Brian Eason, and Chelsea Schneider

IndyStar

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders brought his populist message to the steps of the Indiana Statehouse on Friday, pledging to hundreds of union workers and supporters that he will fight to stop corporate greed from “destroying the middle class in America.”

The Democratic presidential hopeful was just the latest candidate to visit Indianapolis with promises of reviving manufacturing in Indiana, holding up Carrier Corp.’s decision to lay off 1,400 workers here as an example of what’s wrong with the U.S. economy.

But Sanders is the only one to do so with the endorsement of the workers themselves.

Speaking at a United Steelworkers Local 1999 rally and march — organized to protest Carrier's plans to outsource its manufacturing operations to Mexico — Sanders reiterated his call for trade policies that won't force Americans "to compete with desperate people all over the world" in a race for the lowest wages.

Sanders also railed against Carrier's parent company, United Technologies Corp., for spending lavishly on executive pay while refusing to pay American workers a living wage. Former CEO Geraud Darnis, who retired in January, made $14.4 million in total compensation in 2015, while Louis Chenevert, another former CEO, was given a $172 million retirement package when he left the company in 2014.

"They have no shame," Sanders said. "... Stop the greed. Stop destroying the middle class in America."

Sanders faces increasingly long odds to win the nomination, but he told reporters Friday that he can win Indiana if turnout is high. Trade has become a potential vulnerability for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, because her husband, former President Bill Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which many blue-collar workers blame for the decline of American manufacturing.

“I think symbolically here you have a Midwest manufacturing state that has prepared to stand up and fight for a political revolution,” Sanders said.

Sanders opposes NAFTA as well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact with 11 Pacific Rim countries signed earlier this year by President Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton has also said she opposes the TPP.

On Tuesday, Clinton visited Munster Steel Co. Inc. in Hammond and the AM General Plant in Mishawaka to make a hard play for Hoosier votes, saying she’s dedicated to skilled labor and has specific plans to bring manufacturing jobs back to Indiana.

Clinton acknowledged the belief that trade agreements cause plant closures, but like Sanders argued that CEOs putting their bonuses ahead of their workers plays a critical role as well.

At Friday's rally, workers swapped stories of economic hardship, directing their anger at both U.S. trade policies and corporations such as Carrier.

Eric Cottonham, a Carrier worker whose job will be eliminated, said he fought in the Middle East for the U.S. military only to return home to have to fight for his job.

"We thought the fight was over" when we came back from Iraq and Afghanistan, Cottonham said. "How sadly we were mistaken."

In one of the rally's most poignant moments, Jesus Velasquez, the leader of a mining union in Mexico, expressed solidarity with the American workers who are losing their jobs.

"Mexican workers are being exploited and being denied the most basic functions of life for our families," Velasquez said via a translator.

Many blue-collar workers there don't make enough to eat, he said. And the low wages in Mexico, he argued, hurt workers in both countries.

"We the Mexican steelworkers are not your enemies," Velasquez said. "We are your brothers. We want what you want."

When the layoffs are phased in beginning in 2017, the company's new workers in Mexico are expected to make $3 an hour, according to union officials. The workers here make $14 to $26 an hour.

While Friday's rally — Sanders' third in as many days, with two more scheduled for next week — showed his commitment to courting voters here, his path to the nomination remains a difficult one. And his campaign earlier this week acknowledged a plan B: stock up on delegates to the Democratic National Convention to fight for progressive policies in the party platform, including a $15 federal minimum wage.

Call IndyStar reporter Brian Eason at (317) 444-6129. Follow him on Twitter: @brianeason.

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