Senator attacks president-elect after deal that saw Indiana plant receive tax breaks amid concerns it would move to Mexico

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

President-elect Donald Trump drew a rebuke from former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Saturday, after attempting to put pressure on another company planning a move from Indiana to Mexico.

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In a post to Twitter on Friday night – shortly after messages defending his phone conversation with the president of Taiwan which prompted a diplomatic complaint from China – Trump said: “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!”

Rexnord, an industrial supplier based in Milwaukee, announced plans in October to move a bearing plant and its 300 jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico, employees told the Indianapolis Star at the time. Company representatives on Saturday did not respond to a request for comment.

The Republican, who takes office on 20 January, warned on Thursday of consequences for companies that move jobs out of the US but did not specify what they would be.

Trump claimed credit for a deal in which Indiana state officials agreed to give United Technologies $7m worth of tax breaks to encourage the company to keep around 1,000 jobs at its Carrier unit in Indianapolis, instead of hiring in Mexico.

The air conditioner maker will still send an estimated 1,300 jobs south of the border.

Critics, including some Republicans, said making such agreements with individual companies amounted to corporate welfare and was not an effective way of keeping or generating US jobs.

Sanders, who criticized US trade policy in his race against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, said Trump’s deal with Carrier set a “very dangerous precedent” of having taxpayers subsidize multibillion dollar corporations to “beg them” to keep jobs in the country.

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On Saturday, he challenged Trump over his Rexnord tweet.

“What are you going to do, @realDonaldTrump? Stand up for working people or give the company a massive tax break?” Sanders tweeted.

Sanders supports tougher policies on corporations for outsourcing. During the presidential campaign, Trump said his administration would put a 35% import tariff on goods made by American manufacturers that moved jobs offshore.

He frequently pilloried Carrier for planning to move production to Mexico as he appealed to blue-collar voters in the midwest, including in Indiana, whose governor, Mike Pence, is the vice-president-elect.

It is unclear what steps would have to be taken by federal authorities before Trump could retaliate against individual companies shifting jobs abroad.