Bernie Sanders returns to Indianapolis for jobs rally Monday

Sen. Bernie Sanders is returning to Indianapolis on Monday to talk about the topic that helped him win the Democrat primary in Indiana in 2016 — jobs.

The senator from Vermont will rally at Monument Circle at 4 p.m. with Good Jobs Nation and former United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who spent the past couple of years fighting against Carrier Corp.'s decision to shift work overseas.

Sanders' economy-focused rally comes just a month after state officials touted Indiana's 3 percent unemployment rate, which is just 0.1 percent away from the record low.

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Sanders emphasized the rally isn't just focused on creating jobs, but also reducing income inequality.

"We are creating jobs, that's good, but many of the new jobs that are being created are paying workers wages that people cannot live on," Sanders said in an interview with IndyStar. "So our job is not only to create jobs, but to create jobs with livable wages, jobs in which people can afford health care, can afford decent housing, can afford child care for their kids, can put aside a few bucks for vacation. And that's not what is happening in America."

Wage growth in Indiana has lagged behind the rest of the country's since the Great Recession. Indiana had the ninth-slowest wage growth in the U.S. during the first part of 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Sanders and Good Jobs Nation have advocated for a $15 minimum wage.

Both Sanders and President Donald Trump focused on jobs during their campaigns and protested Carrier's plans to close its Indianapolis factory and move production to Mexico. A month before Sanders won 52 percent of the vote in the Indiana Democratic primary, he rallied on the steps of the Indiana Statehouse with the United Steelworkers Local 1999 against Carrier.

After the general election, Trump and then-Gov. Mike Pence struck a $7 million deal with Carrier to keep the plant open for the next 10 years and save 800 of the 1,400 jobs that Carrier had planned to cut. However, Carrier was still allowed to move its fan coil production from Indianapolis to Mexico, resulting in the loss of 600 jobs.

Sanders, who has been critical of Trump for offering incentives to Carrier to stay in the U.S. instead of punishing them, called Carrier and its parent company, United Technologies, "a poster child for a lot that is wrong with the American economy."

Jones, too, has publicly criticized Trump on CNN for "lying his (expletive) off" about the number of jobs Trump's deal was saving.

Sanders said his visit to Indianapolis doesn't indicate any plans to run for president in 2020. He was invited by Good Jobs Nation to Indianapolis and said he wanted to go to work with people in the Midwest and "demand answers."

"Indiana is a state that has been hit hard by disastrous trade policies," Sanders said. "They have seen a significant decline in manufacturing. They've seen a decline in median family income. They are in a situation where many people in Indiana and in many other states around this country are working longer hours for lower wages ...

"I think what the people of Indiana are saying is we want an economy that works for the middle class, that works for the working class and not just for the people on top."

After his rally in Indiana, Sanders will travel to Portsmouth, Ohio, for a rally on jobs, health care and the economy, and then to Detroit for a town hall meeting with Rep. John Conyers.

IndyStar reporters James Briggs and Tony Cook contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Kaitlin Lange at (317) 432-9270. Follow her on Twitter: @kaitlin_lange.