08/15/2011
From: Delmar Jackson
While watching the Republican debate in Iowa, I was stunned to hear Chris Wallace ask Romney what his thoughts were on Romney’s business Bain Capital. Mr. Wallace asked Romney [Video] how he felt about Bain Capital buying Dade International in Miami which ended up costing 2000 workers in Miami their jobs and careers. I was one of those 2000 workers. I was there for 17 years.
Dade International (now owned by Siemens), which manufactured chemical and biological diagnostic reagents and several Immunoassay testing machines like the Stratus, misjudged the market and overspent developing assays that were not profitable or were too low a volume seller.
Bain Capital bought the company, sliced and diced it, sold off the profitable parts to mostly overseas competitors. and eventually laid off all the Miami workers. The company had started back in the 1950’s.
Miami is not a hotbed of bio tech industries, and there was almost no place for those 2000 workers to go. The employees, with few exceptions, were some of the most dedicated and smartest and hardest-working people I have ever worked with. As in the old story of the pig and the chicken who were collaborating on ham and eggs, the workers were "committed". Unfortunately, the management was merely "involved."
The last decade saw a select few dealmakers make mountains of wealth from the real estate and derivative bubble. The stock market bubble that preceded it also made tons of money for a select few.
However, most people have forgotten the massive number of mergers that took place in the late 90s that also enriched a select few. Studies have since proven most of the mergers caused massive layoffs and in the end were unprofitable to the companies that merged. Only the dealmakers made out like bandits. Like Bain Capital. Like Mitt Romney.
Romney’s position on jobs and immigration are always going to be: is it good for him? Sending our jobs overseas and flooding the market with foreign workers to lower wages for his business friends has been pretty good for him so far.
See Delmar Jackson’s previous letters.
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