Sen. Joe Donnelly selling stock after AP ties company to Mexican labor

An Indiana senator and longtime critic of outsourcing jobs to foreign countries announced Friday that he’s selling his stock in his brother’s arts and crafts company after The Associated Press reported it manufactures some products in Mexico.

Democrat Joe Donnelly said he hasn’t had an active role in the company for 20 years but was taking the action to avoid allowing the issue to become “a distraction from our work to end outsourcing and keep American jobs here instead of shipping them to other countries.” His campaign said he made the statement to reporters at an Indiana Black Expo luncheon.

Donnelly, considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democratic senators up for re-election next year, was highly critical of Carrier Corp., an air conditioner and furnace maker. He accused it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when its parent company announced plans last year to cut some 2,000 jobs at two Indiana factories by moving production to Mexico.

The senator praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs at an Indianapolis factory.

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