For 33 years, I’ve been at Sensata Technologies. We make auto sensors for GM and Chrysler. So we’d like to think we know a good amount of history about the American automotive industry.
So when the auto industry becomes political fodder, my co-workers and I pay attention.
In Ohio, the Romney Campaign is blasting television and radio ads suggesting that Chrysler and GM “are shipping jobs to China.”
In an editorial on Monday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer rebuked Romney’s ads, stating that the additional Jeep manufacturing jobs in China—meant to provide local Chinese populations with Jeep-branded cars—is a “sign of Chrysler's health, not of some sinister intentions by its management.”
“The company is investing $500 million and hiring 1,100 workers at its Toledo Jeep plant. The day Romney misspoke, Chrysler announced plans to add 1,100 employees in Detroit, too,” said the Plain Dealer.
But if you want to know the real fact-check on these ads, you don’t need to look much further than Sensata if you want to know the real truth about American auto jobs.
Make no doubt about it: Jeep is a success because Barack Obama saved the American auto industry. And by doing so, he also saved companies like Sensata. Without any American cars to build, there’d be no need for American auto sensors.
Now, Sensata is a very profitable company. In fact, since Mitt Romney's Bain Capital bought Sensata, Sensata shareholders (including Romney himself) have quadrupled their initial investments.
But that’s not enough for Bain, because they’re shipping our jobs to China. I, myself, am losing my job on Monday, the day before Election Day.
In that very same Plain Dealer editorial, which describes Romney “recklessly” addressing a large audience on how Chrysler’s owners “were planning to move all Jeep production to China,” it’s mentioned that Romney “pledged to keep American jobs in America, if elected."
How can he pledge to keep jobs in America when he hasn't lifted a finger to stop Bain Capital from sending my job to China?
The job losses at Sensata have emerged as a huge controversy on Romney’s ties to China. Mitt stands to profit from the outsourcing of our jobs through the stock he still owns in the company. His 2011 tax returns show that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a foundation that he controls, and he continues to profit from Bain’s offshore holdings and tax avoidance strategies.
Time and time again, we’ve asked Mitt to prove his job creation claims by helping to save our jobs from being outsourced to China.
And why wouldn’t he be able to help us? He’s a huge investor in Sensata, and a simple call would go a long way to helping "to keep American jobs in America."
But he refuses to do anything.
We're learning time and time again that we can't take Mitt at his word. And as we've learned here at Sensata, it's not a mistake that our country can afford to make.
Not only is Mitt lying about which candidate keeps jobs here in America, but he won't even live up to a pledge that he made—in fact, the pledge that he bases his entire candidacy on—when attacking the President on a falsehood. And that's a disgrace.
