Washington – The union president slammed by Donald Trump on Twitter challenged the president-elect Thursday to back up his claim that a deal to discourage Carrier Corp. from closing an Indiana factory would save 1,100 American jobs.
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“He overreacted, President-elect Trump did,” United Steelworkers 1999 President Alex Jones told CNN. “He should have come out and tried to justify his numbers.”
Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence — governor of Indiana — visited Carrier’s Indianapolis factory Dec. 1 to celebrate the deal. Trump suggested then that the number of jobs saved could top 1,100. Jones says the total is much less because more than 400 jobs will still be lost from the Indianapolis plant.
“A lot of the people thought at that time thought that they were going to have a job” who might not, Jones said Thursday.
Late Wednesday, Trump tweeted: “Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers.”
That local union branch represents workers at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant.
In a second tweet, Trump suggested Jones should “Spend more time working — less time talking” and the union should “Reduce dues.”
About 30 minutes after Trump tweeted about Jones, the union leader started getting harassing phone calls, he told MSNBC.
He said one caller asked: “What kind of car do you drive?” Another said: “We’re coming for you.”
He told the cable news outlet he wasn’t sure how the callers found his number.
“Nothing that says they’re going to kill me, but, you know, you better keep your eye on your kids,” Jones told MSNBC. “I’ve been doing this job for 30 years, and I’ve heard everything from people who want to burn my house down or shoot me … I can deal with people that make stupid statements and move on.”
Has any union boss done anything at all to preserve jobs, or have they only looked to increase their membership dues and pad their own pockets. I am not about busting unions, as they do have a purpose, but they have become their own mafia, without regard for the needs of American workers. It’s about time we had a president that ignored the greed of the unions and accomplished something for America.
UTC is planning on using the tax incentive money to move forward on automating the plant. In a few years the jobs will still be mostly gone. There is no fighting basic economics. Unskilled or low end semi-skilled labor is going to continue to become a dinosaur.
When will people notice that Trump is a broken record. Any one who challenges his overreaching claims “does a terrible job” is “pathetic” or what ever. Remember what Chazal said. “Kol HaPose. beMumo Posel”
Announced today:
As part of the deal President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence struck with Carrier, the company has promised to make a $16 million investment in its Indianapolis facility — an investment management plans to use on developing technology that will allow them to replace human workers with robots.
The company’s plans were confirmed by Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier’s corporate parent, during a CNBC interview earlier this week.
“We’re going to… automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Hayes said. “Is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we’ll make the capital investments there. But what that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs.
Yo – Trumpisprez, wake up.