Donald Trump Blasts Carrier Union Leader
07 Diciembre 2016 - 10:31PM
Noticias Dow Jones
By Ted Mann
President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday blasted a steelworkers
union leader who denounced him for exaggerating the number of jobs
saved at a Carrier Corp. factory in Indiana.
On Twitter, Mr. Trump said Chuck Jones, who heads the United
Steelworkers local at the Carrier plant, had done "a terrible job
representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!"
In an interview Wednesday night, Mr. Jones acknowledged he has
received threats since the Trump tweets, but said they "don't
bother me a whole hell of a lot."
The union leader said Mr. Trump had overstated the job savings
of the deal between Carrier and the Indiana governor's office still
run by Vice President-elect Mike Pence. Mr. Jones said Mr. Trump
raised the hopes of some workers who will nonetheless see their
jobs shipped to Mexico.
The spat is a stark reversal from a week ago when Mr. Trump flew
to Indianapolis to tour the factory and show that he had made good
on a campaign promise to stop United Technologies Corp. from moving
the Carrier plant to Mexico.
At that event, Mr. Trump said the deal between Carrier and the
state would keep more than 1,000 jobs in Indiana. The company
confirmed it would retain only 730 union jobs and another 70
nonunion positions at Carrier's gas furnace and fan coil plant in
Indianapolis, Mr. Jones said. Some 550 of his members' jobs would
be sent to Mexico.
Roughly 300 jobs touted as part of Mr. Trump's deal to save jobs
in Indiana had never been slated to move to Mexico. The company
will receive $7 million in tax breaks over 10 years as part of the
agreement.
Mr. Jones called Mr. Trump's claim of more than 1,000 jobs
preserved in Indiana "an out-and-out falsehood."
"I'm not naive enough to think he's going to be a friend to the
working class people," Mr. Jones said, while adding that he was
"grateful" that some jobs were preserved.
In a second tweet Wednesday night, Mr. Trump said the union
should reduce membership dues and "spend more time working-less
time talking."
"If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept
those jobs in Indiana," Mr. Trump wrote.
The Carrier fight highlights a split between union leaders like
Mr. Jones -- who has previously opposed politicians like Messrs.
Trump and Pence -- and some union workers in industrial states who
backed the Trump campaign.
Officials from Local 1999 have previously said members were
excited at Trump's promise to intervene in the plant closing. But
saving all the jobs at stake, let alone repeating the effort with
other companies, was beyond Mr. Trump, Mr. Jones said.
"Our people in that facility got full of hopes they were going
to be able to have a job," Mr. Jones said.
Write to Ted Mann at ted.mann@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 07, 2016 23:16 ET (04:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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