"Mitt Romney and his partners made a killing on the GM bankruptcy by gaining control of bankrupt parts supplier Delphi, then threatening to withhold components critical to the production of GM vehicles... This is the real Romney" - UAW President Bob King

On Thursday, a highly popular Daily Kos post ) concerned the United Auto Workers Union's filing of ethics charges alleging that Mitt Romney and his business partners improperly profiteered from the 2009 auto industry bailout.

One day earlier, on Wednesday, in a searing op-ed that ran in USA Today, President of the United Auto Workers Bob King directly accused presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and his business partners, of extorting windfall profits during the 2008-2009 economic crisis through their control of the key General Motors parts supplier, Delphi.

Whether or not this meets, for fine print reasons, the legal definition of "extortion" -- which if carried out by individuals rather than heavily-lawyered corporations can constitute a federal crime -- that is in effect what Bob King, head of the the UAW, has accused Mitt Romney and his business partners of, in his USA Today op-ed:



"Mitt Romney and his partners made a killing on the GM bankruptcy by gaining control of bankrupt parts supplier Delphi, then threatening to withhold components critical to the production of GM vehicles. Romney's business partners were willing to force GM into liquidation and cause a national economic calamity unless they got more money. In the end, the Romney investor group got what it wanted and earned a profit of more than 3,000 percent on its initial investment. This is the real Romney, a man who objected to the rescue of the domestic auto industry, then made astronomical profits after his business partners threatened the survival of GM. A man who lies about Chrysler moving jobs to China, when his history at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded, shows that he has invested in Chinese factories where workers are grossly exploited. Romney won't even act to stop the Sensata factory in Illinois, in which he is an investor, from closing the doors and moving to China the day before the election. Mitt Romney won't come clean on Chrysler, won't come clean on his Chinese investments and threatened the restructuring of GM for his own profit. That is the picture of a me-first hedge-fund investor, not someone who has the judgment or character to be President of the United States."

Regardless of which candidate prevails in the upcoming election, I suspect this will go down in history as a pivotal moment for American labor unions.

Here's the issue covered on the Ed Show: