Union Leader: ‘We Will Not Give Up The Fight’
Jones says he is talking with Rexnord leaders about the potential ripple effects of the Carrier deal.
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe president of United Steelworkers Local 1999 in Indianapolis says he is going to continue to work hard in order to keep union jobs from leaving Indiana for Mexico. In a press conference Friday morning with the Indiana AFL-CIO, Chuck Jones said he wasn’t bothered by recent tweets from President-elect Donald Trump criticizing him and is willing to work with Trump moving forward.
The union leader said he has received numerous phone calls over the past few days, including many threatening messages from Trump supporters, but the positive messages outweighed the negative ones. He says the negative callers were upset about Jones’ comments that Trump inflated the number of jobs saved at the Carrier Corp. plant in Indianapolis.
Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 8, 2016
Jones gave Trump credit for working to save 800 Carrier jobs after speaking with executives from parent United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX). He says, however, work remains to save the remaining 550 union jobs at the Carrier plant as well as 300 jobs at Wisconsin-based Rexnord Corp. (NYSE: RXN), which are also leaving for Mexico.
Jones said he will also work to help save 700 jobs at United Technologies Electronic Controls in Huntington that are also heading south of the border.
"We still have a fight to move on. We intend on doing it for our members at Carrier, Rexnord and the UTC members in Huntington," said Jones. "If (Trump) somehow, someway reached out to me today, tomorrow, next week (or) next month, we’d be glad to sit down with the man. We’re all going to disagree on different things and, if Trump is sincere about keeping jobs in the country, we’ll sit down and we’ll work out something to keep these jobs here."
You can view the full press conference from the Indiana AFL-CIO below:
