BuzzFeed.com
Ten years ago Willard Mitt Romney loved unions. Today, he hates them.
In 2002, while running for Governor of Massachusetts, the Romney campaign distributed materials that read, “it’s more important than ever for union members to work together with state government to promote economic development and job opportunities.”
Contrast that with Mitt’s 2008 Let Detroit Go Bankrupt New York Times editorial where he blames “insurmountable labor and retiree burdens,” as a reason for GM’s downturn. He advocated for the Auto Industry to go under so GM could “shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs.” (Read layoffs.) “Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check,” he adds.
He’s out bashing labor today in Michigan, saying he’d be “happy” to take on union bosses. He claims the reason Obama bailed out the auto industry was because he got “hundreds of millions” from labor bosses during his campaign so Obama is “paying them back in every way he knows how."
That didn’t stop Tea Party member and Union Conservatives President Terry Bowman from calling Mitt "pro-worker, pro-union worker friendly," today. He must have been referring to 2000’s Romney.
UAW President Bob King isn’t buying it. In a statement yesterday he called Mitt Romney “the last person who should be talking about the recovery of the US auto industry,” King says “Mitt can try and rewrite history as much as he wants, but when we were at our darkest hour, Mitt Romney turned his back on the industry, their workers and the people of Michigan and in other places where Americans depend on the auto industry.”
Mitt, a Michigan native should know labor’s impact on the auto industry. After all, his father was the President of American Motors Corporation, based in Southfield, Michigan. His Father’s company, AMC was bought by Chrysler in the 80’s and it’s because of Obama’s auto loan that GM and Chrysler are doing fine. GM is now reporting record annual profits and Chryslers sales are up 26% from 2010.
Do you think Mitt has a little more to learn about labor in this country and do you think his newly-minted anti-union stance will hurt him in Michigan?
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Flip/flop Mitt. He has been for things to just turn around and be against them. Goes to show he will say and do anything to get elected. Two face the Mitt!
I love it, Pam.......Just keep on digging up the info that proves he can never stick with a decision. His left side, never knows what his new right side is doing.
The mittster Can PI$$ = OFF - Dont Care What That IDIOT Has To SAY ABOUT ANYTHING !!!!!
Romney should open a flip flop factory.
well he did about 15 years ago called Bain Flip-Flop capital.
where we come in and tell you, as you will find out you will fear these next Ten words "We Are Eventual Capitalist and are here to help you." then the Flop heavy debit and a lost cause.
Flip, Flop, Flip. Mr split personality himself.
Romney, and 'rightous rick' for that matter could write a book on how to lose an election. Keep up the good work boys...
It is so hard to see what Mitt Romney does or does not believe because he continually changes his identity every time he runs for another office. Mitt is a cardboard cut out of a politician, he is a fake.....he's a moderate not a far right neo con.......he's a rich kid who's never had to struggle in his life not a regualr good ole boy.......he's not middle class and he never has been.........
and that's why he's losing in his "home state" of Michigan
Ed: Have you noticed how Romney's nose keeps elongating? Seems to me there used to be a wooden boy, who for attention continued to lie and his nose just kept right on growing ??? This boy was from the town of Collodi, Italia. Now, where is Romney from?
If Robme had a house there and was running for office in Italy, surprise, he'd be from Collodi! LOL
Ed. Mitt makes the statement that union wages lead to the demise of companies. Would it not be fair to say that the demands of the shareholder are equally or even more to blame. Mitt evidently continues to get money from Bain.. Bain does not print money (I assume) so this is profit from someplace.. Just perhaps, that money shared among union workers.. who are working.. would go farther to stimulate the economy than Mitt hoarding it in the Caymens.. or buying a house in every state.
I grew up in Michigan. My dad worked for GM for 30 years. If it weren't for the unions, he would not have been able to provide his 7 children, with health care, food, etc. Workers need these unions to be able to provide a decent wage for their families. Thank You Jimmy Hoffa...where ever you are! Mitt...you're a disgrace and I am ashamed to call you a fellow Michigander!
My community (Kokomo, Indiana) was written off in Fortune magazine as one of the fastest dying cities in America due to unemployment which reached @25% in 2009, if not for the courage of President Obama to stand by his convictions and see the government loans through, rather than doing what was politically advantageous at the time and let the industry collapse, Kokomo would have been finished as Fortune so proudly predicted. Today, barely 3 years later, Kokomo is gaining momentum, unemployment is below double digits and ironically, the Indiana State Chamber of Commerce recognized the City of Kokomo with it's "Community of the Year" Award for 2010 due to the rebound of the community that was written off for dead. While the republican reps and the local Chamber like to try to take credit for the turnaround, they all fail to ackowledge were it not for our President and the leadership of the UAW our community was done. There are 4 Chrysler Plants (which are adding jobs and $1.2 billion in investment), a GM plant and a Delphi plant still open in Kokomo due to the Government Loans, and Republicans are still saying the loans were a failure?? Also just as pathetic were the recent actions of the Indiana state legislature, which is constituted of a heavily republican majority in both chambers, which just passed the anti-worker "right to work" legislation! This is how the republicans thumb their noses and pay back the tax paying citizens and the newly hired workers at the Chrysler Plants who are trying to recover from the worst economic downturn of our generation due to tired old failed republican policies of "trickle down economics" and de-regulation under 8 years of Bush!