Faces of Romney economics: Joe Soptic, American steelworker

[Kadie]

Faces of Romney economics: Joe Soptic, American steelworker
By Grant Fuller on May 15, 2012

Joe Soptic worked at GST Steel in Kansas City for nearly 30 years. He earned a good salary, bought a house and a car, sent his daughter to college—his family felt secure in the middle class. Joe and his coworkers made high-quality American steel, and they were proud of it.

“There was a real sense of community among the workers. We watched out for one another, we enjoyed coming to work every day, our jobs were good jobs.”

But their hard work and responsibility never fully paid off. In 1993, Mitt Romney led a group of investors who took control of GST Steel. They cut costs, began extracting big profits in the form of dividends, and heaped debt on what had been a successful company. By 1995, the company's total debt had grown to $378 million, and there were mounting concerns that the employee pensions were being dangerously underfunded.

By 2001, the company's debt had grown to $500 million, and GST Steel was forced into bankruptcy.

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