Make wishtv.com your home page

One year later: Carrier workers still fighting to keep jobs in Indiana

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Feb. 10, 2016 Carrier announced it was moving 1,400 jobs to Mexico. Soon after, a video of the announcement went viral and put Carrier and Indianapolis in the national spotlight.

Eventually, after feeling pressure from then President-elect Donald Trump, the company decided to keep more than 700 of those jobs in Indianapolis.

A year later 24-Hour News 8 sat down with workers, the United Steelworkers Local 1999 president and Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett to reflect on the past 12 months.

Union President Chuck Jones remembers the moment he learned 1,400 jobs were moving to Mexico.

“We decided at that point in time we were going to stay in the fight and try to save our members jobs. It went completely over the top. It got a lot bigger than we ever anticipated,” said Jones.

Robert James has worked for Carrier for nearly 19 years.

“My intention was to retire from Carrier,” said James.

James said there had always been talk that jobs were headed to Mexico, but he thought it was nothing more than workplace gossip.

“I heard it when I entered Carrier. I heard it for the next 18 to 19 years, but on Feb. 10 it became a reality. It was just something that people in the plant ignored because we heard it so much, but on Feb. 10 it became a reality,” said James.

Video of the announcement quickly went viral and shortly after, Presidential candidate Donald Trump started mentioning Carrier in debates and on the campaign trail.

“When the country heard Carrier and mentioned Indianapolis, Indiana mentioned as losing 1,400 jobs, that were going south across border — I think it caused a healthy reexamination of who we are and what we value,” said Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett.

“It helped get us more exposure than we were getting before and gave us the opportunity to explain what was going on in this country because of corporate greed and unfair trade,” said Jones.

On the campaign trail Trump used Carrier as an example of manufacturing jobs leaving the United States. He said situations like Carrier’s would not happen under his watch.

“We were going to do what we could do to get a message to him that…our expectation was for you [Trump] to keep that promise,” said Jones.

Shortly after the election, the Trump administration said they worked out a deal with Carrier to keep more than 1,000 jobs in Indianapolis. For Jones, that was one of the most bittersweet moments in the past 12 months.

“There was a lot of Carrier workers sitting in that room that thought, at that point in time, that the majority of the jobs were going to be saved. I knew better,” said Jones.

Jones said Carrier is keeping 730 of the jobs slated to move to Mexico in Indianapolis. Jones accused Trump of being misleading with the numbers and Trump responded to Jones on Twitter.

“To me, it wasn’t no big deal. I really truly don’t care what Donald Trump thinks of me,” said Jones, “When I challenged Trump’s numbers not being correct, he never said ‘Chuck Jones’ numbers were wrong.’ He just made a personal attack on me, because my numbers were right,” said Jones.

Jones said he appreciates the jobs that were saved, but he still thinks about the jobs that were not.

“With people losing their jobs, there’s no good end result on that,” said Jones.

James is one of the workers whose job is safe. Every day he goes to work he feels somewhat guilty and uncertain.

“You have ill feelings because you still have 500 people that won’t have a job,” said James, “We think we’ll be here for a while…but we just don’t know how long.”

Automation could also pose problems for Carrier workers in the future.

“Are we guaranteed 730 [jobs] for an extended period of time? No. We don’t know what automation will do to our workforce,” said Jones.

Hogsett said Americans need to learn how to address technology changes to prepare for potential job losses in the future.

“The robotics of tomorrow will be the challenge that we as a society need to face if we want to keep manufacturing jobs in America,” said Hogsett.

A year later, with hundreds of jobs still at risk at Carrier and Rexnord in Indianapolis and Carrier in Huntington, James and Jones said the fight far from over.

“We’re still speaking out as if it was just the beginning. It never stopped for us and it probably never will,” said James.

Jones said the timeline for job losses is still not set in stone. He said Carrier could start layoffs as soon as September, but he expects most jobs to be gone by the end of the year.

At the end of May, Jones told 24-Hour News 8 he will retire. He said he already postponed retirement twice because of the Carrier and Rexnord situations.

“I’m going to try and do something in the community. Maybe do something helping veterans,” said Jones.

Until then, he’ll be focused on trying to keep his members’ jobs, and preparing workers for the worst.

In response to the Carrier situation, Hogsett created the Carrier and Rexnord Task Force. The task force is helping workers find education, training or new jobs. Eventually that task force’s role could evolve into something else.

“While no decisions have been made because they’re so focused on Carrier and Rexnord workers — I do think on an ongoing basis, a task-force that is examining manufacturing generally in Indianapolis and maybe trying to identify those businesses that may be more vulnerable to this type of decision-making than others…so we can be more proactive than we were 10 to 20 years ago when manufacturing was a staple in Indianapolis,” said Hogsett.

Senator Joe Donnelly said the Carrier situation prompted him to work on legislation that would discourage companies from moving overseas. Governor Eric Holcomb did not have a statement about the one-year anniversary, but a spokesperson said the governor’s priority is helping workers who will lose their jobs.

24-Hour News 8 reached out to Senator Todd Young, but he did not respond. Carrier denied our request for an interview, but a spokesperson resent the company’s statement from November.

Never miss another Facebook post from WISH-TV