Trump 'deal' keeps 1,000 Carrier Corp jobs in Indiana
- Published
Air-conditioning company Carrier Corp has agreed to keep nearly 1,000 jobs at an Indiana plant after reaching a deal with US President-elect Donald Trump.
Mr Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence are expected to travel to Indiana on Thursday to reveal the agreement with company officials.
The president-elect confirmed the meeting on Twitter, external, describing it as a "Great deal for workers!"
Mr Trump has vowed to keep companies like Carrier from moving jobs overseas.
The details of the agreement were not immediately clear, but the Carrier Twitter account said, external that the company was "pleased to have reached a deal" with Mr Trump and Mr Pence to keep jobs in Indianapolis.
The company said in February it planned to shut its Indianapolis plant, which employed 1,400 people, and move manufacturing to Mexico.
Mr Trump vowed to focus on keeping manufacturing jobs from moving abroad throughout his campaign, appealing to working-class voters in states like Michigan and Indiana.
Steven Mnuchin, Mr Trump's new treasury secretary, declined to discuss details about the agreement.
But he told CNBC's Squawk Box that Mr Trump was "going to have open communications with business leaders".
He added that the president-elect had called the chief executive of Carrier's parent company and said it was "important to keep jobs here".
Carrier's parent company, United Technologies, also said in February it would move a factory that employed 700 people in Huntington, Indiana, about 100 miles (160km) northeast of Indianapolis.
Mr Trump has repeatedly railed against Carrier and other companies which planned to move jobs abroad to lower-wage countries like Mexico.
Mr Trump appealed to working-class voters by vowing to keep jobs from moving overseas
The president-elect also criticised Ford after the company said it planned to invest $2.5bn (£2bn) in engine and transmission plants in Mexico and vowed to give up Oreos when Nabisco's parent company, Mondelez International, said it would replace production lines in Chicago with ones south of the border.
He blamed the large-scale exodus on free trade, and has threatened to impose a 35% tariff on American companies that import goods from Mexico.
Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents Carrier employees, said after the announcement: "I'm optimistic, but I don't know what the situation is. I guess it's a good sign. ...You would think they would keep us in the loop. But we know nothing."
After his appearance in Indiana on Thursday, Mr Trump will make a series of stops later this week as a part of a "thank you" tour for voters who supported him, according to his aides.