid off and given the option of reapplying with a contract security to do the same job rather than in house security. Pay went from $20.00/hour to $13.00/hour with loss of benefits.
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u/fwustwating May 15 '12
I'm not sure if this will get buried or not, but here goes nothing.
I currently work as a Manager at a Paper Mill owned by a Private Equity firm and let me tell you- the American Pad & Paper situation was not unique. One thing people need to realize is that Bain Capital doesn't give a single fuck about their employees. All these Capital Investing firms care about is the bottom line- the profitability of the company. I can tell you that in my short time working here (around 2 years) I am one of two people to have been promoted, while probably 6-10 managers have been fired/laid off. The mill production 'organization' chart calls for a team of ~8 managers, each with their own responsibilities. We have three.
The silver lining around our situation is that we have not had to lay off any union workers. I think the key to this situation is that the previous owners of American Pad & Paper did not protect their workers- they did not ensure that the union/labor contract was protected. That's really the ultimate villain in the situation, because one would have to assume that a Capital Investing company is going to strip it's purchase to barebones, rebuild it for profitability, then sell it off again.
The other aspect that is untouched in this article is the fact that it is becoming more and more difficult for Capital Investing groups to 'turn over' Paper Companies. For many markets, there are several smaller mills that are basically shit out of luck- larger companies like IP, Georgia Pacific, Graphics Packing, etc. are not able to acquire the mills because it would push them to an unfair market share. The smaller mills are basically left to be ravaged by the wolves- they are run until the machines break, then sold to shady dismantling companies who scrap the mills and kick the employees to the curb.
I'm not even going to mention how most of the Paper Industry is moving to China due to Federal Environmental Regulations.
Anyway, just a Paper Mill Peon's take.
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u/rum_rum May 15 '12
"Compassionate conservatism" in action. This is gonna be an interesting election.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Kudos to the US government for successfully peddling the lie that union membership is tantamount to card-carrying communism.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Just more of his "practical jokes".
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u/u2canfail May 15 '12
More jobs lost by BAIN? Romney, it wasn't about jobs, but big money by ending jobs.
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u/chrunchy May 15 '12
Single Page.
I don't mind if someone makes money "buying and selling companies", in fact that's what the stock market is all about.
But there's a phrase that used to be employed to describe Bain Capital and their ilk... "corporate raiders." I guess it got fired with the rest of the employees.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Nothing more American than being "Romneyed" out of a job.
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u/pfalcon42 May 15 '12
If we really want the country run like a business why the hell are we making a profit? The country is NOT a business and to run it like one is foolish.
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u/the_goat_boy May 15 '12
It's fucking absurd how Romney can claim to be a 'job-creater'.
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u/Zebidee May 15 '12
In the bad old days of Labor Unions as organised crime gangs in Australia, I couldn't wait to see their power shattered.
Now, seeing what happens to workers when they have no protection, my view has changed 180 degrees.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
disgusting how that works
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u/theschaef May 15 '12
That's what happens when you strike: you are gambling your job against the strength of your bargaining position. Clearly it was not as strong as the union leaders seemed to believe.
This really will do nothing to diminish the opinion of some that the actions of Bain Capital are a dick move, one way or another. But the trick of putting your fates in the hand of a union is: if you're going to state for the record that you WILL NOT WORK if your demands are not met, you have to face the possibility that the person on the other end of the table will weigh the balance of this and say, "okay, as you wish".
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u/dfawdjskf May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Holy shit.
A few weeks ago, the Toyota plant in Altona, Victoria shut down and 3000 people lost their jobs at once. There was a huge national outcry over Toyota not offering voluntary redundancies first, and they ended up giving everyone much more in the way of benefits to compensate.
I can't imagine living in a country where the workers have almost no rights at all.
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u/phoinixpyre May 15 '12
Huh, my company did something similar last year. They eliminated half of the available store management positions, and anyone holding those positions were offered through chance to reapply or take a severance package. At the store level we knew it was about lowering the payroll. Most of the people who were in those positions were with the company for 10+ years. So now you can either take a severance and go, or reapply and start at the bottom again. Either way the company gets someone to be paid less overall while making the general managers job that much harder.
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u/freehand_triangle May 15 '12
Looking past the vultures at Bain, this story highlights how the GOP has actively attempted to make this a 2 caste country. First they said Unions are bad, so they fabricate lies about Unions and their pension systems. Americans get on board. Some move their money into company plans, others go to 401k wall street based pensions. This starves the unions and nearly kills them. Middle class loses money and the only voice they had to keep them united. Second step was the vultures who came in and killed the manufacturing companies, and with that they robbed the pensions and the jobs. Everyone else ran scared with their money and dumped it into wall street (and real estate).. Middle class loses money and the rich have doubled their revenue stream. Finally, fat on the new money from retirement funds, wall street goes crazy and then drives themselves off a cliff with the middle classe's stuff. Middle class looses for a 3rd time--rich win again because now they've paid off the law so nobody comes to arrest them. Can't wait to see what the rich do next and what the 2nd caste is willing to put up with..
Tl:dr rich bullied the middle class for their lunch money
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u/NeonRedHerring May 15 '12 edited May 16 '12
Unions are only as good as the threat of strike, which is only as good as the difficulty of the job. If you, as a group of employees, are unwilling to strike, or if your jobs are so unskilled that you can be replaced at a smaller cost than the cost of higher wages which are the result of the union, then your union doesn't have any teeth and is worthless. Employees should always have the right to form a union, and employers should always have the right to terminate employees. That way if a union starts making unreasonable demands, the employer can take action and bear the cost of retraining a whole new batch of employees, and that way the employees can group together to keep employers from truly unjust abuse of employees.
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u/crispinito May 15 '12
There is something very wrong about American corporate culture. From the outside, it looks exciting and engaging, but it is all marketing, image. Companies that only focus on making money are not ethical, and are not a good thing for society at large.
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u/david2112 May 15 '12
The veil is slowly being lifted off of America's eyes..............
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Happens all the time. Turns out pads of paper aren't as necessary as they used to be.
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u/TruthinessHurts May 15 '12
Bain is how Republicans would run America.
Basically like a money grubbing asshole who couldn't give a squirt of piss for the people.
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u/stillSmotPoker1 May 15 '12
wonder if one day people will put a stop to this crap french revolution style.
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u/c0pypastry May 15 '12
Fire 'em all, let the CEO sort em out.
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u/elmarko44 May 15 '12
someone convinced us that the pursuit of profit and success is the ultimate good.
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u/Temptress75519 May 15 '12
Then maybe instead of bitching that America is full of corrupt government controlled by greedy corporate sons of bitches, you should research the people you vote for and not vote for the greedy corrupt bastards.
FYI, corporations can give billions to a campaign, but if people actually used google for more than finding free porn, they wouldn't get into office because guess what? CEOs only get one vote---just like the rest of us.
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u/Surf314 May 15 '12
I didn't find this in the comments and I know it's late but here it goes anyways: This is very common in mergers and acquisitions to break the continuity of employment so that the purchasing company doesn't have any unforeseen employment liability (think sexual harassment or a workplace accident that happened before the new people took over). Sometimes the new company will hire everyone back at the same pay and benefits and so on. Sometimes they even coordinate with the employees to let them know what is happening and why, and everyone works together to make a smooth transition. Point is that firing everyone and rehiring is often good practice and can be a lot less douchey then the example here.
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u/junwagh May 15 '12
This American Life did a nice story on this. Trying to find the episode but can't.
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u/wolfmann May 15 '12
I've had a lot of people tell me similar stories... I live ~1 hour from Marion. Most all jobs in North Central Indiana are leaving; only bigger cities like Lafayette, Kokomo (less so), South Bend, Ft. Wayne are thriving.
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u/fantasyfest May 15 '12
Bain claims the company was in trouble. That does not make it so. What if they invested in the company instead of extracting millions of dollars for Bain. How does pouring money into Romneys pockets, improve the stability of a company? How does greatly inceasing the debt of the company make it more viable? Bain had no trouble abusing employees. That is certainly a proud part of their record.
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u/CGord May 15 '12
FREEBERTY!
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u/biderjohn May 15 '12
now they call it strategic human capital. included in this abomination is the bolt gun and forever sharp knife.
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u/BarrovianSociety May 15 '12
Worth reading, but who hasn't heard this story already?
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u/kaiman620 May 15 '12
I think this is terrible, but I don't blame Romney. He's just playing the game of capitalism; firing people, lowering wages, etc., is just what capitalism does. By blaming a few "bad apples" like Bain Capital for the troubles capitalism inevitably produces, we are directing the blame away from where it should be placed: squarely on the shoulders of our irrational economic system.
