Indiana factories face layoffs despite Trump pressure

Bloomberg

About 1,500 workers at three Indiana factories are facing layoffs despite hopes that President Donald Trump would convince the companies to reverse plans for moving production to Mexico.
United Technologies confirmed that the first wave of about 50 layoffs happened last week at its electronics plant that had about 700 workers in Huntington. The plant in the northeastern Indiana city is slated for closure.
Steps are also being taken toward about 550 job cuts anticipated at a Carrier Corp. factory in Indianapolis, where Trump’s intervention last fall curbed job losses but didn’t halt them altogether. Layoffs could start within a month at a 350-worker Rexnord industrial bearings factory in Indianapolis, according to United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones, who represents workers at the Carrier and Rexnord plants.
Trump visited the Carrier factory on December 1, touting his role in the decision of parent company United Technologies to reverse about 800 of its some 1,400 planned job cuts at the furnace plant and only partially move operations to Mexico. Trump told a crowd of workers and company officials: “Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences. It’s not going to happen.” The following day, Trump tweeted: “Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers. This is happening all over our country. No more!”
Connecticut-based United Technologies and Milwaukee-based Rexnord have since pushed on preparations for the jobs cuts, taking steps such as removing equipment from the Indiana factories without any signs of additional Trump intervention.
“We haven’t heard anything at all. With that being said, I have to assume the Rexnord and Carrier situations are both done deals,” said Jones, who was chastised by a Trump tweet in early December after complaining that Trump had given false hope to workers by inflating the number of Carrier jobs being kept in Indianapolis.