After a tax-incentive deal at the Carrier plant, Donald Trump set his sights on Rexnord Corp – where ‘devastated’ workers face a similar threat to their jobs

This summer, Kyle Beaman was planning his retirement, a move to rural Indiana, and a quiet life with his wife, when his employer, in October, landed a gut punch: within months, he would probably be out of work.

The employer, the Indianapolis-based bearings manufacturer Rexnord Corp, had announced tentative plans to move nearly 300 well-paying jobs to Mexico. The unionized shop was only through its first year of a three-year contract.

“I was devastated,” Beaman, 62, said, “even though I had suspicions. But I was expecting [the move] next year – two years into a contract – not one.”

Just over a mile around the corner, Donald Trump announced on Thursday that about 800 jobs at the heating and air conditioning company Carrier would be saved. The state of Indiana – where Vice-president-elect Mike Pence is governor – agreed to give the business $7m in tax incentives over 10 years. Carrier has said the deal depends on job retention and capital investment.

Everything you need to know about Trump and the Indiana Carrier factory Read more

The agreement has not been without controversy. Trump toured the Carrier facility this week to announce the deal, but critics have said it potentially sets a precedent for companies to seek tax concessions by threatening to leave the US. Moreover, they point out, Carrier’s parent company still intends to relocate 1,300 jobs to Mexico and shut down a plant in nearby Huntington.

In short, the case of Carrier is something of an anomaly in the midwest. The Rexnord facility, located along a busy road dotted by fast-food restaurants, gas stations and strip malls, is more indicative of a trend across the region. Since 2000, Indiana has lost 150,000 manufacturing jobs. Nationally, 5m manufacturing jobs disappeared over the same period.

For employees at Rexnord, the Carrier announcement was met with cautious optimism. And when Trump set his sights on Rexnord itself on Friday evening, spirits were boosted even more.

“Rexnord of Indiana is moving to Mexico and rather viciously firing all of its 300 workers,” the president-elect wrote on Twitter. “This is happening all over our country. No more!” He followed this the next day with a series of tweets threatening a 35% tax on products sold inside the US by any business that fired American workers and built a new factory or plant in another country.

Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indianapolis, characterized efforts by companies to ship jobs elsewhere as a typical cost-cutting maneuver. It’s “corporate greed and unfair trade”, said Jones, whose union represents both Carrier and Rexnord workers.

Kelly Hugunin, the union representative for Local 1999, pointed out that the jobs at Rexnord and Carrier paid $20-$25 per hour, a wage that allowed workers at the shop to live a middle-class life.

“I was happy to hear that some jobs were being saved,” Hugunin said. “I was curious what the cost would be for saving the jobs.”

Hugunin isn’t optimistic about the prospect of additional jobs being saved in the region. The current indication from Rexnord, he said, was that the company was following through with its outsourcing plans.

Beaman, who is from Indianapolis, feels otherwise. The father of three and grandfather of five has been a Trump supporter from the outset; he showed off his Trump “gold” membership card sent to campaign supporters who donated a certain amount, and said a similar “black card” was also on its way. And while he was uncertain that Trump could prevent Rexnord from shutting its doors, Beaman was heartened to see Trump had publicly blasted the company on Twitter.

The company, according to Beaman, has said it will require employees to train their replacements before they can receive a severance package.

“It ain’t gonna happen,” Beaman said.

The jobs at Rexnord are well paid for manufacturing work in the region, especially for residents without a college degree (only 16.5% of Indiana residents possess a bachelor’s degree, about half the rate in the US as a whole). But it was hard work, Beaman said; at times, since he began in 2007, he had worked upward of seven days a week, with 10-hour days.

“That’s the misconception that people don’t understand when they see ‘union’,” Beaman said at a Dairy Queen shop located down the road from Rexnord.

“They don’t understand the sacrifices we’re making to make that $25 an hour,” he continued. “We’re sacrificing home life, family. All of this to make [Rexnord] money. Now, sure, it makes us money – but when you don’t have a lot of time to do anything, sometimes you wonder: is it all worth it?”

Rexnord, which did not respond to a request for comment, said in a statement last month that it “invited the union to join us in an open and frank discussion over this potential relocation and the impact it would have on Rexnord associates and their families”.

The Carrier announcement has been framed as a minor win amid an imminent threat of hundreds of jobs being lost elsewhere. But the Rexnord shop – which Beaman said historically mostly voted for the Democratic party but broke for Trump this year – found the president-elect’s pronouncements encouraging.

“Carrier’s 1,400 people,” Beaman said. “We’re 300; we’re just small potatoes … It’s everywhere across this country, especially here in the manufacturing sector. There’s hundreds of us that this is happening to.”

The deal with Carrier has faced criticism for the decision to provide a package of tax incentives. The former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said it should “send a shockwave of fear” for workers across the US – but some workers said the concession might be worth it, if the result was additional jobs being saved.

Don Zering, a machinist who has worked at Rexnord for over four decades, said he was hopeful that something might prevent Rexnord from packing up for good.

“If that’s what it takes to do it, then I’m all for it,” Zering said.

Carrier deal saves Indiana jobs, but Trump critics fear dangerous precedent Read more

“We gotta start somewhere,” he added, “and that was a good start. Hopefully we’ll keep improving on that.”

Beaman said he was not nearly as worried for his own future as he was for younger employees in the company.

“The ... ones who just maybe got married, or just had a baby, or just bought a house, or they just bought a car,” Beaman said. “Those are the ones I’m worried about. Because their life’s going to be turned upside-down here real quick.”

Jones, the union president, said many workers had approached him to ask: “What could we have done?”

“Well, what the hell could we have done?” he said. “They’re having their livelihood ripped away from them.”