The Rev. Jesse Jackson has been arrested in a group of protesting northern Illinois workers during an act of civil disobedience in Freeport.

Jackson was taken into custody Wednesday with about a dozen workers. He is expected to be released later in the day.

Sensata Technologies is owned by Bain Capital and in the process of moving its Freeport manufacturing operations to China. That'll cost Freeport 170 jobs.

WIFR:

Jackson spent most of the afternoon in "Bainport”, the make-shift campsite that's been home to Sensata employees and their supporters for the last 40 days. Things took a turn around 4:00 p.m. when Jackson and about a dozen workers decided to march onto company property, before being arrested by police.

You may remember the plant is scheduled to close the day before the election, because around 170 jobs are being relocated to China. Today, Jackson said workers were humiliated because they've had to rain their Chinese replacements. He says he hopes his arrest will get Sensata management to the negotiating table. He hoped to convince them to keep the plant open.

“When these workers lose their jobs, they lose their homes, they lose their cars. Their kids cannot stay in school, they lose their hope. We are fighting for the integrity of the American worker, we're fighting for an even playing field,” said Jackson.

Sensata emerged as a flashpoint in the controversy over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s ties to Bain this summer, with the company’s employees pleading publicly with Romney to help save their jobs from being outsourced to China. Not only does Romney stand to profit from the outsourcing of these jobs to China through the stock he still owns in the company, his 2011 tax returns show that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a charity organization he controls -- and that he continues to profit from Bain’s offshore holdings and tax avoidance strategies.

A caravan of about 50 former workers and supporters headed to the fire department where the people who were arrested are to be released.

These American workers all have one thing in common: Bain Capital laid them off and outsourced their jobs. They've traveled from all over the country to gather outside the debate tonight and demand that Mitt Romney answer their questions about how he ran Bain, and how he'll run the country.

Update: This is a statement directly from the now unemployed Sensata workers in Illinois:

"There seems to be some confusion about whether or not our Sensata plant took down our American flag and replaced it with the Chinese flag. Here is the truth. Sensata took down our American flag on the day they flew in our Chinese replacements that we were forced to train. They put our American flag back up after the Chinese workers left. They never flew the Chinese flag."

I've also been attempting to contact a spokesperson for the workers directly, with no response yet, but I think it's probably safe to say that if the plant owners had placed that small flag on the fence in the video, that would have been mentioned in this statement. My apologies for any confusion created by my statements about the Chinese flag.
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Right now in Freeport, Illinois, some 170 workers at an auto sensor plant are sleeping in tents to protest Bain-owned Sensata Technology’s decision to ship their jobs to China.

The company recently made factory officials take down the American flag when they were forced to train their Chinese replacement workers, according to Tom Gaulrapp, with the United Steelworkers Union.

That's un-American, my friends.

This is taking place as Mitt Romney tries to convince people to believe that he doesn’t know about Bain's shipping American jobs overseas. He is trying to distance himself from Bain Capital, a pioneer of outsourcing where Romney made a fortune as CEO.

Another employee losing her job, Mary Jo Kerr, is a young mom of three. She's heartbroken because she can’t afford dance lessons for her daughter. Another is Dot Turner, so close to retirement, but will not receive it. Instead Dot will get just 26 weeks’ severance for 43 years of work in the plant.

Listen to their stories in the video above, and be sure to note the Chinese flag flying in front of the plant at about 1:10 into the video...in Illinois.

More on the Bain-owned Illinois Sensata plant:

'When I Hear Mitt Romney Speak it Makes Me Sick to My Stomach'

Sensata Worker Outsourced by Bain Speaks Out

Occupy Tampa: Shut Down Bain Capital

Arrests at Bain-Owned Sensata Plant

Sensata Employees Ask Mitt Romney To Save Their Jobs

With Election Day on the horizon, a Bain-owned company in Freeport, IL, is moving out equipment as it shuts down operations in the U.S. to ship 170 jobs overseas. On Monday, workers and community members blocked the loading dock for a second time to prevent equipment from being removed from the plant. Three community members -- including the daughter of a Sensata worker -- were arrested when they refused to move after the company called the police.

The company -- Sensata -- emerged as a flashpoint in the controversy over Romney’s ties to Bain this summer, with the company’s employees pleading publicly with Romney to help save their jobs from being outsourced to China. Not only does Romney stand to profit from the outsourcing of these jobs to China through the stock he still owns in the company, his 2011 tax returns show that he got a huge tax break by moving Sensata stock to a charity organization he controls -- and that he continues to profit from Bain’s offshore holdings and tax avoidance strategies.

Sensata workers are certainly not alone watching their jobs sail off to China, or to have wealthy American businessmen profit by investing in those companies:

NYT:

The tale of Asimco Technologies, an auto parts manufacturer whose plants dot eastern China, would seem to underscore Mitt Romney’s campaign-trail complaint that China’s manufacturing juggernaut is costing America jobs.

Nine years ago, the company bought two camshaft factories that employed about 500 people in Michigan. By 2007 both were shut down. Now Asimco manufactures the same components in China on government-donated land in a coastal region that China has designated an export base, where companies are eligible for the sort of subsidies Mr. Romney says create an unfair trade imbalance.

But there is a twist to the Asimco story that would not fit neatly into a Romney stump speech: Since 2010, it has been owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Mr. Romney, who has as much as $2.25 million invested in three Bain funds with large stakes in Asimco and at least seven other Chinese businesses, according to his 2012 candidate financial disclosure and other documents.

“How is it China’s been so successful in taking away our jobs?” he(Romney) asked recently. “Well, let me tell you how: by cheating.”

That was Mitt Romney the candidate for president. Mitt Romney the millionaire, or is it billionaire --trust him, you'll never know for certain -- that Mitt Romney is calling the American people "suckers."

Some day I would like to see people who do everything they can to avoid paying taxes ostracized as the unpatriotic, selfish, leeches they are.

Just in time for the Olympics, MoveOn.org Political Action is releasing this ad that calls out Mitt Romney for wanting many Americans to receive worse treatment than a horse. We want Rafalca, and all our Olympic athletes, to bring home the gold, but we won't stand for Mitt Romney shipping jobs overseas. And it's great that Rafalca gets excellent care, but Mitt Romney trying to cut Americans' health care? Well, that's a horse of a different color.

Mitt Romney. Was he a job creator or a corporate raider?

That's the question this film answers.

And it's not pretty...

Mitt Romney was not a capitalist during his reign at Bain. He was a predatory corporate raider. His firm didn't seek to create value. Instead, like a scavenger, Romney looked for businesses he could pick apart. Indeed, he represented the worst possible kind of predator, operating within the law but well outside the bounds of what most real capitalists consider ethical.

He is exhibit number one the left wants to use in the coming election to give capitalism a bad name.

He and his friends at Bain were bad guys. Any real capitalists should disavow Romney's 'creative destruction' model that made him wealthy at the expense of thousands of American jobs.

Mitt Romney and his cronies pioneered 'deindustrialization,' a process by which they searched out vulnerable companies, took them over, loaded them with debt, and collected obscene fees while doing so. He sent jobs overseas or killed them altogether, and then picked apart the remains - including pension funds - before the companies went bankrupt.

Some might call that the free market. Most of us think its just plain wrong.

If you wonder why America has lost so many manufacturing jobs overseas, look no further than Mitt Romney -- the King of Bain.

Think you know Mitt?

Think again...

[Via]

Edward Meagher joined the United States Air Force in 1966. He volunteered to go to Vietnam and spent well over 2.5 years overseas.

Today, Edward has the privilege of working with veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan:

President Obama's message has been very clear. You stood up for us; we will stand tall for you. He's ended the war with honor, and he's brought them home, and he's doing the same thing in Afghanistan. He understands at a real gut level what these folks have been through.

President Obama has taken a wide view of taking care of veterans who have come back from their service. He's really addressing all their issues: the medical issues, the transition issues, educational benefits, jobs. They have to have access to jobs. They have to have job training. He's put real programs in place -- programs that work.