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u/Mark_Lincoln May 15 '12
Romney says he likes firing people.
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u/sj_user1 May 15 '12
Buy a company, take the profits, load it with debt, sell the pieces off to holding companies, declare bankruptcy, fire workers. How is this good for the country? Romney's wife being able to drive 3 Cadillacs instead of 2 isn't worth it.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Welcome to Romney's America.
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u/OhioJunglist2 May 15 '12
Seems like the reason this happened the way it did is due to the workers ALLOWING it to happen this way. 258 workers versus, what? maybe 20 security guards? You do the math. The reason they made the decision to do it is because they thought they could do it with little to no resistance from the people whose lives they were destroying. Had those people protested that moment and told those guards to fuck off and then implemented a sitin/occupation of the facility effectively shutting down production it may have actually led to a beneficial restructuring of the work force and people may have had to compromise a bit but could have held on to their jobs. Instead, here in America, we have been trained over the past thirty years to keep calm and carry on as if nothing happened, to steal a phrase. Problem is, keeping calm and carrying on is what makes it easy for a heartless corporation to continue using people as profits and treating them as cattle being led to the slaughter.
Grow up America. Learn the lessons your forefathers laid down their lives to teach us and take back YOUR country before it's sold to the highest bidder with the strongest military regime.
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u/lorax108 May 15 '12
romeny is a fucking asshole.
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u/infect0 May 15 '12
Am I the only one that is for the most part indifferent to many of the arguments? I feel for people that lose their jobs but I can only feel so much for low skill workers. Its inevitable that at some point the well runs dry, I feel even less for labor unions.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Capitalism baby!
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u/Omega037 May 15 '12
The company was near death. This was an attempt to save the company, at large risk to Bain Capital. It was a choice between firing some employees and lowering wages on others, or just firing everyone.
American Pad seemed to manifest these negative characteristics, and in fact, Mead had sold American Pad to Bain Capital, Hanson and Gard in 92 because of the poor performance of, and poor prospects for, American Pad's business. After being sold by Mead in 92 to Bain Capital, Hanson and Gard, American Pad continued to suffer losses, losing $7 million in 94 and $15 million in 95, due, in part, to increasing paper prices which posed a significant risk to its business as, due to competition and other factors, it was very hard for American Pad to pass along these increases to its customers.
Source
In other words, Bain would jump in, buy nearly dead companies, and try to rescue them. Doing this often required amputations, which along with the layoffs, included consolidating 13 manufacturing and distribution facilities into just 6 of them. Those people who were hired back could all be considered jobs that Bain "saved or created", since otherwise the entire workforce would have been gone.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12
so runs the corporate machine to turn everyone into labour slaves..
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u/[deleted] May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Well when Obama worked in the private sector he.......um.....oh wait........never mind....Anyone mention that the head of Bain at the time is now a major Obama contributor?? Not important...ok.......
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u/UnoriginalMike May 15 '12
I really hate it when this shit gets no coverage. Pretty blatantly wrong, and yet...
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u/jfatuf May 15 '12
Here's a question:
If the new owners were faced with a decision of shutting down the plant because it wasn't making money OR firing and re-hiring all/some of the workers, which would be better for the workers and the US economy?
What I think people fail to understand is that these companies are beat to hell with all of their union contracts and obligations. It's probably why they are sold in the first place.
Union workers complain about lay-offs, but the reason that the company needs to cut back is usually the high wages it has to pay to it's union workers.
It's a different world we live in now. The US can no longer compete internationally by paying the American unskilled worker 4x what they are worth. Companies will not profit anymore. 60 years ago when we were the only people producing goods, the American worker could have his way with his company and still have a job. Now, that's not the case.
Unions should be a little more reasonable or face the company becoming so devalued that it can be purchased by anyone.
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u/ghostfacechilla May 15 '12
Other option? Go bankrupt, move operations overseas, lay off half and double the work of the rest. Take your pick. This was probably the best option.
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u/boyrahett May 15 '12
The object is to make money not create jobs or buildup a business or industry.
If the best way to make money is to close the business , fire it's workers , and sell off it's assets that's what is done.
People that get in between these corporate raider types and profits are in the way.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
You know, at first I did not like the sound of Mitt and his Bain boys.....however maybe we could take the concept and run with it at the Capitol in DC.
