opinion

After job loss, I'm ready to support an Iowa caucus candidate who will finally put people over profit

When my Shopko store on John F. Kennedy Road in Dubuque closed last year, I felt like I lost everything overnight. I lost my job of nearly 12 years, my livelihood, and a tight-knit group of coworkers who are like family. I was devastated.

And I was angry.

In 2005, a Wall Street private equity company called Sun Capital took over Shopko in a leveraged buyout. Sun Capital executives sold Shopko’s properties, paid themselves nearly $250 million in dividends and fees, and drowned Shopko in nearly $1 billion of debt. It was these Wall Street billionaires who pushed Shopko into bankruptcy and ruined my life and the lives of 14,000 people whose hard work built up the iconic brand.

Shopko wasn’t alone. Wall Street private equity companies like Sun Capital have bankrupted dozens of retail stores in the last few years — Toys "R" Us, Payless ShoeSource, Sears and Kmart just to name a few — and destroyed 1.3 million jobs.

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For too long, billionaires have bought up politicians and rigged the rules in their favor so they can make excessive amounts of money, while the people who help companies profit, who are in the stores and do the work every day, are left with nothing. This is how we ended up where we are today. Private equity companies get to gamble with our economy, bankrupt businesses and walk away with nothing to worry about, while people like me and our communities are left struggling to recover.

I know firsthand the heartaches of working toward the death of your job and of the financial crisis that follows. While Sun Capital executives lived in million-dollar mansions, I was getting paid less than $10 an hour as a Shopko employee. During the past seven months, I’ve struggled to pay my bills with my unemployment checks. It’s been so hard to find permanent, stable work while also juggling to care for my family. I’m emotionally and physically exhausted.

And I am fed up.

I don’t want Iowa to continue to be taken advantage of by Wall Street executives who don’t care about us. There are about 128 private equity-owned retail stores in Iowa, and the livelihoods of those employees are at risk as those companies may also be forced into bankruptcy.

On Monday, as Iowans have the first say on who the best candidate is to challenge the current administration, I ask my fellow Iowans to remember Shopko and the heartaches that so many working families like mine have had to endure at the hands of Wall Street. It’s time for us to elect a leader for our country who has the courage to stand up to Wall Street and rewrite the rules for an economy that works for us, the people.

When I vote on Monday, I will be voting for a candidate — like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren — who will not take money from Wall Street billionaires. I urge you to join me and do the same.

Trina Piper McInerney lives in Dubuque and is a member leader with United for Respect.