Just in case people have forgotten the steel industry took a beating in the 90’s. It got bad enough that Bush slapped a tariff on steel imports in 2002. By that time dozens of steel manufactures had gone out of business including quite a few in IN.

Second, the GST isn’t a new issue to Romney. I doubt he didn’t see this coming…

From 2002:
massaflcio.org

But Romney aides are betting the strategy will not work twice, particularly because this time, unlike in 1994, they are launching an aggressive counterattack, accusing O’Brien of exploiting the workers and of distorting Romney’s role in the closings. Romney, who was CEO of Bain Capital until 2001, has repeatedly said he was on leave from the company in 1994, when strikes erupted at Ampad’s now- closed Indiana paper plant, and again in 2001, when GST Steel, a Kansas City plant, laid off workers and closed.