President-elect Donald Trump spoke at Carrier Corporation on Thursday, December 1, in Indianapolis. The fallout from that meeting is still being felt online — especially after Trump turned to Twitter to criticize Chuck Jones, the President of United Steelworkers 1999. Trump’s words about Jones have already brought threatening phone calls to Chuck, according to the Washington Post. The publication notes that it took only 30 minutes after Trump published the following words on Twitter for Chuck’s phone to begin ringing, with some folks asking Jones what kind of car he drove, and another person issuing an ominous threat — with the anonymous individual saying they were coming for Jones.
“We’re coming for you.”
On Wednesday, December 7, Trump published the following words to his Twitter account about Jones.
“Chuck Jones, who is President of United Steelworkers 1999, has done a terrible job representing workers. No wonder companies flee country! If United Steelworkers 1999 was any good, they would have kept those jobs in Indiana. Spend more time working-less time talking. Reduce dues.”
[Image by Darron Cummings/AP Images]
President-elect Trump went on the attack against Chuck after Jones mentioned that Trump’s numbers were off when it came to the amount of Carrier jobs staying and those leaving for Mexico, as reported by the Washington Post. Jones said that Trump lied when he made his visit to the Carrier factory, as seen above, with Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence waving to the Carrier crowd.
Chuck called the duo’s appearance more of a performance than the total job-saving rescue opportunity that Trump’s speech seemed to be marketed as. Instead of rescuing all 1,350 Carrier jobs in question that the Washington Post reports Trump promised to save at a campaign rally in Indianapolis, Jones said Trump didn’t correctly count and address the jobs still moving to Mexico.
“Trump and Pence, they pulled a dog and pony show on the numbers. I almost threw up in my mouth. But he got up there and, for whatever reason, lied his a** off.”
Instead, a confusing line of rationale and words followed, after Trump proclaimed last week that he had struck a deal with Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies. Yet it wasn’t 1,100 of the questionable Indianapolis jobs that were staying put — 730 production jobs would stay, but 550 people would still lose their Carrier jobs. Trump spoke of the elation of 1,100 Carrier jobs being saved.
“Now they’re keeping — actually the number’s over 1,100 people, which is so great.”
[Image by Darron Cummings/AP Images]
However, Chuck noted that Trump and Pence should have only bragged about saving 800 Carrier jobs, not a higher number of jobs. In the meantime, the tax breaks will still flow to United Technologies, to the tune of $7 million in Indiana tax credits, even with the company’s plans to ship 700 factory jobs to Monterrey, Mexico — along with 550 jobs from Chuck’s location alone going to Mexico, according to Chuck’s full CNN interview below. That means a total of 1,250 jobs are moving to Mexico.
Jones noted that 350 research and development Carrier jobs were not in danger of leaving.
As a result of the controversy, a variety of opinions are being expressed on social media. Whereas some people claim that Trump is already breaking promises made on the campaign trail prior to even taking the White House office, others are defending Trump.
Some of the reactions to Trump’s words on Twitter about Jones can be read below.
Rori: “D@m! Trump is now slamming Carrier workers! I see a #ToldYouSo hash tag about Trump coming REAL soon! Chuck Jones.”
