Carrier plant Trump ‘struck a deal’ with will end up dumping 600 employees

The Carrier plant in Indianapolis that Donald Trump convinced to stay open late last year has announced that they will lay off 600 employees beginning next month.

CNBC says that the deal, “announced with great fanfare before Trump took office, was billed not only as a heroic move to keep jobs from going to Mexico but also as a seismic shift in the economic development landscape.”

Nearly seven months later, the deal has crumbled and the company is facing the same crisis it did before the deal was made.

“The jobs are still leaving,” Robert James, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, told CNBC. “Nothing has stopped.”

It’s a far cry from what then-President-elect Trump promised just before the election.

“They’re going to have a great Christmas,” Trump said during a speech at the plant last December. “And by the way, that number is going to go up very substantially as they expand this area. So the 1,100 is going to be a minimum number.”

But CNBC reports that a closer look at the deal shows that only 730 of the 1,069 jobs that Trump “saved” are manufacturing jobs — the rest being jobs that were never going to be cut anyway. Also, the $16 million supposed to be used for investment in the facility as part of the deal will go toward automation, resulting in fewer jobs.

“To me this was just political, to make it a victory within Trump’s campaign, in his eyes that he did something great,” 15-year Carrier employe T. J. Bray told CNBC. “I’m very grateful that I get to keep my job, and many others, but I’m still disappointed that we’re losing a lot.”

Unfortunately, things don’t look like they’ll be turning around anytime soon. “I don’t see Carrier hiring anytime in the near future,” Robert James said.

[H/T The Hill] Featured image via YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.