IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Carrier Cuts 300 At Factory Where Trump Boasted Of Saving Jobs

The Carrier plant where Trump said he stopped jobs leaving from for Mexico has begun laying off employees.
Image: President-elect Donald Trump greet workers during a visit to Carrier factory
President-elect Donald Trump greet workers during a visit to Carrier factory on Dec. 1, 2016, in Indianapolis, Indiana.Evan Vucci / AP file

The Carrier factory where a president-elect Donald J. Trump boasted of having crafted a deal to save jobs from moving to Mexico has begun laying off workers.

338 employees at the Carrier Corporation fan coil manufacturing facility in Indianapolis will be let go tomorrow under the previously announced plan, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

Their positions will still be shifted to Mexico, where workers are paid in a day what the Rust Belt employees make in an hour.

Those plans included an additional 290 employees to be terminated on December 22nd, 2017, three days before Christmas.

"Carrier continues to honor its 2016 commitment to employ approximately 1,100 associates in Indianapolis," the company said in its statement.

It noted that more than 30 of the workers will be taking advantage of job retraining programs. All affected employees will also receive a one-time payment, severance, six months of medical insurance, and be able to apply for jobs elsewhere in the company.

The company became a political target, and then an opportunity, during the campaign when a cellphone video a worker took of the announced relocation in February went viral.

Voters who wanted jobs to stay in America were outraged. Then when Trump said in an April 2016 speech ,"If I were in office right now, Carrier would not be leaving Indiana," they were ebullient.

The individual factory became a favorite campaign topic for Trump. And in late November, before he was even inaugurated, Trump announced that he and Vice-President elect Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana, had worked out a deal for Carrier to keep 1,100 jobs in the state.

At the time pundits said the deal might augur a new era for Trumpian intervention in the markets to protect American worker interests. But so far it's been a one-off.

Other companies jumped on the bandwagon, sending out new press releases to highlight hiring investments they'd already made.

Trump took credit for some of the job creation, for instance saying that he was thrilled to "announce" 20,000 jobs at Charter Communications which was already announced in 2015.

And he claimed responsibility for announcements from Ford, G.M., Lockheed Martin and others companies, tweeting that "jobs [at the companies[ are coming back... because of me!"

Local officials said Carrier would receive $7 million in tax incentives in return for keeping some of the jobs in the state. As part of the deal, the company also promised to invest $16 million in the facility.

The majority of it will go towards automation and result in net job loss, the CEO of Carrier's parent company, United Technologies, said in December.