By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO (AA) – Air conditioner manufacturer Carrier announced Wednesday that another 215 workers would be laid off at its plant in Indianapolis by the end of the week.
The layoffs were previously announced, but workers were organizing events to call on President Donald Trump to do something about the job losses.
Layoffs at Carrier became a flashpoint in the 2016 presidential election after the company announced that it was moving operations from Indiana to Monterrey, Mexico. Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, said some 2,100 American jobs would be lost.
This decision was widely decried by Trump as he was campaigning, with the candidate saying that he would “tax the hell” out of Carrier’s Mexico-made products.
After Trump won the November election, he and Vice President Mike Pence, the former governor of Indiana, struck a deal with United Technologies to keep some of the jobs in Indiana. As part of the deal, the company received some $7 million in tax incentives for promising to stay open until 2026.
At such a steep cost, though, many workers and Trump critics were angered that there would be any layoffs at all. In July, Carrier said it would lay off 600 people. The 215 workers laid off Wednesday were the last group of these announced layoffs.
“This week, approximately 215 employees will leave Carrier, completing the final phase of the previously announced plan to relocate fan coil manufacturing production lines,” the company said in a release. “Following the transition, Carrier’s Indianapolis operations will employ approximately 1,100 people.”
Workers organized amid the announcement at a bar in Indianapolis to demand Trump use his upcoming first State of the Union address to Congress to outline a plan to halt outsourcing.
“Trump promised to save Carrier jobs,” laid-off Carrier employee Quinton Franklin said in a statement. “He lied. I lost my home, my car and my American dream.”
