More than 200 workers will lose their jobs at a Carrier factory in Indianapolis this week despite President Donald Trump heralding a deal in 2016 to save jobs at the facility by keeping it from shutting down.
That deal seems to have fallen largely by the wayside, as the heating and air conditioning maker already let go of nearly 340 employees at the Indianapolis plant in July. With the addition of Thursday’s announcement of another 215 layoffs, the facility will be left with about 1,100 workers.
Carrier employees who voted for Trump feel betrayed by the president. One employee told The New Yorker that many of the office-based jobs that will remain in Indianapolis were never on the line, explaining: “Trump saved some jobs. He didn’t save mine, but he did save some.”
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Yet the office workers are “not making units,” she continued. “We are. We’re the ones that made the $9.7 billion that they collected. We can understand companies having to go overseas if they’re losing money. We get it. But Carrier is the top A.C.- and furnace-making company in the nation, getting money hand over fist. Just don’t bullshit us.”
In 2016, Carrier’s plans to move much of its operations to Mexico and close the Indianapolis plant, laying off more than 2,000 jobs in the process, became a focal point of Trump’s campaign. Three weeks after he was elected, Trump announced a tax-incentive agreement that was intended to keep the plant from closing and keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis.
