“Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues,” Donald Trump tweeted. | Getty Trump attacks Carrier union boss

Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to slam a local union boss who had criticized the president-elect's claim to have saved 1,100 jobs at an Indianapolis manufacturing plant.

“Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers,” Trump tweeted. “No wonder companies flee the country!”


The president-elect tweeted shortly after Jones had appeared on CNN's "Out Front" with Erin Burnett, expanding on his comments Tuesday when he said that Trump “lied his a— off” when he announced a deal with Carrier Corp. that resulted in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning company’s decision to keep a number of jobs in Indiana that were going to be relocated to Mexico.

"I think he ought to make sure he gets all the facts straight before he starts talking about what he's done," Jones told Burnett.

Trump had said some 1,100 workers would keep their jobs. The real number is 800.

Jones then responded to the tweet on CNN, saying of Trump: "If he wants to blame me, so be it, but I look at him and how many millions of dollars he spent on his hotels and casinos, trying to keep labor unions out, you know, so, I like my side, trying to work to make people's lives the best they can be," Jones said.

Trump later tweeted that "if United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana.”

“Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues,” he said.

Appearing later on MSNBC, Jones was asked whether he believed workers at Carrier who supported Trump during the presidential campaign may have voted differently in light of the president-elect's Wednesday attack.

“I'm going assume that some of them would have thought twice before they would have voted for Mr. Trump," Jones said. "And probably wouldn't have voted for him."

During the MSNBC interview, Jones also said that after he went public, he received threats from Trump’s supporters. He said the messages included people saying “you better keep an eye on your kids” and “we know what type of car you drive.”

But Jones added that he’s been doing union work for more than 30 years, and during that time he’s received similar types of threats.

“I take that with a grain of salt,” he says. “I’m not concerned about it.”

Leo Gerard, national president of the United Steelworkers Union, for which Jones works, expressed frustration with Trump's reaction.

"I'm terribly disappointed, and I'm also angry," he told Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC. "We've got someone who is just about to become the president of the United States, most important job on the planet, and he is busy tweeting about a local union president who is in fact a hero."

Jones also earned praise from the Indiana branch of the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers, with both groups defended him as a champion of the working class.

"Chuck Jones is a man of integrity who ALWAYS puts the interest of workers first," the Indiana AFL-CIO tweeted late Wednesday. "To say otherwise is not only false, it's infuriating."

"Chuck is a hero not a scapegoat: you, others know about Carrier because of his, members' tireless work since day 1 to save ALL jobs there," the Steelworkers tweeted Wednesday night.

Robert Reich, former labor secretary under President Bill Clinton, made a direct plea on CNN's "AC360" for the president-elect to change his ways.

"Let me just say, with all due respect Mr. Trump, you are president-elect of the United States. You are looking and acting as if you are mean and petty, thin-skinned and vindictive. Stop this,” Reich implored.