to be clear, bain capital purchased ampad and ampad was distressed in 1992.hased in 1994 from smith corona, the typewriter company. we are the only thing left making money at smith corona because typewriter business was going down. >> understandably. >> they took advantage of the law by going in an asset sale and buying the assets. employees didn't come with it. union contract didn't come with it. salary and hourly were kicked to the street. they brought in security guards. they walked us out of the building and said, if you want to work for us, have you to fill out an application. we turned around, filled out applications. once we had over 50% plus one, they had to recognize the union but not the contract. we went back, streamed back in slowly but got most of the folks back. 205 roughly ended back out of 258 hourly. they started taking out some of the egypt, taking it to non-union plants, which all the other plants were non-union. we ended up in a situation trying to bargain with them. basically, we couldn't get anywhere with them. we couldn't get seniority

by 2000, ampad was bankrupt.st their jobs and romney and the rest of the investors were $100 million richer. for a candidate who touts his private sector experience, this history may be a tough sell for some voters, especially with the national unemployment rate at 8.6%. layoffs at ampda helped senator ted kennedy squash mitt romney's 1994 senatorial campaign. here's a 1994 anti-romney ad featuring workers who lost their job after romney's firm bought their company. >> he's cut our wages to put money back into his pocket. >> you're not creating jobs. you're taking them away from us to put money in your pocket. >> he just wants to take money out of your pocket and put it in his. >> right. >> i'd like to say to the people of massachusetts, if you think it can't happen to you, think again. >> joining me now is randy johnson who lost his job at ampad plant in indiana after bain capital bought the company. he was flown into iowa this week by the democratic national committee. thanks for joining me tonight, randy. >> g

four years later, ampad went public.in sold stock and received about $50 million for it is investors and for itself. that's in addition to the management fees and dividends reaped during four years of ownership. four years after that, ampad went bankrupt. all told, bain capital made $100 million on that deal. joining me now is felix salmon, the finance blogger for reuters. fe felix, we here on the political desk don't know about this. we need you. is this a proper area of examination for someone who has run some of these operations? >> i don't see why not. most of us know what it's like to run a household or we can imagine what it's like to run a small business. we think to ourselves, running a big business is a bit like that. it's not. you're using highly sophisticated financial techniques and you're borrowing enormous amounts of money and you're making companies incredibly fragile. it's like flying a supersonic jet. you can go incredibly fast and make lots of money but they can blow up ofr crash really easily. the tric

first, there's ampad, all right?rican pad and paper company which is a company that bain bought in 2002, and i believe it is featured in this gingrich/pac-backed movie where they have a lot of folks complaining about mitt romney. i think we have a sound bite from the movie. let's watch. >> mitt romney became ceo of bain capital the day the company was formed. his mission? to reap massive rewards for himself and his investors. >> mitt romney and them guys, they don't care who i am. >> he's for small businesses, no, he isn't. he's not. >> you're going to be on the hit list, you know that? megyn: so what is the story with ampad? did bain raid that firm? >> no, they did not. that's not an accurate adjective to use. bain bought them in 1992. they expanded the company through acquisitions. they wanted to make them -- it's an office products company. they wanted to make them more efficient. they tried to cut operating costs. megyn: one of the companies they tried to fold in -- >> correct. they failed to turn around the labo

>> when bain took over my plant, it was through ampad, and they call it an asset sale.ht only the assets, and didn't take the workers on are or union contract they had. they basically brought in security guards, walked ussous and if you want a job for us, you have to fill out the application. once they did, they brought us back at reduced wages and no benefits. the retirement was gone. we had to pay more for health care. we got put on 12-hour shifts. it was just terrible conditions. >> so bain in '84 took over your company, everyone was terminated, you could reapply to bain. when did you, it was lower wages and all of your benefits and other things had changed. at the time the ceo was the great job creator, willard mitt romney? >> that's correct. >> now, do you feel that this policy could have been intervened by the ceo at the time? do you feel that the workers could have, if you got a person who has the concern of being a job creator, the concern of being compassionate for the american middle class, you guys were not lazy useless beg garrs, you were doing work, yet it

i know what he did to us at ampad. they bought it in '92. they bought my plant in '94. $100 million. tell me what's right. there is something wrong with that. >> steve: it sounds like he was trouted out by the dnc. so you're right, they're already coming after you. >> of course they will. i've been able to talk it people across the country about the president's message. he lost more jobs since hoover. 2 million jobs he lost as president and by the way, when he was overseeing general motors and chrysler, how many factories did he close? how many dealerships? how many thousands upon thousands of americans had to be let go in an effort to try and save those businesses? that's what we did in our business and i'm very happy in my former life, we helped create over 100,000 new jobs. by the way, we created more jobs in massachusetts than this president has created in the entire country. so if the president wants to talk about jobs, and i hope he does, we'll be comparing my record with his record and he comes up very, very short. >> steve: governor, what would you say to that f