President-elect Donald Trump announced that he had cut a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, to keep slightly less than 1,000 jobs in Indiana. Good news, right? Donald Trump did some of his much touted magical negotiating, right? Wrong.
Carrier had planned to move 2,100 jobs to Mexico. So 1,100 jobs are still leaving. Worse, in return for allowing United Technologies to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, the corporation will reportedly receive tax and regulatory favors. And there is no guarantee that the “saved” 1,000 jobs won’t leave at some future date. This isn’t a win-win. It’s a lose-lose.
Trump promised that we would get tired of winning. Is anyone getting tired of “wins” like this yet?
Submitted by Mike Pfeifer
Sen. Bernie Sanders recently wrote an article explaining the details of this deal & its effect upon labor. He will propose legislation to address these issues in the Outsourcing Prevention Act. You can read his full article at the following:
It is worth mentioning that Carrier has hundreds of millions of dollars invested in a new plant and infrastructure in Mexico. They are not going to walk away from that. The taxpayers got screwed two times in this deal. Once, for giving favors worth more than the jobs are likely to return to the economy to keep only half of them. A second time, for giving Carrier financial favors to take the other 1,100 jobs out of the country. This is not costing Carrier anything. It is corporate welfare at its worst.
Just and observation: Carrier’s parent could have used the $172,000,000 it gave their retiring, 57 year old CEO as golden parachutes for the 1,100 workers who just lost their jobs there. That would have given them at least a nice retirement nest egg of $156,000 EACH.
The thing that really burns about Trump’s deal, is that United Technologies is dependent on government contracts, and Carrier is a consumer brand whose largest market is the United States. Trump had all the cards… and the best deal he could negotiate is to give Carrier our tax dollars to help them build a better facility in Mexico.
Donald, in any commercial organization, you would be fired.