WASHINGTON (Reuters) – United Technologies Corp said on Wednesday it will retain more than 1,000 jobs at a U.S. Carrier Corp plant that was to close after receiving state financial incentives and a pledge to boost the business climate by the incoming Trump-Pence administration.
The deal was announced on Tuesday but details were disclosed on Wednesday. It came about after talks between the company’s chief executive, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, the Indiana governor.
The company said the announcement was “possible because the incoming Trump-Pence administration has emphasized to us its commitment to support the business community and create an improved, more competitive U.S. business climate. The incentives offered by the state were an important consideration.”
Trump, who will tout the deal at an event at Carrier’s Indianapolis plant on Thursday, had vowed during the campaign to impose hefty taxes if Carrier moved jobs overseas.
The deal will save about half of the 2,100 jobs that Carrier’s parent company, United Technologies, announced in February it would cut in closing two Indiana plants. Carrier also vowed to make “significant investments to continue to maintain a world-class furnace factory.”
Carrier produces heating, air-conditioning and refrigeration products.
The company declined to disclose the size of the incentives, but an Indiana state official told Reuters they were modest. “It’s a modest state tax credit utilizing existing state tax tools; nothing new. It would be the same kind of package that would be considered for any other company that would come in,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incentives have not yet been made public.
The company still plans to close a factory in Huntington, Indiana, that employs 700 people making controls for heating, cooling and refrigeration and move the jobs to Mexico by 2018.
The Indianapolis Business Journal quoted the chairman of the Indiana Economic Development Corp, John Mutz, saying that United Technologies was motivated by the potential of losing a “favorable relationship with federal contractors.” Carrier declined to comment.
Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies has significant U.S. military business contracts that account for about 10 percent of its more than $56 billion in annual revenue.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski, Karen Pierog and Renita Young in Chicago; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Matthew Lewis)
IMAGE: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump gestures as Vice President-elect Mike Pence applauds (L) at their election night rally in Manhattan, New York, U.S., November 9, 2016. REUTERS/Mike Segar
