By Donna Westfall – November 29, 2016 – The Carrier manufacturing company of big air conditioners was planning on moving 2,000 jobs to Mexico to save $65 million. That’s not going to happen. Here’s one good reason why. The parent company, United Technologies, takes in $56 billion in revenue and it’s largest single customer is the Pentagon.
According to the news media covering this subject, President-elect, Trump, along with Indiana Governor and Vice President-elect, Mike Pence, contacted the Carrier company on Thanksgiving day.
The Carrier company is located in Indianapolis and according to a spokeswoman for Trump, the new Trump administration is going to be friendlier to businesses by easing regulations and overhauling the tax code. A tentative deal has been made to save 1,000 of those jobs.
During his campaign, Trump kept pressing on keeping manufacturing jobs in America. It will be interesting to find out just what incentives were given to keep those 1,000 jobs. And, it will be equally interesting to see if Trump can change the economic climate in the state of California which had a total manufacturing employment figure in 2013 of 1,251,400. Overall, the US figure for manufacturing jobs was 12 million or 8.8 percent of the total US employment.
It’s too bad the Obama administration couldn’t figure out how to jump start the economy starting back in 2008 when 81,000 California jobs were ended. His “shovel ready” plans didn’t come to fruition as governmental red-tape got in the way.
Someone ought to re-evaluate and revitalize the WPA (Works Progress Administration) program which put 8 million people to work during the depression. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics dated October 2016, over 7.8 million Americans are unemployed.
Another way the government can jump start the economy, is to get money into the private sector. And they need to do it fast. The more jobs created, the more money earned and the more money people have to spend on things like keeping their homes. And, that doesn’t mean bumping up the salaries of CEO’s to obscene levels like we saw in the banking industry and the health industry after the Affordable Care Act (otherwise known as Obamacare) went into effect.
Trump is going to have his hands full reversing or revising Clinton’s (that’s former President, Bill Clinton) NAFTA agreement which turned out to be a disaster for our country. Known as the North American Free Trade Agreement, it essentially invited American corporations to go south of the border where labor is cheap, regulations few and environmental standards nonexistent. A boon for Wall Street investors only interested in the bottom line. A disaster for American workers that lost their jobs.
It’s wait and see time. In about seven weeks, on January 20th, we’ll watch Trump be inaugurated and then we’ll see what he does.
Donna, your article on the Carrier job salvation by Trump was excellent & totally accurate. Definitely a “quid pro quo” going on with that deal, or the agreement would be made public. Another “bait and switch” from Trump~ give them a little so the huge amounts we are planning to take evades notice Am starting to wonder about that new brand of Kool Aid Trump is passing around. I understand the importance of jobs & the frustration of those who have suffered with loss My oldest daughter & her husband work in demolition from Virginia to Georgia. They keep equipment, some of which is huge, as 4 story buildings, in safe working order. When they demolish several floor hospitals, hydro electric plants, or textile factories, local displaced workers stand by watching & crying. That is the actual face of globalization & it’s phoney promises. The Industrial Age mutated into the Age of Cybernetics leaving in its wake disposable humans, captive humans, and greed.