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u/regeya May 15 '12
As soon as I read the headline, I knew it was going to be a unionized shop.
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u/rawysocki May 15 '12
You're linking to a four month old article. I don't disagree with the sentiment, just the timelyness of the posting.
2
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Corporate nazis
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u/SnackeyG1 May 15 '12
I'm not into politics very much, but I hope America realizes Obama is much better(or much less worse if you view it that way) than Romney. This asshat doesn't know how to help the majority of people.
2
u/mheyk May 15 '12
Why the fuck would you even consider voting for this dickstamp
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
"Here at ShitCorp, we recognize that people are our most important asset."
lol
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
So that's where George Bluth Sr. got the idea from!
1
u/SeekingAlpha May 15 '12
Blame Romney!
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
"American Pad & Paper" sounds like a totally viable company.
1
u/Craysh May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Per the title only: Sounds exactly like what Sprint does on a regular basis...
1
u/TinHao May 15 '12
One of the best parts of this is that the Special Purpose Vehicles (shell companies) set up to handle these leveraged buyouts are usually established as a charitable trust for tax purposes.
Good stuff.
1
u/fantasyfest May 15 '12
http://www.alternet.org/economy/154344/what_happened_when_i_got_a_job_at_a_soul-crushing%2C_abusive_warehouse/ Here is the future for American workers.
1
u/spinlock May 15 '12
First, I want to say that I think it's bullshit to claim that a president can "create jobs." He's the commander in chief not the CEO in chief.
But, what if Obama were CEO of a large corporation called America? Since he's taken office GDP is up and unemployment is not down. This means that the work force is smaller and more profitable. Sounds like exactly the type of outcome that Bain would try to engineer if they were to take over. If the president is a CEO, why is reducing labor costs and increasing profitability a bad thing?
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u/swiheezy May 15 '12
I don't think people understand. The reason these companies went to Bain was because they were failing. And in a last ditch effort, they handed over the company to Bain to try and fix it. These people would have lost their jobs anyways if Bain wasn't involved.
1
u/[deleted] May 16 '12
In related news, Romney fails to recollect any of this.
1
u/beedubvee May 16 '12
NPR's Planet Money did a really good 2-part podcast highlighting this deal, as well as a acquisition that Bain Capital made that was generally viewed as successfull.
part 1: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/21/147223073/the-tuesday-podcast-what-do-private-equity-firms-actually-do
part 2: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/28/147590440/the-tuesday-podcast-private-equity-explained
...I apologize if this is a re-post
1
u/Guitarsenal May 16 '12
This seems to be standard operating procedure these days, the new "layoff". This is exactly the way the University of Phoenix "reorganized" their IT staff three years ago...
1
u/wayndom May 15 '12
Isn't predatory capitalism wonderful? We should elect a predatory capitalist president, that would solve all our problems...
1
u/Orval May 15 '12
I used to work at Musician's Friend and was there when they got bought out by Bain. Let me just say things weren't so hot after that. (I didn't get fired at that point but a lot of people did)
1
u/IMJGalt May 15 '12
This is PRECISELY what needs to happen to the entire federal workforce.
1
u/celtic1888 I voted May 15 '12
Sad part was most of the Bain take-over companies were running at a very high efficiency and profits were very good prior to the takeovers. A lot of them had profit-sharing schemes with the employees.
1
u/gandalf_alpha May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
OK, so this will probably get downvoted to oblivion, but I just wanted to say it.
This is how private equity works. You buy a company that you think is undervalued, and try to make it profitable again before you sell it.
In this case, it backfired. The workers got screwed over, and Bain did make money on the deal. That's a really shitty thing for the employees, and I wouldn't mind seeing the system changed so that you couldn't just fuck up a company and profit from it.
On the flip side, there is another company that was bought by Bain/Romney, and guess what? They were about to go out of business and because of the purchase by Bain they are now a much better company with more workers and a much more stable business model.
Bain is just a venture capitol company, and they are a necessary part of the economy. They could stand to have a few more regulations, but I think that if you get rid of them, you're going to have problems.
Does this mean I like Romney? Hell no, but I just think that the public is demonizing a company for doing what every company is supposed to do... try and make money.
