Carrier union leaders at the air conditioning plant in Indianapolis have recently decried the plans of company management to transfer its operations to Mexico due to considerably lower wage costs.
Approximately 1,400 jobs will be lost to Mexican workers since wages in that country is only $3 per hour per worker, whereas in Indianapolis, it is currently $20 per hour per worker.
"We haven't given up the fight yet," said Chuck Jones, president of the United Steelworkers union local that represents workers at the Carrier Corp plant.
"But Carrier has pretty well indicated that the wage differential is too great and there's not much we can do," he added.
The union has already met with company officials yesterday but stated that there is no hope in preventing the move.
Carrier is a company that manufactures heating, ventilating, air condition and refrigeration equipment. The company announced in Feb. 10 that it plans to transfer its Indiana plant to Monterrey, Mexico "over the course of an estimated three-year period."
"It's pretty damn bad when you've got people that figured they'd be able to retire there with some dignity and due to no fault of their own, now they're finding out they're not going to have a job," Jones said in an interview with RTV6.
Officials at Carrier have assured workers that their jobs will be moved gradually in the course of the following three years. They also promised the workers that the company will treat them with respect and cooperate with their union throughout the transition period.
The Carrier announcement of the impending transfer from Indianapolis to Mexico prompted Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump to say he would tax the air conditioning units the company will make for transferring its operations to another country.
Zach Adamson, a Democratic Indianapolis council member stated that he has told the heating company that maintains the air conditioning system in his house not to use Carrier products made from Mexico.
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