Hundreds could still lose jobs at Carrier's Indianapolis plant, despite Trump deal

[JV]

WASHINGTON –  In persuading Carrier to keep hundreds of jobs in Indiana, President-elect Donald Trump is claiming victory on behalf of factory workers whose positions were bound for Mexico. But the scant details that have emerged so far raise doubts about the extent of the victory.

By enabling Carrier's Indianapolis plant to stay open, the deal spares about 800 union workers whose jobs were going to be outsourced to Mexico, according to federal officials who were briefed by the heating and air conditioning company. This suggests that hundreds will still lose their jobs at the factory, where roughly 1,400 workers were slated to be laid off.

Also, neither Trump nor Carrier has yet to say what the workers might have to give up or precisely what threats or incentives were used to get the manufacturer to change its mind.

"There's excitement with most people, but there's a lot of skepticism and worry because we don't know the details," said TJ Bray, 32, who has worked for Carrier for 14 years and installs insulation in furnaces.

"There's a few that are worried. And there's still a few that don't even believe this is real. They think it's a play, a set-up or a scam."

Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind., said he, too, has lingering questions about what the announcement could mean for the workers.

"Who is going to be retained? What is the structure there will be for the retention? What is going to be put in place?" Donnelly said. "Are these the same jobs at the same wage? I would sure like to know as soon as I can."

Fuller answers could emerge Thursday, when Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who is ending his tenure as Indiana governor, are to appear with Carrier officials in Indiana.

On the campaign trail, Trump threatened to impose sharp tariffs on any company that shifted its factories to Mexico. And his advisers have since promoted lower corporate tax rates as a means of keeping jobs in the U.S.

Trump may have had some leverage because United Technologies, Carrier's parent company, also owns Pratt & Whitney, a big supplier of fighter jet engines that relies in part on U.S. military contracts.

Carrier said in a statement that more than 1,000 jobs were saved, though that figure includes headquarters and engineering staff that were likely to stay in Indiana.

The company attributed its decision to the incoming Trump administration and financial incentives provided by Indiana, which is something of a reversal, since earlier offers from the state had failed to sway Carrier from decamping to Mexico.

"Today's announcement is possible because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate," the company said.

In February, United Technologies said it would close its Carrier air conditioning and heating plant in Indianapolis and move its manufacturing to Mexico. The plant's workers would have been laid off over three years starting in 2017.

Whatever deal Trump struck with Carrier does not appear to have salvaged jobs at a separate branch of United Technologies in Huntington, Ind., that makes microprocessor-based controls for the heating, air conditioning and refrigeration industries. That branch will move manufacturing operations to a new plant in Mexico, costing the city 700 jobs by 2018.

Huntington Mayor Brooks Fetters suggested that local officials lack the political clout to preserve those jobs.

"At a local level, there was not much that anybody was going to do to make global, publicly traded companies make a decision other than what they made for the benefit of their shareholders," Fetters said.

Donnelly said he worries about other factory job losses threatening his state. Bearing maker Rexnord, which has a factory near the Carrier plant in Indianapolis, plans to lay off about 350 workers. And electronics manufacturer CTS plans to eliminate more than 200 jobs at its Elkhart plant, he said.

Union leaders who represent the Carrier workers were not involved in the negotiations that the Trump team had with their employer.

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents Carrier workers, said of Tuesday's news: "I'm optimistic, but I don't know what the situation is. I guess it's a good sign. ... You would think they would keep us in the loop. But we know nothing."

Trump's deal with Carrier may be a public relations success for the incoming president. It also suggests that he has unveiled a new presidential economic approach: actively choosing individual corporate winners and losers — or at least winners.

To critics who see other Indiana factories on the verge of closing, deals like the one at Carrier are unlikely to stem the job losses caused by automation and cheap foreign competition.

The prospect that the White House might directly intervene is also a concern to some economists. The incentives needed to keep jobs from moving often come at the public's expense. They note that Trump's activism might encourage companies to threaten to move jobs overseas in hopes of receiving tax breaks or contracts with the government.

"It sets up a race to the bottom," said Diane Lim, chief economist at the nonprofit Committee for Economic Development.

