Trump Carrier Deal: President-Elect Miffed By Union Official's Criticism; USW Leader Says Trump Lied About Jobs Saved

President-elect Donald Trump rejected criticism Wednesday from a union leader who said Trump’s deal with Carrier was not nearly as good as the president-elect made it out to be.

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers 1999, which represents Carrier employees, said Trump “lied his a—off” when he said he had convinced the furnace and air conditioner maker to preserve 1,100 jobs in Indianapolis.

Trump took offense, saying Jones had done a “terrible job” of representing Carrier workers.

Tramp traveled to Indianapolis last week to celebrate the deal, which granted Carrier $7 million in tax breaks from Indiana in exchange for not building a new factory in Mexico and transferring jobs. Carrier also agreed to invest $16 million in its Indiana plants. Some 700 jobs at its Huntington, Indiana, plant still are slated to be sent to Mexico.

Jones said rather than preserving 1,100 jobs, Carrier told him the deal had saved 730 production jobs, meaning 550 union members would be laid off.

"They inflated the numbers," Jones told the Indianapolis Star.

There are currently 1,700 workers at the Indianapolis Carrier plant. The company never planned to move 350 research and development jobs, Jones said. Eighty other jobs included in Trump’s figure were nonunion clerical and supervisory positions.

“Trump and [Vice President-elect Mike] Pence, they pulled a dog and pony show on the numbers,” Jones, Hillary Clinton supporter, told the Washington Post. “I almost threw up in my mouth.”

Greg Hayes, CEO of United Technologies, Carrier’s parent company, told MSNBC the $16 million investment that’s part of the deal will be used to increase outsourcing.

“We're going to make a $16 million investment in that factory in Indianapolis to automate to drive the cost down so that we can continue to be competitive,” Hayes said. “Now is it as cheap as moving to Mexico with lower cost of labor? No. But we will make that plant competitive just because we'll make the capital investments there. What that ultimately means is there will be fewer jobs."

Jones said Carrier had not asked employees to take a pay cut in the wake of the deal. Union employees average $30 an hour compared to the $24 a day Carrier had planned to pay workers at the proposed Mexico plant, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.

At least three other Indiana companies — Rexnord, Manitowoc Foodservice and CTS — also plan to move jobs overseas. Neither Trump nor Pence, who is Indiana’s governor, has made any comment on those plans.