An Indianapolis manufacturing plant is shipping hundreds of jobs to Mexico, and employees told about the move are not pleased.
Carrier Heating and Cooling announced that it was transferring operations and 1,400 positions to Monterrey, earning a chorus of jeers and shouts during an announcement to workers soon to be unemployed.
"F–k you!" one man is heard yelling in a YouTube video shot while employees were told, "the best way to stay competitive and protect the business long term is to move production from our facility."
“How long does it take for people to start tearing s–t up?” another voice is heard saying.
The meeting remains peaceful as a mildly frazzled speaker asks the assembled crowd, which just learned that their livelihoods were being sent abroad, to quiet down.
“It hurts a whole lot, that I have to go home and tell my fmaily that I lost my job,” 13-year veteran worker Dominique Anthony told WISHTV, adding that steelworkers are “still going to fight as a union.”
Others beyond the HVAC equipment factory voiced anger at the possible impact on the community and individuals.
"Today's surprise announcement was without warning and incredibly disappointing," Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said.
Carrier's Chris Nelson told the Indianapolis Star, "This move is intended to address the challenges we continue to face in a rapidly changing HVAC industry, with the continued migration of the HVAC industry to Mexico, including our suppliers and competitors, and ongoing cost and pricing pressures driven, in part, by new regulatory requirements."
The 1,400 layoffs will begin in mid-2017 and are expected to continue into 2019.
United Technologies Corp, which owns Carrier, will also move another plant run by subsidiary United Technologies Electronic Controls in Huntington, Indiana, will also move.
The departure will cost another 700 jobs.
Indiana state officials had given nearly $ 530,000 of taxpayer money in training grants to United Technologies through the Indiana Economic Development Corp., but told the Indianapolis Business Journal that they are now looking for ways to get that money back.
cbrennan@nydailynews.com
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