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Braun Ad Spotlights His Own Outsourcing, Mistreating Workers

A new report from the IndyStar highlights former state Representative Mike Braun’s political doublespeak: promising to bring back American jobs while, at the same time, directing his companies to outsource jobs, import foreign goods, and mistreat and underpay his workers. From the report:

“GOP Senate candidate Mike Braun boasts in a new campaign ad that his business is ‘proud to be made in America.’ But the ad shows logos on company trucks for two of Braun’s suppliers that use overseas manufacturing facilities.

Braun owns Meyer Distributing, a Jasper-based national auto parts distribution company that the Associated Press previously reported imports goods from the same overseas countries he has criticized for taking American jobs.”

This isn’t the first or second or third time Braun has been called out for misleading Hoosiers on his business practices.

From Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesman David Bergstein: “From overworking and underpaying his employees, to importing goods from Mexico and China while promising to save Americans jobs, to using his position in the state legislature to enrich himself, Mike Braun’s business record is one of misleading Hoosiers to benefit himself. Unfortunately for Braun, Hoosiers will see right through his record of self-dealing and manipulation.”

More on Braun’s record of putting his own business interests ahead of Hoosiers’ jobs:

Associated Press: Indiana candidate’s rhetoric, business record don’t line up.

  • Braun has blamed “career politicians” for outsourcing good-paying jobs overseas, while pledging he’ll help bring them back. Yet when it comes to his own business empire, which includes a handful of interrelated companies, Braun’s record falls far short of his campaign rhetoric, a review by The Associated Press found.
  • Meyer Distributing, a Jasper-based national auto parts distribution company Braun owns, does brisk business importing goods from the same overseas countries he has criticized for taking American jobs. He also has accepted government subsidies, despite criticizing the practice.
  • And lawsuits filed against his companies — backed up by federal trucking and labor records — present a picture of a boss who has overworked and underpaid employees.
  • Over the past decade, workers have sued in West Virginia, Oklahoma and California, alleging they were forced to work long hours in unsafe conditions and denied overtime pay, meal times and breaks.

Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Braun companies faced suits, discipline on pay.

  • A lawsuit filed last year in California claims that one of Braun’s companies, Meyer Logistics Inc., has underpaid and overworked its truck drivers in that state. Tomas Alcala, a former driver for Meyer Logistics, contends in his complaint that the company violated laws by conducting background checks on prospective employees without their consent, failing to provide required meal and rest periods to drivers, failing to pay minimum wages and overtime, and failing to reimburse employees for required expenses.
  • The suit claims Meyer Logistics “consistently required” drivers to work “without paying them for all the time they were” working.
  • Meyer Distributing also agreed to pay $39,402 in back wages at its Jasper headquarters after the U.S. Department of Labor found 26 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act related to unpaid overtime from December 2008 through December 2010.

Politifact: A look into the business practices of Indiana’s Republican Senate candidate Mike Braun.

  • “His trucking company and distribution companies ‘overworked and underpaid employees’”:
    • The U.S. Labor Department found Meyer Distributing violated the Fair Labor Standards Act 26 times. The violations were related to unpaid overtime work for 25 employees between December 2008 and December 2010. Meyer Distributing had to pay $39,402 in back wages. The company settled one lawsuit with a fired employee in 2009 related to the same issue.
    • The Federal Transportation Department cited Meyer Distributing 41 times for work time logging violations since September 2015, according to a search by the Associated Press.
    • “The larger the company, the more unforgivable it is that they didn’t pay their workers,” [director of labor education research at Cornell University] Bronfenbrenner said.
  • “Imported goods from Mexico and China while pretending to care about American jobs.”
    • Import Genius, a company that tracks maritime shipments that land in U.S. ports, found 14 imports to Meyer Distributing from China dating back to 2012.
    • Braun also owns a home decor store, Finishing Touches, that sold a variety of products manufactured in China. These included, among a few others, Vera Bradley bags, Yeti coolers, and Corkcicle tumblers.
    • As a state legislator, Braun voted against an amendment that allowed local governments to take back property tax incentives from companies that relocate outside Indiana.
  • “Used his state legislature seat to enrich himself and his companies.”
    • Braun has been a state representative since January 2014, and he owns more than 5,000 acres of timber valued above $5 million. While he does not harvest timber himself, he sells his trees to loggers. His timber land yields tens of thousands of dollars in income each year.
    • “What he did was on ethically shaky ground,” Vaughn said… The Indiana General Assembly requires a congressman to recuse himself if the end result of a policy change provides him a direct and unique financial benefit. Because these policies affected more than just Braun, they passed the low bar set by the ethics rules, according to Vaughn.

IndyStar: Senate candidate Braun pushed legislation benefiting his industry as a state lawmaker.

  • During his short tenure as a state lawmaker, Braun worked to reduce taxes and regulations on an industry in which he holds a significant personal financial interest — a connection that raises ethical concerns, critics say.
  • Braun owns more than 5,000 acres of timber land in southern Indiana valued at more than $5 million. He harvests the trees on that land for hardwood, yielding tens of thousands of dollars in income each year. At the same time, he successfully pushed legislation at the Statehouse that provided millions of dollars in tax breaks for the timber industry and cut regulatory costs for hauling logs. He also tried unsuccessfully to put new limits on logging in state forests, potentially forcing more logging onto private timber lands like his.
  • Industry experts say the legislation certainly benefited private timber land owners, and government watchdogs say Braun’s actions raise serious ethical concerns, blurring the line between public policy and personal gain. “Clearly this is having a direct impact on his bottom line,” said Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana. “Certainly in some states it would be considered a statutory conflict of interest.”

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