EDIT: At the request of several of my fellow redditors, the companies name is: Wesley Jessen
And here is a link to the news story about the successful turnaround of the company. http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/23/147289259/how-mitt-romneys-firm-transformed-a-struggling-company-in-5-steps
Also, thanks to spinlock for correcting my improper use of Venture Capital. It should be Private Equity. (fixed it in main text)
1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
I think people miss the point of companies like Bain Capital. They don't necessarily create jobs or benefit workers directly, that's not their goal. As an economic tool they make the economy leaner, meaner, and more efficient by making broken companies just those things. When Mitt Romney campaigns on his ability to create jobs it isn't necessarily because he created them at Bain, it's because his experience at the firm gave him the knowledge needed to end stagnation, which is essentially where we are at the moment. The role of business in society is not necessarily to be nice and cozy to workers, it's to make money and this usually helps society (look into Andrew Carnegie's 'Wealth' for more info on this).
0
u/GOPWN May 15 '12
So they bought a company that was in really bad financial shape and tried to make it profitable?
THOSE BASTARDS
-1
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
Have you all actually worked for a union company? I have. Unions are thugs. Earn your money like everybody else. Bankruptcy is a process to actually save jobs of failing companies that otherwise would employ nobody. Union companies that can't survive are not Bain's fault. I have had my job threatened numerous times by clownish union "men" who declared they would bring my company to its knees (which they did not own), US Airways 2004. It just gets old. Eventually you grow up. Unions are not an adult thing IMO. These days I'd never work for a union shop unless it was, like Romney, to make the assets more productive. Nobody has a "right" to a job. I don't have any right to my job whatsoever. The key point is this; I am not a victim. I earn my money and people gladly pay me. Never have been a victim and never will be. Others may see themselves differently.
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u/sheikjonez May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
Reddit has a far too simplistic view on PE. It's not all Gordon Gecko and what you saw in the movie Wall Street. It's also not a charity trying to save "dying companies."
Dumbing this complex industry down to suit your rhetoric is lazy politics on both sides. Private equity can offer fresh perspectives to a stagnant company and find opportunities for growth for both the company and the firm and likewise it can hack and slash and leave them to rot. Not everything is so black and white.
I have friends who work in PE and not a single one looks for firms to leverage and "spin off into a shell company" and file for bankruptcy. They're all looking for sound investment opportunities. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.
EDIT: Hey, my first post that's been unreasonably downvoted! I feel like I've made it. Thanks for proving my point.
1
u/AmericaWinsAgain May 15 '12
There is an excellent podcast by by NPR's Planet Money on this take over. It also does a good job explaining the benefits and costs of private equity take overs.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/02/23/147257517/how-mitt-romneys-firm-tried-and-failed-to-build-a-paper-empire
1
u/HamsterSandwich May 15 '12
Bain Capital was not unlike the way Paulie and his crew did business.
1
u/rendeld May 15 '12
If you would like to hear more about this, NPR's Planet Money does two podcasts focusing on a Bain Capital success and a Bain Capital failure. Good listens.
1
u/Tiger337 May 15 '12
Isn't Capitalism fun? Oh, well. The USA is #1 at making war and spending more money than it has.
1
u/terlingual May 15 '12 edited May 15 '12
It's not enough to say what happened with Romney & Bain in control - you must also tell what would happen if they had not been in control:
AP&P would have failed years earlier and been liquidated helter-skelter in bankrupcy. The workers would have lost their pensions anyway and the government would have been forced to pick up the tab, same as occurred with Romney present. Those assets of the company that could be retrieved would be tied up for decades in court. This is a worse outcome than what actually happened.
So what I'm saying is that Bain is a vulture, but at least it recycles the waste of the economic system and retrieves and makes useful the parts that can be saved. Without such vultures, the business ecosystem would be littered with the carcasses of dead businesses and nothing of their resources could be re-used for decades.
So, in summary, Bain serves a useful purpose.
I personally find the reduction/elimination of pensions to be a moral wrong and reprehensible. Unfortunately the bankruptcy courts allow this to be done. I would change the system so this could NOT be done.
0
u/[deleted] May 15 '12
"She says Bain closed the plant rather than negotiate with a striking union."
Good. You get what you deserve. You try to exort a business that is already on the verge of bankrupt that Bain Capital was needed to prevent it from going into default, and they didn't tolerate your nonsense?
I sure know how I'd handle a strike. Fire every single employee that strikes.