Carrier's parent company indicated that moving production to Mexico would save the company $65 million annually. Because of pressures like that, states routinely give manufacturers incentives, and "economists who recoil at the thought of this are living in a dream world," said Scott Paul, president of the American Alliance for Manufacturing.

For Trump, a challenge will be trying to duplicate the Carrier feat many times over to retain and increase the nation's 12.3 million manufacturing jobs.

Since the start of 2015, the Labor Department has issued over 1,600 approvals for layoffs or plant closings as a result of shifts of production overseas or competition from imports, the American Alliance of Manufacturing noted.

But other forces, such as consumer demand and the value of the dollar, also determine whether assembly lines keep humming.

Payroll services provider ADP said Wednesday that manufacturers shed 10,000 jobs in November. U.S. manufacturers have struggled in the past year as a stronger dollar has cut into exports and domestic businesses have spent less on machinery and other equipment.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that Trump would have to replicate the Carrier deal 804 times to meet President Barack Obama's record. He said that Obama created 805,000 jobs in manufacturing and that the figure is much higher if existing jobs that have been protected are included.

Trump acknowledged the extent of the problem on the campaign trail this year.

"So many hundreds and hundreds of companies are doing this," he said. "We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us. We have to stop our companies from leaving the United States."

Carrier wasn't the only company Trump assailed during the campaign. He pledged to give up Oreos after Nabisco's parent, Mondelez International, said it would replace nine production lines in Chicago with four in Mexico. He criticized Ford after the company said it planned to invest $2.5 billion in engine and transmission plants in Mexico.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/30/hundreds-could-still-los...

[JV]

Trump Threatened Carrier With Loss of Federal Contracts If They Left US

Carrier, the heating and air-conditioner company that announced Tuesday it had agreed to keep 1,000 jobs in the United States after talks with President-elect Donald Trump, elaborated Wednesday, saying it had been offered state "incentives" to stay.

 

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The company did not specify on what the incentives were, but such deals with state and local governments typically include tax breaks the governments believe will be offset by the additions to the workforce brought by the company.

Late Wednesday, a former Indiana official told Politico that the deal was about lucrative federal contracts.

The agreement includes $700,000 in state tax breaks offered by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, a quasi-public entity that doesn't require legislative approval for its deals.

The state official, John Mutz, a former Indiana lieutenant governor who sits on the agency’s 12-member board, told Politico that he believed that Carrier turned down a previous offer from IEDC before the election. "He said he thinks the choice is driven by concerns from Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, that it could lose a portion of its roughly $6.7 billion in federal contracts," Politico reported.

“This deal is no different than other deals that we put together at the IEDC to retain jobs, but the fact is that the difference is that United Technologies depends on the federal government for lots of business,” Mutz said.

Carrier said in its statement released Wednesday night it will "continue to manufacture gas furnaces in Indianapolis, in addition to retaining engineering and headquarters staff, preserving more than 1,000 jobs."

Carrier announced earlier this year it would be moving those jobs from its Indiana plant to Mexico where it could pay workers less. Trump slammed the company on the campaign trail, threatening a 35 percent tariff on imported goods.

Critics said that would violate the North American Free Trade Agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada, but Trump countered NAFTA and other trade deals were up for renegotiation if he won the White House.

When he did win the presidency, Carrier decided to talk.

"Today's announcement is possible because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate," Carrier said in its statement.

Trump's Vice President-elect Mike Pence is currently Indiana's governor.

"The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration," Carrier said, but added, "This agreement in no way diminishes our belief in the benefits of free trade and that the forces of globalization will continue to require solutions for the long-term competitiveness of the U.S. and of American workers moving forward."

Trump will be in Indiana on Thursday to talk more about the deal.

The Carrier plant employs 1,400, but a nearby plant owned by its parent company, United Technologies Electronic Controls, which has 700 employees slated to lose their jobs to Mexico, was not part of this week's announcement, CNN Money reported.

But tax incentives might not have been Trump's only negotiation card,ABC News reported.

