When Donald Trump promised to save 1,100 jobs in the Carrier deal last week, he was apparently inflating the number with jobs that were never threatened in the first place, WTHR reports. The Carrier deal had the air conditioner and furnace manufacturer agreeing to keep hundreds of jobs in Indiana that had been slated to go to Mexico in return for $7 million in state financial incentives — but while Trump had promised 1,100 jobs would be saved, the reality is that only 730 union jobs are apparently being preserved.
"We didn't know the breakdown before because no one would give us any information. Now what we're losing is 550 member jobs," Union President Chuck Jones said. Carrier worker T.J. Bray added, "It seemed like since Thursday, it was 1,100 then it was maybe 900 and then now we're at 700. So I'm hoping it doesn't go any lower than that."
The union workers learned that Trump's deal saves 730 jobs in Indianapolis, and that 553 jobs in the plant's fan coil lines are being moved to Mexico. All 700 workers at Carrier's Huntington plant will additionally lose their jobs. Trump had apparently arrived at the 1,100 number he boasted last week by including 350 research and development jobs that were never going to go to Mexico in the first place, Bray explained.
"It appears they may have hyped that number [1,100] a little bit and then once the company and everything settled down we started seeing the real numbers and started getting a little discouraged about how many jobs [were really being saved]," Bray said.