INDIANAPOLIS – While Rep. Braun was helping support over 10,000 foreign jobs through his business, several Hoosier manufacturers who made the same auto parts that he relies on Chinese labor to make were forced to shut down factories and lay off workers in Indiana in part due to outsourcing by companies like Rep. Braun’s.

Indiana has a proud manufacturing heritage, and it remains one of the largest auto manufacturing states in the nation. In recent years, however, Hoosier manufacturers have been forced to shut down factories across Indiana and ship jobs to foreign countries as a direct result of businesses like Rep. Braun’s which chose to rely on cheap foreign labor as opposed to Indiana’s robust auto manufacturing industry.

Looking through Promaxx Automotive’s catalog, many of the same auto parts the Associated Press revealed that Promaxx makes and sells from China have been produced here in Indiana. And while Rep. Braun has been busy building his business with Chinese labor, at least three of those Indiana factories that made the exact same products have been forced to shut down:

• In 2007, a DURA automotive plant in Brownstown that manufactures winches closed after the plant’s work was moved to Mexico.
• In 2008, workers at a Tenneco Inc. factory in Evansville that manufactured exhaust systems lost their jobs.
• In 2009, an ELSA plant in Elwood that manufactured exhaust systems laid off at least 20% of its workforce.

 

“While Rep. Braun chose to rely on Chinese labor and foreign factories to produce his parts, Indiana plants shut down. If he really wanted to be ‘made in America,’ Rep. Braun could have relied on the many Hoosier manufacturers who were already making the exact auto parts he needed,” said Michael Feldman, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party. “Rep. Braun’s decision to rely on cheap foreign labor to manufacture his products makes clear he’s not interested in helping Hoosiers, he’s only interested in helping himself.”

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