INDIANAPOLIS – Congressmen Rokita and Messer and Rep. Braun all have a pattern of watching Hoosier jobs be shipped out of the country while simultaneously supporting the types of trade policies that enable those layoffs to happen.
Since 2013, all three candidates on numerous occasions have vocally supported or voted in favor of trade legislation that contributed to the outsourcing of thousands of Hoosier jobs, as a new timeline detailing the candidates’ trade policies shows. What makes their actions especially disturbing, however, is that their support for these terrible trade policies came right as corporations were actively laying off Indiana workers. Instead of focusing on the Hoosiers who lost jobs to cheap foreign labor, Congressmen Messer and Rokita and Rep. Braun continued praising the same disastrous trade policies that allowed for these layoffs to happen in the first place.
Below are highlights from the IDP’s timeline that demonstrate a concerning and consistent pattern from all three candidates of turning a blind eye to laid-off workers and supporting harmful trade deals:
- AUGUST 2013: Just days after a group of Indiana workers claimed their jobs were being shifted to China, Congressman Rokita proclaimed his support for a pan-Asian trade deal.
- JULY 2014: Less than a month before Vera Bradley announced it would send 150 Hooser jobs overseas, Congressmen Messer and Rokita voted to block a bill to end tax breaks for companies that outsource.
- JUNE 2015: Three months before Marujun announced it would lay off 765 Hoosier workers and shift production to Japan, Congressmen Messer and Rokita voted twice in favor of “fast track” trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which included Japan.
- MARCH 2016: One month after United Technologies announced it would shift its Indianapolis Carrier plant operations to Mexico, Rep. Braun voted to allow outsourcers to keep tax breaks paid by the Indiana government.
- APRIL 2017: Congressman Messer claimed to support free trade in the same month Rexnord planned to shut down its Indianapolis plant and send those jobs to Mexico.
For more information, and the rest of the timeline, click HERE.
This release is part of Trade Madness, a three-week long series in which the IDP is highlighting Congressmen Messer’s and Rokita’s and Rep. Braun’s mad record of supporting disastrous trade deals and policies that make it easier to ship Hoosier jobs overseas.
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