Mitt Romney’s Bain illegally attempted to force union members to deissolve their union. Romney and his colleagues had purchased an airline, Key Airlines, in a leveraged buy out. When the purchase did noit go so well, management attempted to force the union into deep concessions:
According to the court ruling, Key held coercive meetings with pilots; said management would leave and the company lose contracts; and told pilots that salaries, bonuses and benefits could be frozen. Federal labour lawforbids an airline “to interfere in any way with the organisation of its employees”.Two union organisers — Olen Rae Goodwin and Lawrence Schlang, a former naval aviator — were instructed to sign resignation letters, according to a separate report by the National Mediation Board, which oversees union elections in the sector. The report described the company’s excuse for this dismissal as “little more than pretext”. When a union election was finally held only two pilots voted “yes”.
The National Mediation Board found that Romney’s management team used illegal tactics to coerce a vote.
“President Obama continues to put the interests of labor bosses ahead of the interests of Americans looking for work. By contrast, Governor Romney has grown companies and created jobs, in the private sector and as governor of Massachusetts, and will get America working again,” Michele Davis, a Romney spokeswoman, told the Times.