Posted on August 10, 2012

Star Of Obama Super PAC's Cancer Ad Says Bain Offered Him A Buyout

In a January 10, 2012 interview with Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now!" the anti-Romney steel plant employee revealed he was offered a buyout when Bain decided to close the plant. Joe Soptic, the employee, has been in the news as of late due to an ad he made for the Obama-backed Super PAC Priorities USA. In the ad, Mr. Soptic says his wife died of cancer because he was laid off and no longer had health insurance.



However, not mentioned in the ad is that his wife found out she had cancer nearly five years after his departure from the plant. She died 22 days after her diagnosis. Transcript below.



AMY GOODMAN: Joining us now from Kansas City is Joe Soptic, former steelworker at Worldwide Grinding Systems, who has lost his job after a declared bankruptcy under Bain’s control. He’s speaking to us from Kansas City’s PBS station KCPT. Joe, explain what happened.



JOE SOPTIC: Well, I guess the first thing I noticed after the company was bought out by GST, they became very union-non-friendly. I mean, they started looking for ways to eliminate jobs. In my case, in my department, they actually offered to buy our jobs out from underneath us. They cut back on safety equipment. You know, the working environment just wasn’t as good as it should be.