Indiana Carrier plant to lay off 215 workers on Thursday

John Tuohy | The Indianapolis Star

Show Caption Hide Caption How many jobs is Carrier really keeping President-elect Donald Trump gave one number on the amount of jobs that would be saved and a union president, another. So which is it?

INDIANAPOLIS — Carrier has announced 215 workers will lose their jobs at its Indianapolis heating and air conditioning plant this week, the last of about 600 previously announced layoffs.

To register their displeasure, many of the workers will gather at an Indianapolis bar Wednesday night to call on President Trump to stop manufacturing jobs from leaving the United States.

The workers' last day is Thursday. In July, Carrier laid off 340 workers at the plant.

Carrier announced plans in 2016 to move all of its Indianapolis operations to Monterrey, Mexico, and close the factory. The pending layoffs became a flashpoint during the presidential election when Carrier's parent company United Technologies announced it would cut 2,100 jobs in Indiana. Trump slammed the decision on the campaign trail and threatened to "tax the hell" out of Carrier's products.

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Before he took office, Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence struck a deal with Carrier to keep about half the jobs from going to Mexico. As part of the deal, the plant received up to $7 million in conditional state tax incentives and training grants and agreed to stay open in Indianapolis for 10 years.

Retired United Steelworkers Local 1999 President Chuck Jones said the president hasn’t followed up on his campaign talk of stopping the country’s loss of manufacturing jobs.

“We haven’t seen anything that would indicate that he plans on living up to those promises and commitments,” Jones said.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the city was facing a possible loss of 1,300 to 1,400 jobs at Carrier before Trump stepped in. The city was able to get Carrier to repay some tax incentives it had offered at the local level.

Robert James, who took over this summer from Jones as the union’s local president, said he appreciated that Trump helped save about 800 jobs at the Indianapolis factory, but lamented those that are being lost.

“I think, without a doubt, that there’s a lot more he could do so we wouldn’t be losing these jobs at the rate we are,” Jones said.

United Technologies said in a news release that 1,100 workers remain at the Indianapolis plant. It said 60 laid-off workers have registered in the company’s programs to pursue educational degrees.

Contributing: The Associated Press; follow John Tuohy on Twitter: @John_Tuohy