Pro-labor organizers were outside a Bain Capital-owned Burlington Coat Factory store in Inglewood today to protest what they say are its non-living-wage jobs and a corporate system that benefits the rich at the expense of more poverty in America.

Bain, as you know, is the venture capital firm founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He has run on its record as a company builder and job creator, but critics say Bain has too often bought manufacturers, borrowed money, and then sunk them into bankruptcy, leaving unemployed workers in its wake.

As far as Burlington Coat Factory goes …


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… labor group Good Jobs LA accuses the Bain-owned retailer of providing poverty wages to its workers:

Burlington Coat Factory – and other low wage Bain Capital owned companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Outback Steakhouse, Michaels and Toys R US – is a symbol of the 1% economy in which taxes are dodged, jobs are outsourced and wages are driven down in order to maximize corporate profits and CEO bonuses.

The organization today is using the demonstration outside the Inglewood store to highlight its effort to get California to raise its minimum wage. It states:

The minimum wage does not support working families. At $8 an hour, California's minimum wage amounts to only $16,640 a year – that's $7,000 below the poverty line for a family of four.

Good Jobs LA wants to see a $10-an-hour minimum wage.

Are you with that?

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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