Professor Mohan Tatikonda of Indiana University's Kelley School of Business said Trump also could have used his next four or eight years in office badmouthing the company, which would hurt its brand.

"That would mean just massive reduction in brand value and goodwill," he said. "It's hard to quantify, but it isn't small."

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Mexico-Carrier-jobs-incentives/201...

[JV]

Mark Levin RIPS Trump Carrier Comments: “What is this…a BANANA REPUBLIC?”

Mark Levin opened his show discussing Trump’s comments from his Carrier speech today, hitting Trump hard for sounding like the leader of a banana republic with his threats to punish companies who want to take their business overseas.

At one point during his comments, Levin recalled how Hugo Chavez was walking down the street, pointing out buildings and telling his people to expropriate them. He then asked if Trump was going to walk down industry punishing business with a 35 percent tax that were planning to go overseas:

But now this part about where we’re like a banana republic? I remember that video I played on Levin TV where the late, not great, Hugo Chavez was walking down the street and he was pointing at buildings and he’s saying:

“You see that building there?”
And the press “yeah yeah yeah”.
“Expropriate it!”
“See that over there?”
“Yes.”
“Expropriate it!”
“Expropriate it!”

Well what now, [is Trump] gonna walk down industry row?

“You wanna send some business overseas? Nah, I’m taxing you 35 percent!”
“You? Nah, I’m hitting you too!”
“You? Okay I know you, you’re okay.”

That’s not something we should support, that’s not something we should applaud!”

Levin does credit Trump when he’s talking about doing the right thing such as lowering corporate taxes and such, but he focuses most of his segment on how Trump is threatening to punish companies.

Listen to his full segment below:

http://therightscoop.com/mark-levin-rips-trump-carrier-comments-ban...

[jack ludwig]

This is good news for Carrier employees and for Carrier. The executives at Carrier new once announced he was running for president and part of his campaign promise was to stop companies from leaving America, they new they had a great negotiating tool should Trump win. The continuation of the plant construction in Mexico was insurance just incase Trump did not win. However, once he won the cards began to fall in place for Carrier which is good for everyone concerned. Everything worked out to everyone's satisfaction.  Of course some at Carrier will lose their job but about 85% will remain employed and hopefully they will respect how close they came to being out of a job and do everything they can to be a better and more productive employee.

[kevin kiernan]

If Levin does not attack government ,he has no show. His show runs on hatred for the most part. He can not allow our government to be good ,because he would be out of a job...RATINGS, RATINGS, RATINGS....He has a show to run and payroll to meet. That is his important agenda.

[Hankelvis]

Levin is a constitutional scholar.
He calls them exactly right.
Do not be defensive, Trump still needs to learn the boundaries of the Constitution.
Right now, it is all about rubbing Obama's nose in his own poop.

[kevin kiernan]

Yes he does need to learn how stay within confines of the constitution ,But Levin does need to oppose government. That is what his show is about. Levin is at his best and entertaining when he is angry.

[JV]

he is still right about this and ratings havve nothing to do with it,

the question is who's next in trumps payoff game..or we can call it what it is..strong arm negotiations typically left for marxist/fascist and mafia types

this is going to be a long term

[kevin kiernan]

We could have the best POTUS ever ,and Levin would find something to complain about. That is why he is a success. He has always been the attack dog for the right. That is fine ,and I do like his show. But I realize what he is and why he does what he does.

[JV]

its not about levin but about trump oversteping his authority and he aint even sworn in yet.so lets not ignore the issue in favor of attacking the messenger cause we want him silenced to hide the issue.

its going to be a long 4 yrs if he keeps doing liberal unconstitutional actions  like this

[JV]

that doesnt mean he isn't right about this..so lets not ignore the message while attacking the messenger

I thought the government picking winners and losers was a liberal thing that an honest conservative was opposed to?

[kevin kiernan]

It was Indiana State Government that gave the concessions to carrier. Not the federal government. So he is inside the constitution.

[JV]

so trump was negotiating for the state of Indiana , how is that his job, and lets not forget about the threats of losing gov contracts. 

like I said these are strong arm tactics we see from the liberals not conservatives