Senator 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 in a campaign news release that he made the statement to reporters at the Indiana Black Expo luncheon. 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."

The AP reported Thursday that Donnelly made at least $15,001 in dividends last year on $50,000 of stock in Stewart Superior, which used Mexican workers to produce ink.

He was highly critical of Carrier, an air conditioner and furnace maker, accusing it of exploiting $3-an-hour workers when it announced plans last year to wind down operations in Indiana and move to Mexico. He praised then President-elect Donald Trump in November for reaching a deal that saved 800 of the jobs.

Donnelly has sponsored a bill, titled the End Outsourcing Act, that aims to make it more difficult to transfer jobs to other countries.

"The real issue we need to focus on, days before 300 Carrier workers in Indianapolis face layoffs, is how we can keep manufacturing here in Indiana," he said in the news release, urging Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to bring the bill to the floor next week.