Bain-hurt worker: Romney put profits before people

>> we're about to hear from workers who were not -- who did not experience a positive outcome from bain capital taking over their companies. this is something that has been front paged by the democrats in a big way and by mitt romney 's primary opponents in the republican primary process.

>> we just heard from bob king about president obama 's record of creating jobs. i wanted to tell you about mitt romney 's record of cutting jobs. mitt romney once said, i like being able to fire people . well, i can tell you from personal experience , he does. on july 5th , 1994 , mitt romney and his partners at bain capital fired me and more than 350 of my coworkers. it came without any warning. they rushed in the security guards to walk us out of our plant. we weren't even allowed to take our personal items. they handed us job applications and told us if we want you, we'll let you know. now, the truth is some folks were hurt back. lower wages, no benefits, and lower retirement. many weren't and seven months later, they closed our plant for good. what affected me was having guys my age now, come to me and cry. guys who had nothing to fall back on. i don't think mitt romney is a bad man. i don't fault him for the fact that some companies win and some companies lose. that's a fact of life. what i fault him for is making money without a moral compass . i fault him for putting profits before people like me. but that's just romney economics. america cannot afford romney economics. mitt romney will stick it to working people . barack obama sticking up for working people . it's simple as that. that's why i'm supporting him for a second term as president.

>> when mitt romney first announced he was running for president, i had no idea who he was. but then i learned he was the ceo of bain capital , and that sure got my attention real fast. i used to work at a plant in miami that governor romney bought with his partners from bain . i say used to because not long after they bought it, romney and his partners shut our plant down and ultimately drove our company into bankruptcy. our company -- our company dade bearing was a big part of our community. there were folks who had been at the plant for 15 to 20 years. but by the time romney and his partners were done with us, we had lost 850 jobs in florida. it was a really difficult time for me and for my coworkers. but not for governor romney and his partners. while we watched our jobs disappear, they ultimately walked away with more than $240 million. of course, i understand some companies are successful, others are not. that's the way our economy works. but it is wrong when dedicated, productive employees feel the pain while folks like mitt romney make profits. so, when mitt romney talks about his business experience, remember, it is not experience creating good paying jobs. it is experience cutting jobs. it is experience shutting plants. it is experience making millions of dollars by making life tougher for hard working americans. that is not the kind of experience we need in the white house . we need a president who will create good paying jobs and make sure everyone has a fair chance. we need president barack obama .

>> good evening. good evening. and a special greeting to my fellow minnesotans and to the hard working missouriens i was privileged to represent for so many years. i'm david foster , and i was a steel worker for 31 years. for 15 years, i laid brick and tapped the furnaces and did all that hard, dirty work that turned molten metal into the cars and bridges and buildings that make america what it is today. and i -- and i also led the steel workers in a 13-state tour including gst steel in kansas city . a 100-year-old company bought by mitt romney and his partners at bain capital in 1993 . now, it is a story that i wish i didn't have to tell. america need to know the truth. when romney and bain took over the bill, they loaded it up with millions in debt, and within months they used some of that borrowed money to pay themselves millions. within a decade the debt kept growing and was so large the company was forced into bankruptcy. they fired 750 steel workers while they pocketed $12 million in profits. a steel worker at gst would have had to work 240 years to make $12 million. so in 2001 with gst bankrupt and romney still ceo of bain , i had to stand in a rented auditorium in front of hundreds of steel workers in their 50s and 60s, retirees and widows in their 70s and 80s and tell them romney and bain had broken their promises. jobs, vacation pay, severance, health insurance , pension benefits that were promised, they were all gone. now, some companies succeed. some companies succeed. others fail. i know that. i also know this. we don't need a president who fires steel workers or says let detroit go bankrupt. we need the leadership. we need the leadership of a man who during the darkest hours for america 's auto industry rolled up his sleeves, risked his presidency, and saved over 1 million good auto jobs. we need, we need barack obama . thank you.

>> the democrats tonight essentially bringing to life the ads that ted kennedy in 1994 and his republican opponents in 2012 and the president's this year since the primary have used against mitt romney to turn his experience at bain capital into a detriment rather than